are you feeling the need for a baby?

[blondie58]

why not consider fostering for a local animal shelter? Here in CO, we have had so many warm days already, that kitten season has started. My shelter (www.angelswithpaws.net) has a pregnant mama who should have the kids any day now, and many more will follow. Most shelters just don't have the room and my shelter, for one, knows that everyone wants a kitten, so we make that extra effort to find them homes.

At my shelter, there are sometimes some moms that come with the kittens, some are kittens old enough to be on solid food and occasionally, some that need to be mothered- bottle feed, stimulated to pee and poo, etc. They are usually for the experienced though, as the success rate can be low. It is devastating when your little one doesn't make it.

You are really helping the shelter out, as there is always limited space for new furkids at the shelters. Please consider helping your local shelter out. The downside is, as Lisa I'm sure will agree with me- that you'll fall in love with them and now want to give them back. No worries! my shelter gives a reduced rate and first dibs if you have that problem.

Thank you all for your consideration!

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Thanks for all you do...working in the shelter...must have glorious days, and some very sad ones.

[blondie58]

5. thanks, BrklynLiberal- yeah it tests your faith in humanity

like the guys who were moving and left their brown tabby, Marta, a tripod, having only three legs, in a cage in the apartment. The landlord found her a week later, but geez. One thing that I love about animals is their forgiving nature. She was the sweetest girl, especially considering what she had been through. And then the people who just leave their animals by the shelter, but are too chicken to come in. Last summer, a BOX of kittens had been left. Well, needless to say, they all escaped and it took us about a week to catch them. Or the people who left their badly matted long hair cat in a cat carrier outside, however, it was in the rain, overnight. I could go on and on, it really breaks your heart.

I don't really work in the shelter, but I am a frequent visitor and I do whatever I can. My start was when I went in there one day, for a little pet therapy and I went in this one room, that the vet tech had dubbed "the senior ward". There was a really skinny brown tabby that I had to just pick up. Boy, did he start to purr, he was just starved for attention. His story was that he belonged to an older lady who had passed away leaving behind five cats and two dogs. He had a thyroid problem, which caused him to have a voracious appetite, yet he still looked emaciated. Well, I asked the vet tech about him, and he said "Tigger- oh, yeah, we're going to have a meeting about him tomorrow" implying that they were going to consider euthanizing him. I could not get him out of my mind, so I called them the next day. I ended up fostering this seventeen year old 'old skinny man' for about a year, knowing that it was basically hospice care for a cat. Tigger had the most wonderful spirit though. His thyroid problem caused him to have some blindness, also. He would walk around my house and start to walk into a wall. No problem for him, he would just brush himself off and go the other way. My cats would bat at him, he would bat back and go on. I had about five other cats at my house at that time and no one ever attacked him.
He passed away one day, on his own terms. It broke my heart. I really grew to love that funny little guy.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. and there are those that think WE are nuts for caring more about animals than people..

I feel that karma should create a situation where those that are cruel and uncaring toward their pets,end up having to be taken care of..and are treated the way they treated the pets they abandoned or mistreated.

[Eurobabe]

2. Oh Blondie58, you are an angel yourself

You and Lisa do so much for the animals. :grouphug: :applause: :toast:

Meant to say I checked out your residents, and you have some beautiful felines on your adoption page. Best of luck, may they find loving forever homes.

You are the best!

[blondie58]

6. thanks, 48percenter

there is such a need for help for animals. The woman who started this shelter used to help out at the other shelter down the road, which does euthanize for space. Her last straw was while working there, this one man used to be a grouch. Seems the only thing that would put a smile on his face was to go euthanize a bunch of cats. Sick. That man has no business working with animals.

We only euthanize when absolutely necessary. Even our cats with FIV and Feline Leukemia can live out their lives, they just must be separated from other cats.

There is such a problem because people don't neuter or spay their pets. ONe mama cat and her offspring will produce 500,000 more cats in seven years.

That is just my shelter. There are countless other ones all over the U.S. that need our help.

Thanks!:-)

[demnan]

3. Did you post in the CO state forum?

I didn't check but that might be good if you didn't think of it already.

[blondie58]

4. no, I haven't. but that is a good idea

although every shelter in the United States is in the same situation and they all need our help to help the animals.

[Lorien]

8. I'd love to do it again, but after all the panleukapenia, FIP, and URIs

that the last 25 or so fosters I brought home came with, I'm broke and emotionally drained. I only lost five if them, but that still seems like a high percentage to me. I would get emotionally invested in them and spend every dime of my own money to pay for their vet bills because the rescue couldn't afford to. Fortunately I found great homes for every one of the survivors, and I've continued to place abandoned cats from my neighborhood into loving homes on my own. I hope that one day I'll be able to do it again, if I ever get back in the black and have a way to keep my own crew separated completely from the fosters.