Please read and spread the word: MAKE A PLAN FOR YOUR ANIMALS!

Dear pet owner,

I have news for you: you are not going to live forever!  It doesn't matter how old or young you are, how healthy you are, how rich you are (see the late Sam Simon, who I wish had lived forever), you cannot escape it.  Hopefully, it won't be for a good long while.  But, what if it isn't?

It shocks me how many people do not have a will and/or a health care proxy.  Unless you have no family or friends and no possessions, I would think that you would want to say what happens to your things. And you, if you can't make choices for yourself.

I assume that if you are a parent of a human child (which I am a not), you have a designated guardian for said children if someone happens to you unexpectedly.  But what about your fur kids?

Recently, I hosted a dinner for some friends from the shelter.  I was fostering Shadow (who lost her home because her owner lost his and had no plan for her) at the time, and I asked my friends if they had a plan for their pets if something happened to them.  A few did.  Most hadn't thought about it.

Please, I beg you, think about it now, and find someone (or multiple people) who commit, in writing, to take your animals if you aren't around and don't have a spouse/children who can take them.

Having these conversations with your family, significant others and friends is tough.  It can be flat out heartbreaking for many reasons.  Someone who you thought you could count on could let you down, and it can destroy you.  You need to explain that it's a long term commitment, it costs money and, at some point, the animal(s) will get sick and could have some very large vet bills.  THIS IS FOR LIFE, which could, in some cases, be another 15-20 years!!

If you are lucky, you will have people who will gladly sign up for this commitment because they know how much it means to you and that you won't be at peace until you have it ironed out.  But, things change, and you need to stay on top of it.  My sister, who is slightly allergic to cats, just married a great guy who is violently allergic to cats.  Not only can she no longer take my oldest if I go before him, but they can't stay together in my house!  Ever!  So there went Ollie's person.

Fortunately, my other sister has no allergic family members, including her children, so she volunteered to take one.  

I have a line of people who would take Louis Philippe, including those with slight allergies.  I wonder why?

And then there's Harley.  Formerly abused and finally ready to love after three tough and nurturing years.  And he has an autoimmune disease which will require blood work a few times a year and medication for the rest of his life.  He's only 5.  I have a taker, but it's a bigger than normal financial commitment.

So, who's taking your pets if you aren't here?  Think about it.  Now.  Don't leave them with nowhere to go.  Like Shadow, who is now back at the shelter.

 Or this girl, who lucky ended up at a no kill shelter and got adopted even though she was older.

Older pets are harder to adopt.  They will go from a comfortable home to a tiny cage (as stated in my previous post, the MRI feeling).  For a long time.  Can you picture your pet in a shelter?  And what if it's not a no kill shelter?

I plan on creating a pet trust.  I will write about it when I do.

In the meantime, please share this post, make a plan if you haven't and tell everyone to do the same.

You owe it to them. 

Fosters, Failures and MRI's

I am no stranger to failure.  I have failed big time before - career, marriage and countless other things.  I work it out, I move on after recovering from the heartbreak.  That's what we do.

And then I found something that I thought that I couldn't fail at: fostering cats (and a few dogs) and finding homes for them so that they never had to go back to a cage.  Sometimes they would stay a week, sometimes a month, sometimes several months.  I found an amazing couple who adopted two 13 year old cats after only being in foster with me for three days.  The only cat that I had who didn't get adopted was a hospice- she was given a week to live.  She lived 6 months.

I only "failed" at fostering once out of the many times that I fostered.  It was three years ago, when I brought my Harley home for a break from confinement in a cage that he had been in for five months straight.  No one looked at him.  He was about two, a big bruiser who did not like to be held or patted.  He had been abused, and he ducked when you tried to pet him like you were going to hit him- for the first 6 months that I had him.  He purred when I took him home- the only time that he purred for almost three years.  Since he was young and healthy (or so I thought), I went to bring him back for adoption hours three days later.  I put him in the cage, and I thought my heart would break.  My Louis looked at me like, "What are you doing?  Why bring him back?"  So I became a "foster failure", and I kept him.  I don't usually take young cats and would never think about adopting a young, healthy cat because they are easy to place.  Turns out that Harley has an autoimmune disease, so I guess that it was just meant to be.

