I'm usually not the one to start a witch fest, but I'm honestly at the end of my rope with people expecting someone else to solve every cat problem in this area.
A little context first.
We own a cat sanctuary. We very clearly state that we are a sanctuary, NOT a rescue.
We are in an area where, frankly, very little is being done for cats.
Animal Control here is overwhelmed and, from what we've experienced, doesn't have the capacity or resources to do much about the situation.
There is one rescue that you're lucky if they call you back, and they never seem to be present at local events.
There is also a very small pet food bank that offers up to $75 toward veterinary bills. They held an event several months ago, and since then, the only things I've seen are posts about their TNR van-which is great, except there has been absolutely no information about how anyone can actually access TNR through it-and posts trying to sell leftover shirts from that event. Those posts aren't even recent. They're several weeks old.
We do have some feral colony feeders, and I am genuinely grateful for them, even though I don't personally know who they are. I'm just told they exist.
That's the reality here.
Hell, it took me three days-and a kitten who ultimately died-to find someone who could teach me how to tube-feed her. The closest emergency vet is an hour away. As far as I know, TNR simply does not exist here on the scale that is actually needed.
So excuse me if I sound frustrated, but I don't want another person's problems dumped on me.
I am not the person to call because a cat followed you into your house and now you want someone else to take responsibility for it (I just got off the phone with this person).
We cannot take every cat that someone decides they don't want to deal with.
We don't need more than 20 cats in our two-bedroom home. And we don't have easy, healthy cats. Our cats have special needs. That's who we built this sanctuary for.
We built it for the cats who have nowhere else to go-the chronically ill, behaviorally challenged, seniors, and cats who simply don't fit into the traditional rescue/adoption model.
That doesn't mean I don't care about the healthy cats people call about every single day.
I do.
I want them to have somewhere safe to go, too. I hate saying no. But until someone steps up to help build the infrastructure this community desperately needs-and until we're able to get an actual building-we simply cannot keep absorbing cats.
And that's the part that seems to be getting lost.
We're trying. We're fundraising. We're trying to get our name out there. We're trying to educate people. We're trying to build something that can eventually help more cats.
But we're only one year old, and nobody seems to know who we are until they need somewhere to place a cat.
We don't get donations.
We're an Illinois nonprofit corporation, but we're not a 501(c)(3), which severely limits what we're able to do in terms of grants and other funding opportunities. We simply don't have the money for a nonprofit status right now.
We're also a one-income household. Every available dollar and virtually every bit of our time goes toward the cats. We love them. They're our family. We would do anything we reasonably can for them.
But we're tapped out.
So no, we cannot be the answer every time someone finds a cat.
And honestly, I'm tired of feeling guilty for saying that.
I don't know exactly what I'm expecting anyone to say here. Maybe I just needed to say it somewhere where people actually understand what it's like to be the person everyone thinks should be able to magically fix the problem.
So if you made it this far, thank you for listening.
#CaseManagement*------------------------------
Bre Hoffman (they/m)
Special Little Whiskers Sanctuary Decatur IL
SpecialLittleWhiskersKittenRescue.com
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