2011 found another 448 cats and kittens placed in forever homes, staying indoors with only supervised outdoor visits. We kept the same goals for adoptive parents, landlord permission and any other pets altered and immunized.
Our assisted low income program helped with 297 spay/neuters. It was much more difficult for these low income homes to afford their part of the cost of spay and or neuters. Many in Mason County lost their homes, having found no work for previous three years. If they were lucky they moved in with relatives and friends, if not they lived in small travel trailers or their cars. They were unable to take their pets with them in many cases, leaving the neighbors to become responsible for those pets. The neighbors were frequently struggling to hold together their own households and pets and the additional expense of someone else’s unaltered pets was a major problem. We helped with altering, often making the reluctant families a foster home so that we could help with procedures to make those abandoned felines more adoptable.
153 feral cats were spayed/neutered free of charge, and the grateful families in many cases took on the full responsibility of providing food and water to these small colonies. Others were so low income that we provided food on a weekly basis for the feral cats. We provided 12 sacks a week to people who were low income and actively engaged in trapping and altering the wild cats that they were feeding. If they refused to be part of our program, we were unable to provide them with food.
Our faithful garage sale and bazaar volunteers were able to raise $27,166.00 by five garage sales and one pre Christmas bazaar. The majority of our faithful supporters continued their much needed and appreciated donations. Since each rescue costs us 100 dollars more than the adoption fee brings in, this support was a life saver.
We continued training community teens in the proper care of their cats and kittens, and many did their senior projects based on their volunteer time here.
We appreciate the support of another rescue group located in Thurston County and continue to hope that another local rescue organization will eventually help with a small shelter and help with additional programs to help our residents.
In the meantime your support and our forty-two volunteers have continued to provide a haven for unwanted cats and kittens. God bless you all.
