So, um, I have this cat?
Let me tell you a little something about my cat. She wasn't technically a rescue. Technically, she was given to me by a nice lady who had a lot of kittens all at once.
When I picked up my cat, my friend Marilyn took me aside and said, "I think you need to take this kitten to the vet."
I took her to the vet. She was not, as I had been told, 8 weeks old. She was four. She weighed about a pound. Her eyes were infected, she had a lung infection, and she had ear mites. The vet didn't think she would make it.
But she did. We got lucky. It was expensive, it was kind of traumatizing for everyone involved, but we pulled her through thanks to a very patient vet staff and persistence of her human family. Now she's 8 years old and weighs 14 pounds. Whenever someone exclaims "That cat is huge!" I remember holding her in the palm of my hand, and trying to give her tiny eyedropper of medication.
I sometimes wonder what happened to her littermates. If they made it. I bet some of them didn't, and all because a very nice, well meaning lady didn't have her pets spayed and neutered.
Animal rescues are nearly always operating on a shoestring. They depend on donations, volunteers, and the efforts of the people who live in their communities and who want to make sure that animals are cared for and loved.
You know who can help? You can!
You can go here: http://www.aspca.org/
You can also go here: https://www.thehungersite.com/store/ars/site?3 (When you buy things here? They donate a portion of the sales to food for shelters and such)
If you want, you can also go here: http://www.cochecovalleyhumanesoc.org/ (They're local to me and they do good work.)
But one of the best things you can do, if you can't or don't want to donate money or time? Be a responsible pet owner. Spay and neuter your pets!
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