By Mary Meldrum

Deanne Iovan has been a volunteer for over a year at Ferndale’s Cat Shelter. Unlike other animal shelters, this one has no real brick-and-mortar address. The Cat Shelter in Ferndale relies on brisk adoption and wonderful foster homes to take in the cats that it accepts. Along with this support, the Cat Shelter recently opened the Catfe Lounge on Livernois in Ferndale.

The Catfe Lounge is a brick-and-mortar location – actually a large room – where cats, kittens and humans can enjoy each other’s company. Coffee, tea and juice are offered and donations are very welcome here, in this immersive experience of feline and human energy. Deanne explains that the Catfe Lounge was the easiest and least expensive way to give cats exposure to humans and other cats. The socialization is important and works for the most part. Cats learn to tolerate each other and human interaction, and humans can come and really get to know a cat or kitten before deciding to adopt.

There are a few couches, chairs and tables, but the overall focus of the place is geared for the cat’s experience, with beds, ladders, toys, cat playscapes and bowls of food and water scattered about the room. This nonprofit organization has grown a lot over the last year, and the original thought was to build out the Catfe Lounge to include a larger coffee shop and an actual shelter so they could care for more cats. Over time, the Cat Shelter saw that the physical space of the Lounge has been good for the community and good for the cats. While they are still in need of an actual shelter for new quarantines, and kittens and mother cats, the Catfe Lounge has become a home for many kittens and cats while they wait to be adopted, and they wander about at their leisure.

The Cat Shelter recently took in over 50 cats and kittens from a hoarding situation. Cats were locked in a damp, hot basement in cages of a home. Many of the animals were sick and would have been euthanized if given to other rescues. Ferndale’s Cat Shelter is a no-kill shelter, and they scooped up all the kitties they could, calling on several of their veterinarian supporters to help with the initial care of the cats. The local veterinarians stepped up and helped care for the cats that needed medical attention. They are waiting patiently since these vets accepted the fact that the Cat Shelter would have to make payments in order to make good on their vet bills.

Now almost $10 thousand dollars in debt from this rescue of 50 cats, they need your help. To make a donation, please go to: www.youcaring.com/FCSmedical

The Cat Shelter has a goal to get a shelter space in the next year. In order to make that goal, they could use help in other areas, such as more volunteers, more fosters, donations of wet and dry kitten food and KMR (kitten milk substitute), cleaning supplies and of course more money. And if anyone has a building or space that they could donate for the shelter, please get in touch with the Cat Shelter.
The Cat Shelter and Deanne would like to extend a special thank you to Liz Blondy, owner of Canine to Five in Ferndale on Nine Mile, for providing much-needed space during the three weeks that the Cat Shelter was rescuing the 50 kittens and cats. Without their own facility, the Ferndale Cat Shelter would not have been able to save all the animals without a place to quarantine and organize the cats and cages that came out of that basement.

By Maggie Boleyn

Whoever said, “If you remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there” clearly never met Tom Coleman, who has just published a book called “Growing Up in Ferndale: A Baby Boomer’s Memories of Life in Mid-Century Suburban Detroit.” Not only was Coleman really there, his memories are a treasure trove for readers of all ages. “I feel that my experiences in Ferndale – whether good, bad, or somewhere in-between – contributed to who I am today,” he says.

For those who weren’t there, Coleman explains: “The 1960s ushered in an era of social, political, and religious upheaval. Just as these changes had a major impact on the larger society around me, they
also profoundly affected the way I thought and felt about myself and others.”

Baby boomers and history buffs of all ages will enjoy the description of the shopping available in the Nine Mile and Woodward area in the ’60s. Some familiar names that Coleman mentions are Federal’s Department Store, Kresge’s, F&M Drugstore, Sander’s Candy Store, Winkelman’s Clothing, Hagelstein’s Bakery, Betty Murray Hair Shop, and an A&P Supermarket. A few of these can be seen on the cover picture of the book.

Coleman says he wants readers “to get a sense of what life was like for young people growing up in Ferndale, and America in general, during this transitional and often turbulent era, of the 1960s.” He notes that, “Life for young people today is so much different.” He notes that his life was shaped by “a variety of sources: church, school, family, friends, and television personalities.”

Coleman noted, “I realize that the experiences of my classmates may be much different than mine. But some of our shared experiences and memories will be similar. For memories of mine that are different, perhaps they will help a few dozen Baby Boomers who grew up in Ferndale see those two decades from a different perspective.”

Coleman attended St. James, and remembers his graduation class of 1966 with “deep and lasting affection.” One of his classmates, Sandy Fontiane, remembers Coleman as “an advocate for the underdog.”

Indeed, the idea for this book was born when Coleman decided to attend the 50-year reunion of his graduation from St. James. “Memories started to emerge, and I decided I should do something productive with them. I started writing, and soon realized that a book was emerging,” he said.
Coleman says that it took only two weeks to write the book, writing 60 to 70 hours a week. “It was effortless,” he said.  “It was almost as though I was channeling information from another dimension.”

Coleman says when he’s not writing, “I challenge authority.” From looking at “Growing Up in Ferndale,” this is nothing new for Coleman. Whether he was standing up to the “nuns with yardsticks,” or organizing 35 Detroit Newsboys, Coleman was, and remains, an active supporter of various causes. He has spent the last nine years focused on persons with disabilities in general and on adult guardianship issues in particular.

“For the past three years, I have devoted thousands of hours of professional time, pro bono, to reform the adult guardianship systems operated by the states, particularly in California, but more recently expanding nationally,” he said. “These systems are supposed to protect vulnerable adults but too often unnecessarily take away the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” He plans to write a treatise of standards aimed at legal and mental health professionals. He notes that this scholarly legal text will take much longer to write than two weeks.

“Growing Up in Ferndale.” is Coleman’s third book, and he dedicated his work to his classmates, both living and deceased, from the Class of 1966. “We may be scattered throughout the United States, and have lived very different lives with a wide range of occupational and professional interests, but we share a common bond nonetheless. We spent many of our most formative years together – at St. James and in Ferndale – and, at least for me, those memories endure.”