Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Best of Rescue

Since Sunday, I can't tell you what I've had to eat or drink.  It's been a blurr of excitement and a rescuer's dream.

Our big Adoption Blitz was a huge success.  Something I've never experienced before - 41 (yes, FORTY ONE) adoptions in  a 6 hour time period.  Adopters were actually lined up out the door to take turns meeting the cats in our small adoption area.  Some had printed out cats they had hoped would be there and others just wanted "any sweet cat".

Hard to believe I'm actually typing this, but....we adopted out EVERY cat that we brought that day!  Not one cat was left!!  I had two families FIGHTING over a 12  week old BLACK kitten!  Holy crap!

Adoption screening was easier than I thought it would be.  I turned down a BUNCH of impulse adopters.  The rush of people took us all by surprise and the LACK of phone calls after the event tells me that we made some great decisions for our cats.

With 41 adoptions means more rescues, so we headed out to the shelter yesterday and rescued nearly 30 cats and kittens.  Vet visits and assessments have left us exhausted and exhilarated.    We're trying to get everybody spayed/neutered etc before we go into Petsmart for the month of August.

Last night I had an emergency call from one of our foster parents.  Apparently, some asshole guy dumped  a Mom cat and her 3 kittens in an alley behind her apartment building.  "Can we help?"




Without getting into all the drama, we were able to secure their safety and transport to a foster home in a matter of minutes.  Again - something I'm never usually able to do in the middle of summer!  This poor little family was rescued from raccoons and certain death.

The first of Facebook messages came in from the foster Mom:

"Momma and babies are in their new abode. Momma is a sweetheart. She lay down beside me, let me pet her and purred her heart out...."

And this morning:

"Everyone is fine. They are the happiest bunch ever. This morning, when I opened the door, momma sang me a good morning song and she and all of the kittens ran over to me.
They are all love-muffins. Everyone is eating, everyone is drinking, everyone is using the litter box and the kittens rough-house all the time.
I don't think I have had a more delightful group.
I want to keep them all."

My heart is full and happy this morning.  I wish every rescue day could be like the past 3 days!


11 comments:

Judi said...

That is simply astonishing and totally wonderful! Im so happy that the adoption event went so well and more were saved.

Caroline said...

Wow congrats on your adoptathon. Rescuing 30 cats from the high kill shelter is always a good thing. Kudos to everyone involved in rescuing Mom and her babies from the alley.

Kitty Central said...

Beth, you, your volunteers and foster homes are wonderful. That was a great accomplishment. To be able to place all of those cats and then go out and rescue 30 more - it blows my mind. I was associated with a cat shelter and we were never able to accomplish what you continue to do on a regular basis. Congratulations. You are an angel.

Caroline said...

Beth, anyway you can post the shelter id #s of the ones you rescued for those of us that follow the site?

Renee said...

Congratulations! That momcat and babies sound wonderful - I'm half-jealous they didn't come to me. ;) Thanks so much to the foster home who took them in.

Strayer said...

I can't believe what you accomplished! That's awesome. 41 cats! I have one here, from a feral colony. Got her fixed as a teen there, now the property is under development and the old couple who feed them brought her to me. She's so sweet and tame, but find a home for her? Seems beyond my capacity. Granted, I have no adoption venue and live in a poverty stricken area over run with unfixed cats and free kittens. Anyhow, good for you and your volunteers!

Connie - Tails from the Foster Kittens said...

Awesome, wonderful, amazing!! I so want to be a part of an adoption event like that one of these days.. I can imagine it is quite a sight to see!

Sparkle said...

I've been reading the rescue's posts on Facebook, and they keep making my day! I don't know how you managed to have such an awesome adoption event in July, but I wish I could clone whatever you did and spread it all over North America! And paws up for rescuing all those kitties this week too - AND the adorable mom and kittens! It's a good thing you are in Canada and we are in California because my human is already in love with the mom. And trust me, we kitties do not need or want another family member!

Random Felines said...

woohooo!!!! hope you were able to take some applications for cats not there too. how amazing! and so glad that little family is safe too.

kb said...

Congrats Beth- that is GREAT news about all those adoptions! What a huge success for your rescue! I'm so glad you took the risk to lower the adoption fees. I really hope lower fees, sales, specials, 2 for 1's, etc catch on in canada like they have here in the US. Its a great way to get cats adopted and save more lives. As you saw, the quality of the homes does not diminish when people prefer to pay lower or even no fees. Trust me, I totally get that rescues need to cover their costs! There's another whole way of thinking about fundraising though, that doesn't include adoption fees.
Kudos to you! You saved a lot of lives!!!

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic post. Congratulations to the thirty cats and the family! Amazing work everyone!