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At a conference this year, we learned to focus on fostering rather than sheltering. We agreed 100% and we’re fired up!
Thank goodness! Two weeks later, COVID-19 hit. We’re fostering out friendly cats to cut down on staff time at the sanctuary. Our few feral cats who didn’t tame as kittens, our old, and our hospice cats will stay here.
Staff who worked adoption and outreach events are out of work. We’re still paying them.
You ask why our staff hasn’t filed for unemployment. We opted out of unemployment fees to save money. In the long run, this move will benefit us.
Most municipal shelters have stopped intake. Not us! Volunteers are jumping up and down to foster pregnant cats, mom cats with kittens, motherless kittens, bottle babies, and friendly adults! Many people want to shelter-in-place with a cat, so adoptions are going great. We’re showing cats on Zoom and FaceTime, and providing safe, non-contact deliveries.
We’re putting in supplies for new rescue kittens, even with higher prices.
Fewer resident cats = less staff time = less payroll, right? WRONG! Our staff can’t live without a job. We’ll return to normal, and we want THIS staff back, not a new staff. And not paying them is downright wrong. Thundering Paws is a community, without expendable members.
Fostering out four cats, adopting out two adults, and moving a cat or two around has opened up a room, which gives us the space to do much needed repairs. Now all we need is money.
Higher prices for supplies, more fosters with more moms and kittens, the beginning of kitten season, the space to repair the structure—we need donations, please!