Frustration

 So, I have a little story to tell.  

Well over 20 years ago, I used to go to the public market in the early morning hours.  I loved getting my veggies and fruits there on a Saturday, before the crowds.  I remember going home and driving down First Street toward Bay Street, and stopping to turn right (heading east).  I remember seeing glowing eyes as my headlights beamed toward the vacant lot across the street before making my turn.  I thought 'oh my God there are cats there!'  I was new to city life, and obviously very naive.  I think I drove home and came right back and went to the back of the lot calling for the kitty and setting food down.  Well, THAT is what started this whole thing. This pain in the ass thing I've been doing ever since.  There was a Jamaican dude that lived in the corner and was the most gentlest man...  Willy.  He was very kind and thought what I was doing was good.  Of course, he was smoking a lot of weed too, so I am sure he thought everything was good.

Trying to make a long story short, I began to build shelters around the Beachwood district because there were MANY cats around the area, and one by one, I began to rescue a few here and there.  Thats how I began with having up to 16 cats at one point (and NEVER again).  Now down to a handful.  And not adding anymore.  Then I began trapping cats and bringing them to a few different locations that Habitat for Cats had over the  years, and it cost me $50 to spay/neuter them.  I returned most.  I used to depend on Habitat to help me find homes for the few that I found that needed them, and the kittens too.  Then, in 2014, I was feeding cats on a house on Seventh Street that was going to be torn down that day - the huge wrecking machine was in the driveway - and I heard tiny cries.  After calling the police (yes! they came!), they pulled tiny newborns out of the mattress in the dilapidated house, and after they called Animal Control, I found out that AC called a rescue group called Another Chance Rescue, run by a girl named Julie.  I also made a new friend in that AC officer, Elaine.  I was all new to this.  I remember calling 911 because I saw a raccoon on the top floor of a huge garage on Hayward Avenue.  I thought it was trapped.  Little did I know, raccoons are very skillful and can get down on their own, as I know now.

After getting to know the Another Chance group, I found out they showed cats at Petco in Irondequoit.  Julie was kind enough to offer me a cage, if I had any cats that needed to find a home.  This proved fruitful, and I found homes for many of these cats I was taking off the street, one by one.

Fast forward, I finally got my 501c3 after many people told me benefits I could have by having one.  I had a wonderful senior partner at a law firm I used to work for do it for me pro bono.  I was very lucky.  By this time, I developed a foster here and there.  I also learned that these other rescues were always inundated with cats, and I was just a small fish in a big pond.  So I realized, I can't depend on these other groups anymore to help me with strays, I have todo this on my own.  If I don't have a foster, I can't rescue.  And that is basically the code of all rescues.  We don't reach out to each other unless dire need, which I have done a few times over the years with kittens, and just kittens.  I know I reached out to Karla with Kellers Kats to help me net a few very injured cats - which ultimately had to be euthanized, and I am grateful for these far and few situations.  Its just an unspoken code.  We rescue as many as we can, on our own, as long as we can.

I am writing this because of something happening right now, and this is the only way I can explain to someone who is asking me to help by asking other rescues to foster for her.  I have a long list of cats still on the streets that I've fed for a long while, that I want to rescue, but I have no fosters right now. I have one foster and I am very grateful to her - she has Gus Gus the kitten.  The other is willing to do it for me in a dire situation, and right now, she has a feral cat stuck in her room, with two semi-feral kittens.  Not what she bargained for, so there is more guilt.  One other foster has Bello, a cat I did not rescue personally, but was on my route and picked up by this other person, and I offered her this one brand new foster I had available.  This cat turned out to have issues with its bathroom issues and it hasn't been easy on her for first time fostering, but she hasn't given up, and the cat is actually getting better after I've spent a ton of money on vets and different expensive foods.  This circumstance, he was not doing well on the street, so I didn't mind.  It was a cat I knew, and I am very glad he was rescued.  

I guess I will just sum this up that we can have all the money in the world, but fosters are very hard to find.  And if I am going to rescue a cat, its GOT to have a foster, and finding that foster is my responsibility.  I just can't ask other rescues.  We are all inundated and heartbroken every time we are asked to help.  HEARTBROKEN.  I can't save them all, but I can one at a time.

Have a great day.