A Message to Other Rescues

This is the kitty I've been searching for since summertime when I first spotted him on Bay Street.   He was so desperate he jumped into the car seat for petting.  

Months later, I spotted him blocks away on Second Street off Central Park.  The Mailbox Kitties is what I call the colony on that corner.  I had also had a vet appt. lined up for him, a foster, AND an adopter!  Had to cancel the vet appt.  The others went on with their lives.  Finally, Friday came around and there he was, and I grabbed him with a plan in hand.  

The foster said she would take him if I got him.  He was at the foster for the week, where one of the days was spent at Caring for Cats where the foster works, and we found out he was a she!  And already spayed!  

"Penny" is settling in nicely in her new home where she is loved by everyone.  

Kristin did a post for me as a guest blogger, and she delivers a great message for all other rescues:  

"Last week I spoke on the phone to a kind woman who has been reaching out to numerous rescues since last summer for help in dealing with the stray cats living around her home. When I told her I would come to her house to help her, she burst into tears. She was so relieved to finally have help, she couldn’t stop crying. I share this because recently, it seems that we are getting many messages from people who have nowhere to turn to with their cat situations and no one will return their calls. 

I can’t count the number of people in the last few months who have told me “You are the only person who has ever called me back”. It’s not easy to call everyone back, but Janine and I try to respond to everyone who contacts us - even if we aren’t sure we can help them. And what we are finding is that so many people actually just want someone to talk to, someone to help them develop a plan, or even just to know someone cares about them and what they are going through. People feel overwhelmed, alone, confused, helpless, and hopeless. More and more, we see we are helping people as much as cats and kittens. 

I guess what I really want to say is, please reach out when people ask for help. Don’t ignore them, even if you think you have nothing to offer. Your acknowledgment of them is huge. Oftentimes, just being the caring voice on the other end of the phone means more to people than you would ever expect – even if that’s all you can give them at the moment. And what I have found out more often than not, is that we actually CAN help. Maybe all they need is to borrow a trap, learn about RCAC’s programs, or even just get a dose of flea meds. It really comes down to this:

do what you can, where you are, with what you have"

I would LOVE to feature YOUR message or story so please, help me to keep this blog going! 

Have a great day!

So long ago............

 I am getting sloppy with writing my blog posts.  I started this end of last year, so its old news, and I did not collect the pictures I wanted to include.  But I need to unload this now, so that I can start fresh.

By the way, today is January 24, 2024, and so far, we have rescued 2 cats so far (Kristin correct me if I am wrong?) with another three soon-to-be.  All we needed was another foster, and a few adoptions in between to free up current fosters!  :) 

I promise to get working on getting us all up to date on this blog.

Here is from long ago... (so it seems).

Its been so long I forget what has happened the past few months!  So many rescues and so much money…  so many wonderful fosters, and so many kittens still. 

I have a long list of fosters I want to thank:

Tamera - she still has a couple of adults – Lola, Louie, Smokey, and another, and she has Blake and Scooter still

Lonnie – she has Coco Chanel, Pebbles, Bandit, and Smokey – they are older kittens, but gorgeous grays and blacks

Kim – she has an ideal setup in her horse barn – two separate cozy rooms that cats have room to wander in – she recently had a cat that she was going to foster, well turns out the cat was pregnant and gave birth to four kittens to her surprise!  Those four kittens were scooped up right away by some friends of hers, so they will be going to good new homes (adopted in pairs!) next week.   She is also fostering an adult named Leo who is super sweet, and will have two more adults whose owner passed away.

Sheryl has been fostering Poppy and Lily, who by now are young adults.

Michelle – she is fostering Aiden, a beautiful white and orange boy

Val – fostering Bea and Beau who were bottle babies until Val weaned them at 4 weeks or so.

Blanca and Susheel – thank you for caring for our latest kittens, Tango, Mango, and Cali!

I am fostering Butter, who is by himself because his two siblings were adopted together, Peanut and Nina.  He is absolutely adorable but lonely, and becoming aggressive because he has no one to play with.   Butter was just adopted on Saturday!  I brought him to his new home and he has a new friend!   A nine-year-old pit bull big brother.  They are very smitten with each other.

Without these fosters, can you imagine, the number of cats that would be on the street if we didn’t rescue these guys?  If the females all got pregnant?  You know the numbers, it is staggering.

I know this is hard to keep track of, and you should see me trying to figure out who is who. 

I've had some bad breaks financially.  About a month ago, poor little Scooter was very lethargic after spending the night at my house away from the foster, along with Jackson and Blake.  I had to work that weekend, and all the vets were closed so I managed to find someone to drive him to Buffalo at the emergency vet there.  After two nights spent there – Friday and Saturday – and $2800 – they still didn’t have a clue and I have to say it was highway robbery.  Come to find out, after bringing him there, I still had to bring him to my normal vet at Pittsford, where they determined he had a hernia near his hind end, which made his tail seem sideways and was pushing into his intestines.  We brought him home thinking we would be giving him palliative care, and then a miracle happened.  The lump went away, and he is perfectly normal.  We are keeping an eye on him, but we are so in love with Scooter.  Now to get him adopted again.

Another financial setback was Val’s two fosters, Bea and Beau.  Bea was not able to make it to the litter box on time due to stomach issues, and was going all over the place on top of being very lethargic.  Poor Val had to give her a gazillion baths.  We took him to Pittsford where after test after test, very high temperature, he was tested positive for panleukopenia.  A very deadly and contagious disease.  It's like parvo in dogs.  Poor baby.  We brought him home, had to separate him from his brother, and had to keep his brother in a separate room so he wouldn’t pass it on to Val’s other cats.  Well lo and behold, today (and this was just last Friday), she is back to her old self and feels fine!  Running around like crazy.

Back to today, Kristin just called after going to check on a situation that I was notified about and asked for her help.  She will go assess the situation and let me know the scoop before she does anything.  Well, we now have two adorable buff-colored kittens about 7 weeks old.  It just never ends.

I started the above weeks ago, my apologies.  Life gets in the way these days.

Updates:

Lola was adopted out

Coco Chanel and Pebbles were adopted out

Aiden was a foster fail

Tango, Mango and Cali have been adopted.

Have a great day, and stay tuned to an updated post with lots of pictures!