First of all, you ARE making a difference. Every animal you pull, or adopt out, or send to rescue, or transport out, appreciates the difference you've made. I know it's hard when the numbers are overwhelming, but one person, or one shelter, is not going to solve the region-wide problem. I agree with you that it's super hard and often overwhelming, and I do suggest that you step back and make sure you are working within your Capacity for Care (C4C). There's a lot of work that's been done on C4C that suggests not only does it help keep you sane, it makes sure you are operating both efficiently and humanely. The last thing you or anybody else wants to do is get in over their heads and become a rescue in need of rescuing (you said shelter, but the words work better as rescue). If you can, allocate resources to community education, TNR, and low-cost spay/neuter. We will not see the end of this problem until the average Joe and Jane know the benefits of not allowing their pets to breed randomly, and can easily access ways to prevent it. TNR programs do help with the influx of kittens, as many are born to free-roaming if not totally feral cats. We as shelters and rescues have to do more than simply clean up the mess; we owe it to the animals to be part of the solution by stopping the mess from happening to begin with.
You may also want to look into ways to curb compassion fatigue. It can be really hard when you don't see a lot of good outcomes locally to keep believing in the cause, but you have to--and you have to stay sane and safe in order to keep helping animals. A lot of these things I'm referencing (C4C, community education, TNR programs) are things that you don't need to build from the ground up--no need to reinvent the wheel. The HSUS website as well as Maddie's University (I'm betting) have info on these things and how to implement them
I also want to let you know that I feel your pain. Due to a family situation, we are going to have to temporarily reduce our foster numbers, and I feel guilty about it. I feel like I'm letting my kittens down, and it's true, there may be more that face euthanasia because I'm not there to take them. But for the ones I DO take, I make all the difference in the world--it's not a problem that I am capable of solving myself; there are too many kittens and I would be unwise, to say the least, to try to take them all. I do what I can. You do what you can, and so does your staff. It takes the entire community to solve these issues. One person alone can do a lot, but they can't do it all. We all need support, whether it be emotional or financial, and we all need each other. This problem of thousands of pets winding up in shelters didn't start because of Just One Person, and it's not going to be solved that way either.
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