Don't forget the Meow & Chow Funraiser on October 1st! 12-5pm at the Creekside Inn!
Yes, today is my Friday of a work week. Hurray! I have four days off from work! I do not, however, have four days off from getting up at 2:45 am, leaving the house at 4 am to feed a hundred or so cats in the Beechwood section of Rochester. Public Market area. I go in the dark so that people don't see me, to trash the food or shelters, or hurt the cats, and I go in the morning because most people are sleeping at that time. At night, that's a different story altogether. Its safest in the morning.
 |
TOP: Jace and Lucy
BOTTOM: Jinx and Jules |
 |
| PEACHES! |
When I finally get home an hour and a half later (in the summer months), I have to clean out the large yogurt sized containers - six of them - did you know that the 5 oz. cans of wet food - the large yogurt containers can hold six of those cans. I fill up six yogurt containers. That's 36 cans right there, and then I go through at least 12 more cans by the time the route is done. I also fill up my 4 two-gallon bags with 30 pounds of dry food. Usually Kit-n-kaboodle. Cheapest, and they like it. Plus it allows me coupons if I collect enough of the weight circles on the sides of the bags. So I have to refill the dry and wet for the next day. Every day. Every single day.
I
make 14 stops, although this summer, I’ve been veering off course a bit and
stopping at a few other spots. I see a
cat on the side of the road, I know that most likely, the bowl of food and
water I place will be their only meal that day.
So I do it. This morning, my
heart sank as I saw two baby kittens playing on the side of the road on Central
Avenue between First and Second streets.
I think about how its just ME trying to care for – i.e. spay/neuter,
feed, shelter – ALL of these cats! I had
just left the garage – where my vehicle STILL is – to put food down for the mom
and her kittens. The shelter I had left
there two mornings ago – an old cooler someone turned into a shelter with a cut
out too close to the ground – the blanket inside was soaked. The rain came down so hard yesterday, it must
have been spewing into the shelter, so the baby kittens could not take cover or
sleep there over night. I poured out the
excess water and placed dry towels inside for today, but will bring a better
shelter tomorrow. UNTIL I can rescue
these baby kittens. Time is not on my
side because each day they get a little more feral – they are eating the food I
place, so they can leave their mom, I just need help trapping. Lets not forget the two kittens on Parsells I
have not seen since I had their mom (I think it was their mom) spayed two weeks
ago. I have not had a problem with the
young man that lives next door either.
No one has touched the food, nor the shelters on the vacant house’s
porch next door. I did buy them a bag of
oranges thinking I would leave those along with a note that cats don’t like
citrus smell and for them to put the peels in their garden, but I didn’t want
to upset the apple cart by reminding them I was still doing what I was doing
next door. Feeding 10+cats.
I
become so dismayed. My Jeep is now at
the $700-$800 mark. AND he is giving me
a break on the 2+ hours he will need to take apart the front again so that he
can replace a cooling fan. So now it’s
the radiator, thermostat, and cooling fan.
Lets hope that does the trick today.
I need the Cat Mobile back. I
think about this money, and all the cat food it could buy. All the spay and neuters it could buy.
Jace
and Lucy, Jules and Jinx are still waiting for their forever homes. Peaches is still in my bathroom recovering
from his surgery and meds, and I am socializing him enough to go to a foster
home. From there, we will get him
adopted. He is such a sweet boy, but
still a bit hesitant. He has spent years
on the streets and needs to trust again.
Please
spread the word, please consider foster and adoption, and if you are able, I
could really use help in trapping kittens.
Have
a great day!
Once I was a lonely cat,
just looking for a home.
I had no place to go,
no one to call my own.
I wandered up and down the streets,
in rain in heat and snow.
I ate what ever I could find,
I was always on the go.
My skin would itch, my feet were sore,
my body ached with pain.
And no one stopped to give a pat,
or gently say my name.
I never saw a loving glance,
I was always on the run.
For people thought that hurting me
was really lots of fun.
Then one day I heard a voice
so gentle, kind and sweet,
And arms so soft reached down to me
and took me off my feet.
"No one again will hurt you,"
was whispered in my ear.
"You'll have a home to call your own
where you will know no fear."
"You will be dry, you will be warm,
you'll have enough to eat,"
"and rest assured that when you sleep,
your dreams will all be sweet."
I was afraid I must admit,
I've lived so long in fear.
I can't remember when I let
a human come so near.
And as she tended to my wounds,
and bathed and brushed my fur.
She told me about the rescue group
and what it meant to her.
She said, "We are a circle,
a line that never ends."
"And in the center there is you
protected by new friends."
"And all around you are
the ones that check the pounds,
and those that share their home
after you've been found."
"And all the other folk
are searching near and far."
"To find the perfect home for you,
where you can be a star."
She said, "There is a family,
that's waiting patiently,
and pretty soon we'll find them,
just you wait and see."
"And then they'll join our circle
they'll help to make it grow,
so there'll be room for more like you,
who have no place to go."
I waited very patiently,
the days they came and went.
Today's the day I thought,
my family will be sent.
Then just when I began to think
it wasn't meant to be,
there were people standing there
just gazing down at me.
I knew them in a heart beat,
I could tell they felt it too.
They said, "We have been waiting
for a special cat like you."
Now every night I say a prayer
to all the gods that be.
"Thank you for the life I live
and all you've given me.
But most of all protect the cats
in the pound and on the street.
And send a Rescue Person
to lift them off their feet."
