STRIPED BEAUTY
In case you don't know, we run a small stray cat shelter in the first floor of our duplex. We began in 2000 when we rescued a cat named Earl. We thought we could get him veterinary care and find him a home, but it turned out that he had feline AIDS and feline leukemia. The vet I worked for at the time told us to have Earl destroyed. We found a shelter by the coast just for Earl and our other double-positive cats, but her shelter closed last year.
This cat pictured is our newest stray. We have not had the time nor money to take him into our shelter. This is what he looked like a few months ago. He disappeared for a while, then came back.
This is what he looks like now. He's lost a lot of weight, and I can see his ribs. The first picture was taken through our second floor window, because he was terrified of people and I could not get near him.
In this photo, I'm sitting right in front of him. He's letting me get close because he's starving and I have wet food for him. What happens with AIDS infected cats is they get mouth ulcers, and it becomes terribly painful to eat dry food. So he has to wait for me to bring him wet food every day.
But now, the other, stronger neighbor's cats are chasing him away because he's weak. I only see him every few days. Our neighbor's young daughter is begging me to trap him and take him into our shelter. But we just don't have the money yet. I don't want him to die in the meantime.
I will repeat this message, I think all animal shelters in the United States should become stray-only, like they used to be in the early 1900s. There are too many people using shelters as a drive-through for pets that they don't want anymore. We need to rescue our truly homeless pets first. Please see my Gray Stray blog for more info.
This is why I am thinking of trying to get a nonprofit status for our shelter. We're leaving out high-quality dry food all day just to have the neighbor's cats eat it, and it's costing us a fortune. My friend told me I could probably just put out a donation can in stores. Does anyone know the legalities of this sort of thing? Any ideas would be greatly apprecieated.
PEACE! ;)
