A sweet 5 month old girl caught my eye today too:
I walked through the "sick room" today and wondered who wouldn't be there tomorrow after the vet leaves. Nobody looked terribly sick - just the usual Upper Respiratory stuff, but they all looked desperate and my heart hurt when I left. The little black and white girl was in that room, and I put a "HOLD" on her. Hopefully, she'll be there tomorrow.
Sorry for the doom and gloom. I'm not sure why - our adoptions have been awesome (we had FIVE cats adopted TODAY!) and I've had very little cat-related drama lately. It's sad that I've been letting some
Whew...that last paragraph felt GOOOOD to write. :)
So I'll go put dinner in the oven and keep pressing forward. There are Christmas plans to be made and my daughter arrives from California on Friday for a short 3 days. Certainly nobody can find fault in me for trying to have some semblance of a life.
10 comments:
Beth, Still hearing the stress, hope you followed up on that high blood pressure reading. That stuff does not go away without treatment. It is called the silent killer because there often is little warning beyond a head ache. Take care!
Harpurr's Mom
It's difficult, because they go for your Achilles heal, but don't let "armchair rescuers" from the internet get you down. You rescued two cats today, and adopted out five! I bet they did nothing more than post criticism on the web.
Oh I hope you're not talking about that HAC Stop the Killing fb group. They are CLUELESS and so hypocritical. Please don't let anything they say affect you. To see the height of their hypocrisy check out the comment on their wall on Oct 8...the most vocal members don't even foster themselves! They have no problem attacking rescue volunteers for not taking every cat and kitten (regardless of cost, health, friendliness, etc) while they sit back and don't even bother to take in fosters themselves!!! They question the 'humanity' and heartlessness of rescue volunteers for taking 2 out of 3 cats while they take....um...ZERO cats. Somehow they think their attacks and criticism will save the cats. OH, and they can't seem to figure out that you need to put Winograd's NKE steps in place first BEFORE you can become truly no-kill. You can't just "stop the killing" and declare yourself no-kill. They conveniently tuned out when Bill Bruce said it took TWENTY years to achieve what Calgary did. And they're all about not blaming the 'irresponsible public' for the problem...until it suits them and then they'll say all sorts of awful things about the people of Hamilton.
Clueless hypocrites.
You do good work and their opinions of you mean absolutely nothing.
I would much rather donate to a rescue group that knows how to manage money and make good business decisions. MORE cats can be saved if rescues pull the cute, fluffy, healthy ones. And if they are already fixed...even better. It may not be 'nice' but MORE cats will live and less will die if we do that.
and, um, if you weren't talking about that HAC STK group, then nevermind I guess.
*vent over*
Anonymous: I was totally talking about them! Thank you for the rant - I needed that! :)
B
Hey Beth, another great rescue! What about dressing David up in a Santa suit and having him take pics with people's pets as a fundraiser for your rescue?? I'm sure David is gonna love the suggestion! If he bails then I'm sure one of your boys would do it.
Mom hasn't had a great few days, so she can relate. Best advice we have - look around the house at the lives you HAVE SAVED and know that you made a difference for them. And remember that stupid just can't be fixed!
Have I ever shared with you my opinion of the idea of "no-kill" shelters?
Before I go too far, let me state I love the idea of no-kill shelters, I am glad they are there and what they can do..
but
I think the term "no-kill" is irresponsible. To label these things as 'no kill' implies that anything else is a kill shelter, and what an oxymoron term. So it must imply it is simply a place that kills companion animals. The public has NO IDEA what they really are and why they are so necessary. With the extreme overpopulation of companion animals, there simply is not enough space and resource to house them all. 3-4 million animals are killed each year. So if we "stopped the killing" where are these animals going to go? and the offspring they are now going to have, where are they going to go? It is NOT the shelter's fault that animals are killed. It is the callousness of the human race to not take care of the problem before it became a problem.
I wish they would call the "no kill" shelters what they really are.. Closed admission shelters. They get to pick and choose who comes through their doors and who stays. (I'll admit there are a few rich shelters who will take anything that comes to them, but still they are able to choose to do that) County shelter are "open admission" shelters and have to take any animal that comes in their doors. If you forced open admission shelters to not kill the over population, you would almost immediately have a hoarding-like situation which is neither good for the animal, nor the people working there, nor the people living anywhere near it. The is just not enough money and in reality even if there was enough money, there is currently not enough space.
I can't imagine an open admission shelter that enjoys killing animals. They love and care about animals or they wouldn't be there. They do it because they have to. Because in the long term it really is what is best for everyone, even if it isn't best for the one. Even if it breaks their hearts, and even if they get yelled at by ignorant people who do not understand just what is they are asking for.
Connie: Well said!!!! I really appreciate you summarizing that for us. Perfect :)
Beth
Beth, I can't imagine what you go through daily going to the shelter. I 'lurk' sometimes around the facebook group(s) and am amazed at their lack of knowlege regarding the no-kill movement. To implement no-kill requires massive changes, mostly in educating the public.
You need to look at many things - the biggest in my mind (from a west coast observer) is 'where do all the cats come from?' and 'why do they get turned into the shelter' and mostly 'why do people believe cats (and pets) are disposable'.
And, they continually use the 'Calgary model' as the be-all and end-all of animal control shelters. Do they understand that Calgary kills 18% of the cats it brings in each year?
The rescue I volunteer with has decided we need to 'stick to our mandate' because of lack of funds. Although we want to, we can't save them all. We must work within our resources to save the ones we can and give them the best outcome possible. We get calls daily from people wanting to surrender their cats - but we cannot take them unless they originally adopted from us, then we take them back as we believe we are responsible for that cat for its entire life.
The only way to save them all is spay/neuter and public education that animals are not disposable, they are a lifetime commitment.
Beth, I can't imagine what you go through daily going to the shelter. I 'lurk' sometimes around the facebook group(s) and am amazed at their lack of knowlege regarding the no-kill movement. To implement no-kill requires massive changes, mostly in educating the public.
You need to look at many things - the biggest in my mind (from a west coast observer) is 'where do all the cats come from?' and 'why do they get turned into the shelter' and mostly 'why do people believe cats (and pets) are disposable'.
And, they continually use the 'Calgary model' as the be-all and end-all of animal control shelters. Do they understand that Calgary kills 18% of the cats it brings in each year?
The rescue I volunteer with has decided we need to 'stick to our mandate' because of lack of funds. Although we want to, we can't save them all. We must work within our resources to save the ones we can and give them the best outcome possible. We get calls daily from people wanting to surrender their cats - but we cannot take them unless they originally adopted from us, then we take them back as we believe we are responsible for that cat for its entire life.
The only way to save them all is spay/neuter and public education that animals are not disposable, they are a lifetime commitment.
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