I am thankful for how social media has allowed me to connect with like-minded individuals far and wide……. and then, ironically, how it brought me to my local network of cat rescuers.
I have met some amazing, wonderful, intelligent, compassionate people who live all over the US. We all have one common goal: helping animals, and I never have to question that. I first connected with some of these women two years ago, as an FOJ. A lot has happened in the last two years, and now many of those ladies are now admins here at IH. And that in itself begs its own Gratitude post. But I wanted to talk about how, through IH, I have been connected to a fantastic network of local cat rescuers, though ironically none of the other IH admins live in my area.
There are two women in particular I am thrilled to have met.
The first is someone that I was connected with through IH awhile back, we’ll call her K. She needed help transporting a cat somewhere; it was last minute (not enough time for IH to coordinate), but it was in my area and the admins reached out to me to ask if I could help K. In the end, she found another rescue transport that could take the cat all the way to the destination, so I never met her or the cutie that needed a ride. But we kept in touch, nonetheless.
Then a few months ago, K rescued a cat from a local AC at the last minute. Ernie had been very sick and was thankfully on the mend thanks to her (there is a very nasty strain of URI going around one of the shelters: one that can take down an otherwise healthy adult cat in a matter of days), but she needed somewhere safe and climate-controlled for him to recover after summer came on hard and fast. I offered my home, and just like that, I was fostering again after a 3-year hiatus.
Ernie is sweet, loving, gentle with my daughter and I believe he has helped me solve an ongoing mystery with my own cats’ health. He is a blessing to our family and I’m so glad that he has come to stay with us until his forever home is found.
Then, on one of my IH transports early this year I met another woman, L, who just so happens to also be ensconced in our local rescue scene. (And do you have any idea which transport I happened to meet this woman on? Patience’s, the very same transport that Birdy had been so excited to drive the day she passed away. I didn’t know Birdy personally, but that would have been the second transport that connected me to her; I do believe Birdy had a hand in me meeting L.)
L and I kept in touch and reached out to each other occasionally to network cats. And then one day she tagged me one day on a post for a local “Friends of” group for a local animal control page about some cats needing transport to the safety of a rescue. And since May, I have been doing transports, meeting more people in the local rescue scene, and feeling more connected to my local animal community than I have ever been.
I have now fostered or transported 88 animals since May of this year alone. The point of posting this number is not to pat myself on the back; it’s to show the power of making connections and how small gestures can add up. 85 animals is hardly a blip on the radar nationally. It’s not even a blip locally. But nearly every single one of those animals were hours, or minutes, from being committed to the euthanasia list. So to look in each of those 85 animals’ eyes, and know that his or her life was no longer hanging in the balance, because some very dedicated people were committed to networking, rescuing, transporting, fostering, vetting, socializing and ultimately adoption, is still a staggering realization. It makes a difference to each one of those 88.
And all because of some amazing, serendipitous connections among animal lovers on earth and in heaven. For that, I am forever grateful.
Every life you helped save allowed that many more to be rescued. You made a difference in their lives!