Fostering Saves Lives

 Meet Meep.  She is the poster child for why animal fostering is so important.

Upper Respiratory Infections (URIs) tend to thrive in shelters.  A URI to a healthy adult cat is like a cold; some are worse than others, but rarely fatal.  To a kitten, however, a URI is bad news.  For Meep it meant losing most of the vision in one eye, and stunted growth.  She weighs less than 2 pounds at 7 months of age.

Meep was special to all the workers and volunteers at The Marshmallow Foundation.  And when I started volunteering there she won my heart too.  Meep is the sloth of the kitten world - she doesn't move very fast, and would prefer to sleep upside down in the crook of someone's arm when possible.  I think she's at least part Ragdoll, which accounts for why she goes limp when picked up, although she doesn't have the characteristic blue eyes of a Ragdoll.

I wanted very badly to adopt Meep, but had already pushed the boundaries by adopting Maggie and Leo when still (temporarily) living with my brother and sister-in-law.  Would Meep survive until I moved into my forever home?  Poor Yunger didn't make it through the latest outbreak of URI, and he was much healthier than Meep to begin with.

Enter Cassi, a full-time employee at The Marshmallow Foundation.  Cassi is one of those unsung heroes that you don't hear much about because she prefers it that way.  When an animal has to be put down, Cassi is the one holding them until they pass. When Yunger was failing, Cassi was the one that reached out to try and find a rescue group that could help him.

Cassi knew that Meep wouldn't make it if she had to continue living at the shelter.  Her immune system was too compromised by endless rounds of antibiotics and illness.  The foster families were already full, so Cassi reached out to her mother for help.  If Meep were to have a fighting chance, she needed a quiet, safe environment with lots of tender loving care.  Cassi's Mom took Meep in with no questions asked, and provided me with regular updates on her progress.

One day while chatting with Cassi, I asked where her Mom lived.  Knowing that I probably wouldn't know where it was, Cassi told me it was a gravel road off of Highway 54 just outside of Detroit Lakes.  In one of those rare moments of synchronicity, I laughed and said that my new home was on that very same road.  Cassi lit up - her Mom and I were neighbors!

I'll be moving in to my new home very soon, and Meep will move in shortly after that.  I'll have to retrain her thinking a bit, since she's apparently a Vikings fan, but nobody's perfect.

Yes, I'm a Crazy Cat Lady (and Proud of It)

We all know the stereotype - single, middle aged, female with cats.  The title of crazy cat lady is not meant to flatter; the emphasis is usually on the adjective "crazy".

I am single, of a certain age, and I do have two cats that I adopted from The Marshmallow Foundation in Detroit Lakes.  What makes me crazy is that I volunteer my time at the very same shelter!

Friends tell me that they don't understand how I can do it.  "It's so sad", they say.

And sometimes it is.  Today was one of those days.  Yunger, one of the more affectionate cats, has been sick for several weeks with what was thought to be an upper respiratory infection, which is very common in shelter cats and equivelent to the common cold.  He's been to the Vet a couple of times and been treated with antibiotics with no improvement.  He has lost a lot of weight, and can no longer stand or sit.  Still, when I opened the door to his kennel, he greeted me with a virtually silent meow, and struggled to find his balance long enough to put his paws on my chest to be picked up.  I held him several times today, walking around the room petting him, scratching him behind the ears and telling him what a good cat he was.  He would push his nose against my cheek telling me that he heard me.

But comforting a dying cat isn't the really sad part.  Knowing that if the foundation had more donations, Yunger would be in the hospital right now getting fluids, medication, and the necessary diagnostic tests is the truly tragic story.  The wonderful employees and volunteers are even now trying to find transport for Yunger to the Twin Cities, which is the closest veterinary clinic found that would offer no cost or low cost emergency treatment.

Yes, today was a sad day.  But knowing that I was there to offer a little kindness to one of God's precious creatures made my decision to volunteer at the animal shelter an easy one.

**Happy Update:  Yunger made it to Gregory's Gift of Hope, in New Richmond, WI  and is in the arms of caring humans who have the funds to help him.  He's not out of the woods, and his vet bill for one night is already $1200.  If you'd like to donate,  they accept Paypal.