TGIW

First, thank you to those of you that expressed your sympathies to me in your comments, and emails. Your words were very touching.  This will be a very difficult adjustment for the children involved.  Please keep them, and all the other people in the world that have to suffer this kind of tragedy due to drugs, in your prayers.

I had to let little Rocky go back to the wild on Central and Fifth streets, the grey tabby male I trapped yesterday morning, had him neutered at clinic, and spent the night on my porch.  He was just a little boy, under a year.  Scared and confused, but he ate. I covered him up good with lots of blankets because its cold out there, and he was good to go this morning.  I hate to let them go out into the dangerous streets, but I have no other choice.

For those of you that are just tuning in, I leave my house each and every morning to feed over 70 cats - that's the number I can see and count for all 19 stops I make.  At each stop, I have some sort of shelter provided for these cats.  These shelters are life saving for them in our brutal winters. They are made out of Styrofoam, or wood, etc. and straw is what insulates them and provides them warmth inside the huts.

I go through nearly 40 pounds of dry food a day to feed them, and over a case of wet food to give them a little treat, its what they love the best.  This is their only happiness - when I pour the food down.  At some locations, it is thrown away by very mean spirited people who hate cats and think they will just go away if they take the food away, or its eaten by the raccoon, opossums and rats that come by after I leave.  The rats are ravenous eaters.   They can devour the food in an instant.  I wish the cats would scare them away, but some are so big, I am sure the cats are scared away by them!

The round trip takes about an hour and a half each day, I get home, refill all my bags and containers for the next day, write my blog, then try to forget the heartache I've just left - in the Beechwood section of Rochester, and then get myself ready for an eight hour a day job.  For which I am thankful for.  It helps to pay for the cat food I have to buy on a weekly basis which costs me about $150. 

I also have two appointments per week at the local spay/neuter clinic that costs me $50 per cat.  I try to do this from spring until late fall.  Its extremely costly to do, but its so important.  Did you know that one cat can produce 1-8 kittens per litter, and 2-3 litters per year.  During her productive life, one female cat could have more than 100 kittens.  A single pair of cats and their kittens can produce as many as 420,000 kittens in just 7 years.

I have a donate button to the right and if anyone is inclined to help, it would be appreciated!  :)  I have a wonderful law firm working on getting me tax exempt status - they are doing it pro bono - and I am so grateful.  It will allow me to get lower rates on the trapping and spay/neuter I do on a weekly basis, and I won't have to pay taxes on the cat food I buy.  It will also allow those that care to donate to write it off.  I can send a receipt now!  :)  So please consider helping - they are your cats too you know.  I am just the caretaker.

PS, my friend Kristin said I've rescued 12 cats already since January.   The total for last year was over 70!  Most were adopted to wonderful families. 

Have a great day!

"Life is 10% what happens to you and

90% how you react to it."