Do you Go Here, There, & Everywhere? Or focus? Does it Matter?
Many of you know that we don’t take the same route as most groups. Sometimes I look at a situation and say why? Why are we doing it that way and it does not seem to be working? Sometimes I get someone in the group say why don’t we stay in one spot? Maybe I say, "look it’s unrealistic for us to act like the rest or the rescue groups or TNR/rescue groups". We are not. We are mostly in rental apartments, or areas where they restrict what we can put outside and inside our homes, etc. We are living paycheck to paycheck like many in our communities. We don’t have resources beyond what we bring in through donations and what we live on for ourselves. Half of us do not own a home. We have to look at things differently. Not a bad thing actually. Always a good idea to view it from another side. If gas prices keep going up we may have to walk to our TNR clinics with dollies. Ha Ha.Yes, we will continue to do our way for a while.
We do not go here there and everywhere. I don’t find it to be logical. I find it runs us everywhere and we don’t make a difference going everywhere. Do we care if someone traps in our communities? No. Never will. There are plenty of cats out there that need help. We will never save them all and we will not try. That is rescue talk. Let me clarify. Rescue talk is not bad we just don't live by it. We understand our limitations. Our goal is stabilization, removing kittens, getting dedicated feeders, housing, and educating our community on spay and neuter. We just do not have the space, funds, or time to care for many animals. Although some board members try. Foster fails. We do the best we can in working with rescues and shelters to get friendlies off the streets or to remove cats out of a bad situation. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we can’t. Does that make us failures? No.
We have chosen a focused path. We do not go everywhere. We tried that a little in the beginning of our process. We found that it spent too much time and energy and we accomplished little in showing results. Sometimes a shelter will call for help. Sometimes I can get there quickly and sometimes I can't. I am not territorial. Never have been with anything. I don’t see the reason for it in this instance either.
We like mass trapping. I can trap a bunch of cats and get it done in 2 to 3 days with using approximately 40 hours in leg work before the mass trappings to get the neighborhoods and feeders on board. Hard work but it is in spurts. It's easier for us to plan. Plus, it's fun. I work a job that has me out of the house for 10 or more hours a day. Many of my volunteers have jobs. Other volunteers have responsibilities with family members. This is not our full time job or something we can do 24/7. It would be great if that was the case, but it would require a lot of fundraising, grants, and core yearly funding to accomplish that miracle. No money has ever gone in our pockets. None. Many of our board members have put in substantial amounts of funding just this past year to give our group a good foundation. We believe we are making a difference. We make a difference with our community cats, our community, our neighbors.
We do not have a facility to put cats into once trapped. True, we do not. We have covered porches. That means we do not do much trapping in the dead of winter. Please understand we do not have the areas. We will be looking at creative ways for the future. It is hard for our volunteers to take in a stray cat and wait for 2 to 3 weeks or more to surrender the cat. Many rescues are having hard time with fosters. We are no different as everyone returns to normal. Yes, we will surrender it as a stray. Please be sure to know that. Does that mean it will be euthanized? No. It is a term that the shelter uses now to take in animals. They are not owned. We found them. We do not own them. That includes kittens. I do try to keep track of our friendlies going in and being microchipped because if the owners do not put their names on the listing it comes back to our group. We follow up on ALL our kittens to see if adopted as well as any friendlies. Sometimes shelters are not that great, but we have not had too many problems locally. We have been blessed with some great people that work with us. Maybe I am gullible and believe. Maybe. Maybe not. I follow up a lot. I spend many hours on the phone when I get home. Fielding messages online, fielding texts, fielding calls, fielding questions and anything else that pops up. We follow up in less than 24 hours sometimes 12 in most cases, but it can take 72 hours. We do have our lives, family, friends, jobs, our own pets, neighbors. Sometimes things happen. We are like everyone else. Life happens.
Why tell you all this? I want everyone to understand what we are and what we stand for in the community. We are not out to be the biggest, the best, the only. Not our goal. I try to help anywhere I can to help, but our goal is to stabilize a couple streets at a time. Our goal is to educate. Our goal is for someone else to take a look at what we do and say “You know what? I bet I can do this in my neighborhood”. My goal is to show it is possible to do something a little differently than everyone else. Guess what? It may work. If someone can improve how we do it and the next person and the next person, it's a chain reaction that could result in a better options, new solutions, better laws, and more understanding. We are not the best. We are not in competition. We don’t have time for that thinking. We will never be part of the popular click in rescue. Yes, we are a ragtag group that has gotten together. We are misfits in so many ways. Like our cats, we have been left behind, or kicked to the curb, lost, depressed, struggling to survive. Sounds like our communities. These cats have more in common with the people in your community than you know. Interesting connection right? Maybe by looking for ways to help these cat souls we find a way to reach out and help ourselves. Imagine.
Yes, we do not do it by the book. No, we will not be changing our ways. If you can find a way to understand that, we may come up with something that may start a new way of handling community cats. I am not saying it will come from us. It may come from someone looking at us and saying hey they do it differently. Wonder if we changed that and did it this way, or maybe our group can come up with water that kills fleas and tics, or birth control for community cats to stop breeding until everyone is spayed/neutered, or whatever. The skies the limit everyone.
Let us know if we can help. Let us know if you need advice. No, we do not know everything. Who does? We are here to help you deal with problem cats in your home, food to feed your outdoor cats, how to get a smell out, help with your neighbor being angry, help be supportive at a community meeting, tell you that you are crazy, or tell you that we thank you and we will be talking soon.
Help your community out. I will be trying to blog some simple advice and posting it on Facebook also. I like the way some groups have informational articles. I found it informative. That is the main goal. Education.
Look for more blogs and postings. We are always looking for fosters, volunteers, anything. We are always looking for donations in food, supplies,, and money. Please paypal at catearsrevolution@gmail.com, Cash app $CATEARSREVOLUTION, Zelle 412-983-8506, Venmo CatEars or CatEars1 check mailed below:
3639 Allendale Circle
Pittsburgh PA 15204
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