HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!
You won’t believe me because I am a cat.
But I bet you will believe my Mom Linda. This is her story to share.
I have borrowed Savvy’s blog post today to share a visit myself and Gemma, the President of Community Concern 4 Cats, recently made to a clinic that was but a dream 3 years ago. Fix Our Ferals is an all volunteer organization started in 1998. Click HERE to learn more about them and the work they do in the west end of my county, Contra Costa County, in Northern California.
We were rather stunned to learn that in the 28 months they have been open, with only ONE Board Certified Feline DVM working 4 1/2 days per week, 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM. they have spayed/neutered 10,000 cats! Most are feral, but they also offer very reasonably priced services to low income cat guardians as well. There is an informative, albeit rather long (7 minutes) video on their website that identifies all the other treatments they provide to the cats while they are in their care for the one day of their spay/neuter.
The easiest way to share our visit is to show you some photos of how great their clinic looks; it is about 1900 square feet of space and their volunteer staff work very hard to keep it looking wonderful.
I hope you have time to view this short slideshow…
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We were amazed to learn that the DVM moves from one of the three surgery tables to the next doing her work. Volunteers have the cats prepped, then gently carry them into surgery on towels, NOT on boards similar to what most feral, low cost, clinics do. They also do not restrain the cats’ paws during surgery which others I have witnessed do. As soon as the Vet is done with one cat, she moves to the next, the cat completed goes to post op and a new patient is brought in to await its turn. That is how ONE Feline DVM can spay/neuter 10,000 cats in only 28 months. Needless to say, both Gemma and I were very impressed!
Everything they do at this clinic is done with respect and kindness toward their patients. They have one Feline vet paid on a daily scale, another they use part time when needed–paid hourly. They have one Registered Vet Tech and another who is completing his certification who trains the volunteers to do the majority of the work outside the surgery theater.
Gemma and I visited because we are joining together to find a way to build another low cost spay/neuter clinic for ferals and low income cat guardians, in the East end of our county. That area is a very popular dumping ground for unwanted cats. Sad, but true.
I, myself, am also very committed to working toward making my county public shelter a No Kill Shelter as part of the No Kill Movement in the USA. But, Gemma, who has been doing TNR work for 30 years, and I both agree–there cannot be a No Kill Shelter if we don’t act now to spay and neuter the growing feral cat populations abounding in our area, and across the USA.
Many foundations are focused on increasing the number cats adopted. But if you volunteer for a rescue/shelter, you will know that more times than we want to acknowledge, the adopters of kittens fail to return to have them spayed or neutered.
However, if we can spay/neuter more feral,stray cats and indoor/outdoor cats who have guardians unable to afford the procedure, then we can get AHEAD of the number of cats who will end up in public shelters that continue to kill unadoptable cats; i.e. ferals.
Gemma and I are committed to partnering together, with others in our community, to bring a clinic, such as Fix Our Ferals Clinic to the East end of our county. It will be a long road, with many trials and tribulations. But we are convinced we must do this if we are to see change in the feral cat population in our area. It is the right thing to do on many fronts, in my personal opinion. I hope Savannah’s readers will agree.
Fix Our Ferals has kindly agreed to allow me to GIVE AWAY a very nice quality, soft, hooded sweat shirt to one of Savvy’s readers!! This is open to all readers, I promised Savvy that Dad and I would cover the mailing costs, no matter where this sweat shirt goes! Savvy can be very persuasive as I am sure many of you know!
Please leave Savvy a comment to let her know you would like to be entered in the drawing, using Random.org, to select a winner of this great sweat shirt. I really think their logo is very striking!
You have until Wednesday, November 19th at midnight PST to leave a comment ON THIS BLOG POST. Savvy will remind you over the next few days!
Lastly, my partner in this endeavor does not even know what I am telling you! Do you recall that wonderful give away being offered over at The Cat On My Head??? Click HERE if you want to check it out again.
I simply could not wait so I used the discount being offered via The Cat On My Head…to order THIS wonderful, delightful totally original water color painting…(click to bigify…so embarrassed but I had such a rotten ‘photo shoot’ with this painting! Totally MY PROBLEM!)
I framed it myself…and unknown to my partner in building a NEW SPAY/NEUTER CLINIC, Miss Gemma…I am gifting it to her…with the agreement that this art piece is a permanent resident in the intake/reception area of the spay/neuter clinic we will help build for the feral/stray cats in our East County (and of course those whose guardians are low income but want to add the loving relationship of a cat into their family).
This is a very scary, yet invigorating project we have set our sights on…but Savannah and I and Dad Peter are up to it because we have Miss Gemma as our colleague. I am NOT making a commitment from her rescue organization by stating this…but we know her personal energy will move us forward!
Now a little teaser…wait until you read Savannah’s future blog post about Wolves, Coyotes and Cats—Is Their Survival Related?
Paw Pats from Nana and Head Bonks from Sage
Savannah's Paw Tracks 