HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!
I have been posting my #RememberMeThursday post for seven years. This event was created ten years ago by the Helen Woodward Animal Center. Remember Me Thursday® aims to unite individuals and pet adoption organizations around the world to be an unstoppable, integrated voice for orphan pets in need of forever homes.
“Over a million beautiful, adoptable pets will lose their lives in 2022,” states Mike Arms, President and CEO of Helen Woodward Animal Center. “We all come from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds, but together, we can raise our voices and share one life-saving message and literally save millions of pets on this one day.”
Please remember, as my blog subtitle says—”I am a former shelter cat making a difference”. I was abandoned at a high kill shelter and almost euthanized before a foster came to take me to her home where I would be safe until a private nonprofit had a space for me. And they did and over one year later, after no one wanted me, along came Dad P and Mom L and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, not only are there millions of shelter cats like I once was, there are many millions more abandoned community cats, friendly, hiding in shadows, under trailers, in shrubs—all hoping they can find just one good meal on any given day. These cats were once able to be trapped and taken to public shelters where they had opportunities to fine forever homes.
But thanks to one Dr. Kate Hurley, DVM, Director of the UC Davis Shelter Medicine Program, most publicly funded shelters across the USA are turning to adopt her “Community Sheltering for Abandoned Community Cats”. Ms Hurley has successfully promoted and sold her approach to leaving all abandoned community cats exactly where they are. They do not belong in a public shelter where they might get an upper respiratory infection, like most dogs get kennel cough. But intaking dogs is highly promoted while leaving community cats out in the cold, extreme heat and rain to fend for themselves. Ms. Hurley says this is where they belong. Oh yeah, she says “be sure to spay and neuter them and then dump them back where you found them”. Great idea!!! And just where are all the small nonprofits supposed to find low cost, high volume spay and neuter surgery openings for the thousands of abandoned community cats that the public sheltering system has left up to them to manage???
Our local county shelter is following this UC Davis/Kate Hurley approach to leaving even the friendliest of abandoned community cats and kittens just where they were left. And they have cut back on the number of spay, neuter surgeries they once had for cat rescues to get their community cats fixed. They did not invest in creating a high volume, low cost surgery center that all county residents have access to.
Nope, our publicly funded county shelter wrote a grant proposal to Petco Love to fund a $200,000 dollar investment in hiring dog behaviorists!! Tough luck for the cats.
Please on this #RememberMeThursday, consider adopting a rescue cat from a nonprofit. Do not leave these abandoned community cats, pulled from unimaginable harsh lives on the streets and in the woods, to waste away in foster care, never knowing a permanent home. And even better, consider becoming a foster for a small nonprofit, like our Delta View Cats, that is struggling to bring these friendly adults and kittens into homes for socialization to lead to adoption.
All the kitties and kittens in you see around me in my #SeeTheLight graphic, are friendly adults and lovely kittens, just purring to find a warm and compassionate foster, then an adopter, to give them a permanent home.
I invite all of you to visit the Virtual Candle Lighting page to light your own personal candle in remembrance of all your beloved rescue pets.
Thank you for reading my special Thursday blog post celebrating #RememberMeThursday.
PAW PATS, SAVANNAH
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