Starlight, Starbright

I wish I may, I wish I might...

This is what most of you miss each day at the time I am out feeding cats in the dark, at 4 am. in the morning.  The moon and Venus.  Very very cool.  Its been so clear each morning, I can see so many constellations. This morning I actually spotted Mars.  I know, its sounds crazy, but there was a red planet up there!  This stuff amazes me.  We are so tiny in comparison to the big picture!

Bales of Straw - I really need straw.  Sure enough.  Not HAY, but straw.  Bags of it.  I need to replenish the shelters before the deep freeze happens.

Totes - most of my shelters are made out of plastic totes.  I could use about 10 of them right now.  As I have mentioned, I have added a couple new spots on my route each day, with an average of five kitties at each spot.  They need shelter, and most cats are territorial and won't allow another cat into its little hut, so more have to be provided for them.

TOMORROW:  TNR Tuesday.  I will be paying the spay/neuters tomororw out of my own pocket.  Thank you to those that have donated in the past.  I want to throw this out there.  I have been feeding a kitten on Parsells.  She has now let me pick her up - she is starving so she allows me this because I have the food she wants.  I feed her daily,and she has come to trust me.  I would say she is 4-5 months old.  I feed her mother and sibling, who is not so trusting of me.  I will be trapping or grabbing her tomorrow morning.  If anyone wants to foster this baby, please let me know now.

This past Saturday I attended a sort of forum with the candidate for Monroe County Executive Sandra Frankel, and about 20 or so animal people.  A notice came out on Facebook last week, along with a survey.  The survey had you rank what was most important to you - the top of my list was overpopulation, and animal cruelty.  It was a good meeting, but I was disappointed that there weren't more rescue groups there.  I would have loved to see some of the few that I know of.  We don't have enough in our large city, for all the animals that need our help.  Ms. Frankel listened to those of us, all very impassioned about these issues.  I was able to tell my story very briefly, she seemed amazed when I told her I go out in the dark each morning and feed over 70 cats every day of my life.  I handed her my card, asked her to take a look at my blog.  She definitely was not in tune to what is happening in this city of ours when it comes to the animals.   She did not know what TNR is   But I know she walked away a little more aware of what the situation is, and the things that need to be looked at by someone higher up in government.  She implored that before she is hopefully elected, we need to form a committee and work together on some of these issues.  She said that we should bring in Lollypop into the fold, as they have resources that could help us.  There were some that are very anti- Lollypop in the group that didn't like that idea.  It was good though to see and meet some new faces, people that are passionate about trying to make a change for these poor animals that are out there being neglected, both dogs, and the homeless/feral cats included.  I hope something will come of this.

Are these some of the luckiest kittens ever?  Here is Billy and Midget (now Penny) who were adopted out two weeks ago - they were rescued from Niagara with their mom and two other siblings (who are available for adoption!).

They have their own 'house'!

"I am so thankful for all of those who said

NO to me.  Its because of them

I'm doing it myself."