HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!
I hope you will all find the focus of my next 4 weeks on Mondays exciting, moving, amazing, thought provoking, and in the end so joyful you will be thrilled.
Most of you know I was helping, with my Mom, to Save The Royals…they are 3 adult cats who were left suddenly without their huMom, known to many as QM Rose (QM for “Queen Mother”). Emily, 9 years old, and Marigold and Brutus, 7 years old and brofur and sisfur were left with no home and no loving Mom or Dad.
We asked permission of those involved in their rescue to begin telling this story because Mom kept a record of sorts as it was unfolding. I had to catnap on this a bit before I came up with a plan for sharing this tale with all of you…the plan…
Each Monday, starting today, I will post a four part series:
Part One: The Rescue Plan
Part Two: The Back story…Where It All Started..The Royals Roots
Part Three: The Power of Paw Social Media
Part Four: The Joyous Ending As Told by Emily, Marigold and Brutus
Hope you find something in this series that makes you purrleased to have come by to read it…
The Rescue Plan: It Starts
- February 25: in the Face Book (FB) Group CWB (cats with blogs where the peeps talk) someone comments “has anyone else seen this?”…Rose and The Royals
- Moments later this is posted: Missy Blue Eyes, more information about what has happened
- 206 group members are learning that a much loved and long time cat blogger, Rose, has died suddenly. And they also learn that Miss ML (known for her pawsome work as a cat blogger for many years and for her dedication to the Cat Blogosphere where her cat KC has been a long time Repurrter)…anywho…Miss ML has let everyone know she has whisked Miss Rose’s 3 cats from being PTS and they are in a shelter.
- Miss Rose lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey and Miss ML lives in Maryland
- We also learn that Miss Rose’s family refused to participate in making her final arrangements and would not offer any financial help. Miss ML accepted the responsibility all on her own…and many in the CWB group immediately chipped in to help her out.
- Feb. 26 Miss Rhonda, Angel Junior, Orion and Sammy, will give a home to Emily but she needs transportation for Emily, from New Jersey to her new home in Utah.
- Feb. 26 I am reading after Mom got back from her vacation and I see all the chatter and it looks like we can help. So, Mom, Dad and I have a furramily meeting and agree we all have to do without something…but we offer to help pay to fly Emily to her new home if a peep will volunteer to make the road trip (we did not know there were 2 other cats at this time needing rescue)
- Feb. 26 Miss Dorian, Your Daily Cute, offers to help with setting up transport from New Jersey to Utah!! But it will take a few weeks.
- Feb. 27 Miss Laura, Heaven Sent Me Cat, says her Maxie needs new siblings…she will take Marigold and Brutus who desperately needed to be adopted together…YEA!!! BUT…Miss Laura lives in Massachusetts
- Miss Dorian, she coordinates animal rescue transport called “Cute Heads” and she has a transport already traveling the weekend we can rescue the cats, March 9-10. It is coming from Florida all the way through to Maine, passing right through the New Brunswick area!!…another YEA!!!
The Problem
- Feb. 25-March 1…we can’t find where Miss ML placed the cats!! They are NOWHERE to be found.
- We learn that the Animal Control of New Brunswick placed the cats for Miss ML, but they are not telling us where
- Miss ML has fallen very ill; then her cat KC becomes very ill and rushed to the vet where Miss ML takes a fall and is taken to emergency…we are still waiting for word on both their conditions…
- March 1…my Mom calls a private rescue group in New Jersey to ask if they know the Animal Control people in New Brunswick…maybe they can intervene and learn where they put the cats
- Animal Rescue Force tells her the AC people use a kennel called Blumig…Mom calls and YEA!!!…Emily, Brutus and Marigold are there!!! WE FOUND THEY ROYALS!!
The Rescue
- We need $1100 USD to bail the cats out of jail. In less than 48 hours, the CWB group donates enough to cover that
- Another long time cat blogger, TK Furrever Home, donates more than enough for Miss Rhonda to fly from Utah to New Jersey to break all three cats out of jail, hand off Brutus and Marigold to a foster Miss Dorian set up, and then bring Emily home with her.
- Miss Dorian sets up the rescue transportation for Marigold and Brutus to be picked up in NJ and taken to Connecticut where another CWB member will take them and drive them the rest of the way to their new Mom Laura in Massachusetts.
- OH Noes!! MOUSES!!! WINTER STORM WARNINGS…IN MARCH!!!…now we worry…will Miss Rhonda’s flight from Utah to Philadelphia (close to her driver’s home) be cancelled??…Nope…it’s on time…she makes it . The Animal Control peeps are not nice…now it is Friday morning, and will Miss Rhonda and her ride, Miss Carol, make it to the meet up site on time?????…they are gonna be late ‘cuz of weather…MOUSES!!…they arrive 45 minutes late…but THERE THEY ARE! BRUTUS, MARIGOLD AND EMILY!!!
- As of Saturday March 9, Emily is home in Utah. As of Sunday, Marigold and Brutus are…wait…let me check in with the Face Book group created by Miss Dorian for all the rescue drivers…oh…ok…Marigold and Brutus are now handed off to their ride from CT to Massachusetts. They will get to their new Mom Laura by midnight tonight.
- The transport moving Marigold and Brutus is also rescuing another 6 cats…moving them from Florida and North Carolina up the eastern coast to Virginia, Rhode Island and as far as Maine. You can see and learn about all the cats rescued this weekend by clicking HERE.
The Statistics to Rescue The Royals
- We generated over 300 pages, single spaced, of messages, comments etc. through our 3 different Facebook Groups in our efforts to find what happened, raise money, find the cats and set up transportation and keep everyone involved updated
- We did this through social media: Paw Blogs; Face Book; Twitter
- In 8 days everything was put in place to make sure Miss Rose’s beloved cats had new furrever homes and would have transportation to get there
- There are 41 drivers involved in the ground transport of all the cats being rescued Mar ch 9-10 through Miss Dorian’s Cute Heads.
- We raised approximately $2,500 in less than 60 hours to cover Miss Rhonda’s travel expenses from Utah to rescue Emily and to cover the boarding costs for The Royals and for their 3 health certificates.
- Mom and I don’t know what has been raised so far to help Miss ML cover the costs of sending Miss Rose to her final resting place
- It took a village of about 250 people to rescue The Royals and 6 more cats and if asked…”would you do this again?”…I know that each and every one of them would say “YES!!!”
The Royals
Emily
Marigold (young)
Marigold (hard to find photos of her without Brutus hogging her space MOL)
Mancat Brutus
Paw Pats, Savannah
peeEss…as I end this post…I learned that Brutus and Marigold have been passed to Mr Kevin who will drive them to their new Mom Laura…and I am seeing so many of the other cats rescued by Cute Heads arriving at their furrever homes…how PAWSOME is it that Operation Save The Royals ended up being a part of an even bigger rescue operation!!…no one has it better than us in this PAW Social Media Community!!…just sayin’…lots of leaky eyes in our home tonight…sigh…
report for my Society of Feline Gardeners post. As soon as I execute
Savannah's Paw Tracks 