And then I took in Shadow, a 15 year old black cat with a skin infection on her lip that looks like a big, contagious sore.  She cried and cried in her cage, and after a while, I couldn't take it and I took her home to foster.  She has so happy.  She purred all of the time.  Her lip got better.  I loved her right away.

After about a week, I tried to introduce her to one of my cats.  It didn't go well.  I tried several times, but she violently attacked my cats repeatedly.  Harley narrowly missed having his eyeball scratched and was reduced to a shivering crying lump, as opposed to the bully that he normally is.  Ollie was scared to come upstairs.  Louis howled outside her door.  No matter what I did, she just didn't like other cats.  Who could blame her- she's 15 and has never lived with other animals before.  Three is a lot!!

For the last several weeks, I tried everything that I could to get her fostered or adopted.  I emailed people who had adopted older cats to see if they had friends.  I emailed fosters.  I posted on Facebook and on the shelter list repeatedly to network her.  And, through a kind volunteer, I found along term foster.  But the shelter director denied the foster, saying that it was too far in the event that she needed to go to their vet.  Big deal- the foster could drive her.  

Not only did the foster get turned down, but I was told that I had to bring her from her lovely room in my house back to the shelter.  ASAP.  The decision was made that she wouldn't get adopted at my house, and she needed to be back on the floor so people could see her- because SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR A 15 YEAR OLD BLACK CAT WITH A BUSTED LIP.

So, tonight, I brought her back.  I cried half of the day, sobbed at the wheel when I got in the car with her, and had to email someone in advance to take her back because I couldn't stand to put her back there.  We said our goodbyes, and I wish that she gets a miracle asap.  I hope that I am wrong and that she gets adopted super fast.

This is the first time that I have ever had a cat come into my house and return to the shelter.  I failed her. AND.IT.FEELS.AWFUL.  Why couldn't I find someone?  Why couldn't anyone else?  Why couldn't someone who doesn't have any pets (and they are out there, even on my shelter's volunteer list) volunteer to foster or adopt?  She's low maintenance and full of love.  She plays laser.  She likes catnip and treats.  She talks.  She's AMAZING.  If she liked other animals, I would have adopted her.

Now, I can't stop thinking about her.  And about the MRI that I had about two weeks ago on my shoulder.  I am VERY claustrophobic, and when the technician told me that I would be in there for 15 minutes, I started to hyperventilate.  I look up and my head was in a tube.  No window, and I couldn't move.  I told the technician that I couldn't make it.  He said to tilt my head back and that I could see that I was at the end and could look out the window.  So I made it.

But what about Shadow?  And all of the other cats in small cages?  My shelter's cages are clean and the cats are well cared for and safe.  But to go from a home to that for months at a time?  It's unbearable to think about.

Please spread the word about Shadow.  Maybe you know someone who is retired and likes sweet cats?  Maybe someone who is older and knows what it's like to feel discarded and doesn't want a fate like that for an older cat? 

Sign up to foster.  Kittens need fosters, but so do older and sick cats.  And network.  It doesn't cost anything.

That's what you can do.

The Beginning

As a lifelong lover of animals, I struggle with the feeling that I am not doing enough to help their plight.  Abuse, abandonment, extinction, imprisonment, trafficking, inhumane killing, and so much more that it's overwhelming to think about it all.

I have a steady job, but I work in sales.  So you could say that I am passionate about my company and that I want to succeed and to have my company succeed, but I what I do for a living is not my passion.  How many people do you know who can say that their job is what they are most passionate about?  I have only met a few.  And good for them!

My goal is to get the word out and to get more people to think and to help.  Most obviously, you see things about fundraising- surgery for a hurt animal, money for a sanctuary, funds for a local shelter.  All things that I support and contribute to. 

What about what doesn't cost anything?  Signing a petition.  Participating in a local fundraiser.  Being a foster (most charities pay for food and vet expenses).  Watching a friend's pet.  Volunteering.  Spreading the word about animals in need through social media.

Some of my friends/social media contacts will groan.  Some may defriend me.  Some may have already defriended me.  But I know that a lot of you will read, enjoy, learn and most importantly help.  I am not an authority on anything.  I welcome constructive comments, contributions and suggestions of things that you'd like to read about.

With love for the animals,
Jen
mom of Ollie, Louis Philippe and Harley Ralston