Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

I am so disappointed this morning.  I drove to the vacant lot off Niagara Street, where just up the road from there my shelters were put to the curb two weeks ago by a property management of  that vacant lot, and found that these shelters, that I had moved around the corner into the bushes after this not-for-profit organization called Community Place of Greater Rochester had called me asking me to remove my shelters a few weeks ago because a neighbor complained, were gone. 

Now, I get that this is their property.  But here are the facts.  These shelters have been here for years.  Two years ago this guy Mark called me and asked me to remove the shelters.  I did.  I continued to feed the cats that were here, all through the summer and fall.  When winter arrived, my heart kicked in and I provided them with shelter to survive the brutal winter ahead.  When spring arrived, the shelters were obscure enough that no one would notice them, with all the foliage that had grown, and no one would notice me at 4:30 am. providing these cats food.  Apparently one woman who obviously does not like cats, nor has compassion for homeless animals, did and called this organization to complain. 

This Mark guy calls me again a few weeks ago and told me the same thing, and I moved the shelters around the corner way back into the bushes under a tree, far from view from the TWO houses on this street.  This morning, GONE.

So what is this Community Place?  Their motto is "Strengthening Community, One Person, One Family at a Time. --- We help families meet their basic needs, promote health, wellness and education, enhance personal and social development, improve literacy, and build community."  They obviously are not looking out their windows on Parsells Avenue and seeing the hundreds of homeless cats walking around, reproducing at alarming rates, in THEIR community.  They obviously are not looking out and seeing ME in their community, for the past 15 years, trying to trap cats to get them fixed, given rabies shots, and healing their wounds.  They are not seeing me pick up stray cats that have been left by their ‘owners’ and finding them good homes.  They are not seeing me pick up the dead cats that their neighbors run over and leave in the streets that they pass by to get to their community place each day.  They don’t understand that when you place a much needed, very obscure shelter for a cat on vacant land, and keeping that land clean by picking up any litter, and in some cases, mowing the grass, that you are trying to gain trust for these cats so that you can trap them and stop the reproducing that is happening every single day.  So that you can rescue them, and find them good homes.  But that takes TIME as well.

What they are obviously not doing is teaching COMPASSION to the children that look up to them.  Teaching kids to have compassion and empathy for their furry, feathered, and finned friends is vital for preventing cruelty to animals as well as in raising them to respect and treat those who are different from them with kindness. Children trained to extend justice, kindness, and mercy to animals become more just, kind, and considerate in their relations to each other.  And in every respect, they become valuable citizens.

  

Since children naturally identify with animals, and because animals are living beings like us, we can use our interactions with animals to teach children how to behave toward other people. Teaching our kids to respect and protect even the smallest and most despised among us is one of the most important life lessons that we can pass along to them. It helps them learn to value one another — and it prevents violence.  So why isn't Community Place teaching this?  

We need to speak up for these animals, and I need help.  If anyone can help compose a professional letter to them, I would be very grateful to see what you have. We need to educate the young regarding care and compassion toward animals.  

I am a one woman band trying to do my best in this world.  Every single day, I go out in my warrior suit and see the most horrendous, sad images, and try to make a difference, only to be defeated by cruel acts such as this.  Its vacant land.  Its an obscure shelter in the bushes.  REALLY?

Have a great day.

"Teaching a child not to step
on a caterpillar is as valuable
to the child, 

as it is to the caterpillar".