Shelter Me Inc was involved with 62 cat rescues in 2011; more than 10 of the cats were so sick they needed to be put to sleep; 28 were 'hard-to-adopt' cats the group placed in barns. The numbers themselves don't tell much of a story. But when we wrote a grant application recently for the Combined Federal Campaign, we provided a cat-by-cat chronicle of our rescues and the numbers took on many different shades of meaning. It helped us remember the animals we fostered; the cats who were sadly too sick to save; some very fine veterinarians we met along the way; the people we helped and those who helped us. For these reasons, we thought it might be worthwhile to share a dated record of our group's rescue activities in 2011:
1/27/11(3) female cats
- Arranged transfer from a farm in Greenville, RI (which was being sold) to a family farm in Ashby, MA. One of the cats moved into the house.
2/13/11(2) males (1) female
- Helped set traps in feral colony in Fitchburg; transported to Tufts clinic for spay/neuter; 1 sick male placed in foster care / rabies quarantine with Trudy Charrette of Cat Connection in Webster; 2 returned to colony.
2/14/11 (1) male (1) female
- Helped set traps in feral colony in Fitchburg; drove them to vet in Revere, MA; paid for spay/neuter; too sick to return immediately to colony; Shelter Me fostered for several week period of antibiotic treatment; arranged transfer of female to farm in Norfolk, MA on 3/13/11; and returned male (too aggressive to adopt out) to colony.
2/16/11 (2) male (1) female
- Helped set traps in feral colony in Fitchburg; took cats to veterinarian in Lunenberg; paid for one male for neuter/vaccines and returned to colony; 1 female and 1 male both FIV positive, very sick and put to sleep.
2/23/11(1) female (1) male
- Helped set traps in feral colony in Fitchburg; arranged/paid for male to be neutered/ vaccinated by veterinarian; FIV + female with wound put to sleep.
2/25/11 (1) male
- Helped set traps in feral colony in Fitchburg; arranged/paid for male to be neutered/vaccinated with veterinarian; returned to colony
3/13/11(3) males, (1) female
- Helped set traps in Fitchburg colony; arranged for males to be neutered and vaccinated at Tufts feral clinic in Grafton, MA; and drove them back to colony
- Helped set trap in Fitchburg colony; female too sick to survive; veterinarian put her to sleep
3/18/11(1) female
- Helped set traps in colony Fitchburg; arranged/paid for veterinarian to check her; discovered she was previously spayed; giave her snap test (double negative) shots and revolution and returned to colony.
4/11/11(2) females
- Trapped in Fitchburg colony, both very sick, put to sleep.
6/7/11(2 ) females
- Trapped in Westford, two, 4-week-old kittens rescued by ACO in wishing well; placed in foster for four weeks and adopted out through a mainstay in our foster network.
6/28/11(2) females
- Trapped in Oxford, rescued by ACO from an abandoned apartment where the cats had been living for a month and were fed by the landlord; Shelter Me paid to spay; placed in barn in Dover, MA
6/28/11(1) three-legged female
- From Oxford, rescued by firemen, given to ACO; Shelter Me paid to spay; adopted out to family in Oxford.
6/28/11(1) female
- Stray kitten in Medford found by local family; Shelter Me paid to spay; family fostered and adopted.
6/29/11 (3) females
Shelter Me arranges for 3 feral cats belonging to woman in upstate NY who is retiring to Florida-to rehome them in Adirondack farm where the owner breeds collies, donkeys, and horses. (Cats lived under porch for 7 years in NYS; and yet, were able to re-settle happily on a a farm far upstate.)
7/19/11 (5) females (1) male
- “Hoarder” cats trapped outside house in Oxford by ACO; Shelter Me pays to spay.
8/5/11 (3) females (2) males
- Hoarder cats trapped inside the home. Shelter Me pays to spay, provides half dozen acclimation cages, trunkfuls of bowls, food, flea treatment, beds, litter. 2 females to barn in Millville; 2 males and 1 female to farm in Dighton. 2 are to be barn cats,
8/5/11 (1) male
- Oxford ACO rescues abandoned cat; Shelter Me pays to neuter.
9/9/11(7) females (3) males
- Shelter Me pays to spay/neuter/vaccinate; 2 males to barn in Lunenberg; 2 to barn in Lincoln; 2 females to barn in Deerfield, NH. (Note: Lunenberg barn cats eventually move into the house.)
9/15/11 (1) male
- Three week old kitten rescued by Westford ACO; Shelter Me pays vet bills; Chelmsford resident adopts.
11/15/11 (1) female (1 male)
- Friendly mother , feral kitten rescued by Quincy Shelter; Shelter Me places in Farm in Concord.
11/19/11 (2) females
- Rescued by Feline Friends of Salem, NH; too feral to become housecats; Shelter Me places in barn in Lincoln,MA
12/1/11 (2) males
- Two tabby kitten rescued from a dump in Tewksbury by Billerica Cat Care Coalition; too feral to become housecats; Shelter Me Inc places in barn in Upton, MA
12/7/11 (1) female
- Calico kitten from Fitchburg colony (born to calico we could not catch) placed in foster.
12/13/11(2) females
- Trapped 2 feral kittens in Fitchburg colony and transferred to veterinarian to live on her dairy farm in Littleton.
Since we established Shelter Me Inc in 2007, our group has generally responded to crises that beat a pathway to our metaphorical front door. (We don't have a facility of our own.) What was new to us in 2011 was being involved in two hoarder situations - in Fitchburg and Oxford. In each case, it was hard to know how many cats were present or to predict how much money our group might need to spend. Luckily, these factors didn't matter.
In both instances, when I informed Morene (Shelter Me’s treasurer, leading financial supporter and not coincidentally, my sister) that veterinary care could run to several thousand dollars because it might be too difficult to take cats to free feral clinics and they would likely require much more veterinary care than a clinic could provide, Morene replied. “Veterinary care is what the money is for.”
The great thing about Morene’s response is that she didn't ask how much we planned to spend on each cat or how many cats there were or what the total expenditure might be. In Oxford, alone, we spent more than 3000 dollars to help bring 22 cats back to health – buying acclimation cages, food bowls, dry food, wet food, litter, cat beds and toys. It was a great investment.
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