It's been a while

We've been so busy with kitten season that we haven't had a chance to blog in a while. This is our first year of kitten season where people actually know who we are and now we get calls and emails about finding kittens, can we take them.

And as much as it pains us, we can't take them all. I have a hard time with "you can't save them all". I understand it, I know it's not realistic, but darn it - I want to save them all. But we can't. It hurts me every time we have to respond to an email or phone call that we can't take the cats/kittens because we are at capacity. And boy, oh boy, are we at capacity! We are a small rescue but we have 51 kittens and 16 adults in our adoption program. Of those right now only a few of the kitten litters (about 12 kittens total) are currently available for adoption with more available each week as they are spayed/neutered, received their last FVRCP+FeLV vaccine, rabies vaccine, and are microchipped.

Adoptions are typically down in the summer and with the slow economy - adoptions are down more. It's one of the worst kittens seasons I've ever seen in all my years of rescue. There are low cost options out there, why do people not get their pets spayed and neutered?

I can't wait for the day when we get a really large donation or grant. Because we will use that money not to start a shelter (foster homes work great for rescues), but to start a voucher program to subsidize spay/neuters so they are even lower cost. A shelter would be nice, it makes adoptions easier but it also adds a lot of overhead and administrative costs -- money that could be used to help stamp out the overpopulation crisis. A voucher program for spay/neuter surgeries is my dream -- and that dream will become a reality one day. I just have to be patient.