Dear Friends and Animal Lovers
Seasons Greetings from Love ‘n’ Care Pet Sanctuary (LCPS).
We are writing to you to wish you a joyous and blessed Holiday
Season and to ask again for your support. It is this
time of year that we reflect on all that we are grateful for.
At this time we want to thank you for your past generosity and
loving support. It is also a time of giving. The cats
and kittens of LCPS need you now more than ever. We know
times are tough, so every donation of any size is appreciated more
than you’ll ever know. We hope & trust that 2012 will be a
good year for you & a better year for us.
10 Year Anniversary
We have been in business for 10 years
now! We currently have 43 cats and kittens and we are at
capacity. We are suffering from the same trap as most
no-kill animal shelters. The senior, semi-socialized, and
feral cats are occupying places and preventing us from taking in
new, more adoptable cats and kittens. We have many
wonderful, adoptable cats, but the economy is preventing people
from adopting. If you know of anyone wanting an older
kitten, young cat, middle aged cat, or senior cat please send them
to us and/or direct them to view our available cats on our website
at www.lcps.petfinder.com.
Community Service
In January we received notification that a
trailer belonging to a senior citizen living up the road from us
had burned down and that a number of feral cats that he had been
feeding had been abandoned and were starving. After some
detective work we found out where he was living and that he was
still going to his property to feed the cats on a regular basis,
but the cats were also annoying the neighbors. His son
managed to trap 6 cats and brought them to us. One was badly
injured and bleeding and was rushed to the vet where we were told
that his injuries were so extensive that it would cost $5,000 to
$8,000 to restore him to health so he was euthanized.
Another cat had a lacerated mouth that was discovered when she was
taken to the Humane Society to be spayed. Katrin from
AnimalKind graciously took her in saying that she was better
equipped to deal with the daily medication and care. Two of
the cats are very old and one was an older kitten that had lost
most of her hair due to stress. (It has since grown back.)
They’ve all been spayed and neutered thanks to help from
AnimalKind, but they are not at all friendly so we have them in
comfortable cages and they are warm with full bellies. If
you know of anyone with a comfortable, warm barn who would be
willing to provide a home for them please let us know. When
it warms up in the spring we would love to move them to a barn or
a feral cat colony where they would be fed regularly and also have
shelter from inclement weather.
Adoptions
Unfortunately, our adoption rate this year is the
worst in our 10 years. We have only adopted 5 kittens & 7
cats so far, which is 23% of our 2008 rate, our best year when we
adopted 52 total (40 kittens, 11 cats, and 1 dog). Each year
of the recession our adoptions have diminished – 35 total in 2009
and 26 total in 2010. We need to up the adoptions so we will
have room next spring when kitten season starts. All our
foster homes are also at capacity. We believe our slow adoption
rate is because of the huge number of available “free” kittens,
the high cost of fuel, the uncertainty of the economy, & the lower
disposable income of our Greene Country residents. We pray
for an improvement in 2012.
Hurricane Irene
Thanks to a grant we received from the
Petfinder Foundation in 2009 for a 5000 watt generator we were
able to keep the 3 sump pumps in our basement going for the
duration of the storm. They were pumping the water out as
fast as it came in and we didn’t even get wet inside! We had
extra gasoline on hand so we didn’t actually run out until the
power came back on after 27.5 hours. Thankfully we had no
damage at all from the hurricane! We will be eternally
grateful for that!
Bartonella
In 2010 we learned about a new contagious disease
afflicting cats. It is called Bartonella and two of the many
outward signs of it are red and sore gums and throat causing
problems with eating and red and sore eyes. One of our cats,
Dusty, had a chronic eye problem since she was a kitten and no
medicine that was prescribed ever corrected it. When tested
for Bartonella she was positive and was put on a special medicine
for 21 days that cured the problem permanently! The test is
expensive, $65, but now that we know about it we need to test any
new cats for it before admitting them. Unfortunately, this
increases our standard operating costs.
We Need Your Help.
If you would like to help us as a
volunteer to provide a foster home, set up a feral cat colony,
assist with transportation to spay/neuter clinics &/or
veterinarians, help to clean the shelter, help to socialize the
cats, write a newsletter, write for grants, write articles for the
media, or set up fund raising events please call us. We are
very under staffed and can use all the help we can get.
Fund Raising
This year we were again approved for both the
Capital Region Federal Campaign of the United Way & the Capital
Region State Employees Federated Appeal (SEFA). We received
a grant for LCPS from the Heart of Catskill Association & Catskill
Chamber of Commerce from the “Cat’n Around Catskill” Cats Meow
Auction & Gala – thank you Linda Overbaugh. The Twin
Counties Cultural Fund & the Greene County Council on the Arts has
again awarded us a grant for a theater arts project & performance
spearheaded by our sponsored Project Director & Artist, Margo
Muller – thank you Colette Lemmon.
Please Donate
If you can send us a donation of any amount,
it will be very gratefully received & will be put to good use as
we have no overhead expenses. All donations are 100% tax
deductible. Our best year for donations was 2009 with
$15,302. This year so far we have only received $6,820 –
only 44.5% – so we are really hurting as our population is similar
and the costs only go up. Please make your checks payable to
Love ‘n’ Care Pet Sanctuary, Inc. and mail them to 7080 Route 81,
East Durham, NY 12423. Please see if your employer provides
matching contributions as this would help us a lot too.
I know that I am being bombarded more than once daily to donate to
some worthy cause and I don’t want to annoy you with this request,
but our coffers are bare and we are desperate. We want to
keep our doors open to continue caring for our cats and serving
the community. Every shelter in the area is full so we have
no way to close as there is nowhere to send our cats. The
State, County, and Town do not help us at all. Our local
animal control officer deals only with dogs and does nothing to
help cats.
God bless your generosity & best wishes for a happy, healthy &
prosperous New Year.
Carol Farren, President & Treasurer
Carl Hegney, Cat Sitter
Kim Burger, Cat Sitter
Love ‘n’ Care Pet Sanctuary, Inc.
KEEP YOUR PETS SAFE DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON (Compliments
of NY City Animal Care & Control)
DO NOT:
Feed them table scraps – scraps can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and
stomach pain.
Feed them candy and chocolate – these can be very toxic and even
fatal.
Give them turkey bones, which can splinter, cause blockages, and
intestinal damage.
Ignore them during the busy holiday season – may lead to
behavioral problems.
Give them tinsel, ribbons, or other decorations to play with – can
cause intestinal blockages which can be fatal.
Give a pet as a gift – the recipient may not want a pet or it
might not be a good match.
DO:
Buy them a gift. Specially made dog/cat toys and treats work
best.
Shower them with love and attention by playing with them and
taking dogs for a long walk on a leash.
Buy a dog license, microchip, and a new collar to keep them
identified in case they get lost.
Consider adopting them a playmate once the holiday season is over.
Make it a family event.
Keep them inside and secure from open doors, crowds, and
unfamiliar people during holiday get togethers.
Try to stick to your pet’s regular routine and schedule to lower
their stress level.
Sincerely,
Carol E. Farren, President and Treasurer
Love ‘n’ Care Pet Sanctuary, Inc.
7080 Route 81
East Durham, NY 12423-1159
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