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Written by Jimmy Frost
There are times when I have to stop myself from rescuing all the cats on the planet. Every time I visit one of the shelters that I do web-work for, I invariably see a cute cat or kitten that would love for me to take it home and boy I'd love to have another one but then, I think back to the last cat I brought home and the brouhaha the arrival caused with my Mrs. and I have to throw the brakes on.
At times I'll be driving along a piece of rural highway and see a sign that says "FREE KITTENS". My mind starts churning that something awful is going to happen to those poor kittens if they're not adopted our correctly to someone who will care for them properly with shots, spaying and neutering. I belong to a group that would do all of that. They would get them adopted out into good homes and follow up on their condition.
Then I stop and think about how I would get them home, and what if they have an infectious disease that could be passed to Zoey, Bari or both? I have to ask myself if I'm becoming so wrapped up in rescuing cats, that I'm missing the forest and slamming into the trees. It’s bad enough to get yourself into a mess, but dragging your cats into one, would be more then stupid, it's stupid AND selfish.
If on my way home, I approach Hampton Roads from the Southwest, the Suffolk Animal Control Shelter is close by. There have been times when I've visited them and quite literally cleaned them out of cats. There wasn't one left in the building and they were nice enough to loan me extra carriers. Although I took more than I should have, without checking first with our fosters to see if they had room to take them in, I just couldn’t help myself. Thinking back, that was a little rude, but the fosters forgave me... eventually! The up-side was, of all the cats I took out of there, each one found a good home.
Then there is the web-work I do. Since I'm away from home so much, the best thing I can do for my group is build and maintain their website. That site has turned from a nice little "presence" on the Internet into a MONSTER! Over twenty pages, pictures, information, graphics and useful downloads.
I'm proud of this accomplishment, but there are other worthy groups that need help and try as I may, I just can't help them all. I've got three sites now, one isn't finished, one needs to be re-sized and with school getting ready to start up, Asphalt Adventures needs some updating. Oh, did I mention that I also drive about 2,700 to 3,100 miles every week and have to care for my two cats Zoey and Bari?
I now am a featured writer for TheCatSite.com and another online publication. On Sundays I'm on a radio talk show out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and I've got weekly show-prep to do so I can be prepared for the questions that I get asked about cat rescue. And yes, I have laundry, and many other chores that I need to do plus maintain the truck. At night when I am parked with kittens purring by my side, I run research for all the websites I have going at the moment.
When I get home, there's a Honey-Do list with my name all over it and it's filled with things I probably shouldn't be messing with, especially when these tasks involve power-tools, electricity or hydraulics.
Add to this that my Mrs. still wants me to "act" like a husband and take her to see a Broadway show; we saw "CATS" of course. We go to dinner, see movies and during the summer months, she wants me to take her on the theme-park death-march. She loves those places, I could do without them.
Ever since I got that little calico/tortie fur ball I named Zoey, my life has taken a 180-degree turn into the surreal. Events have occurred that I never thought probable, let alone possible. There are times I look over at Zoey and ask her, "Zo-Zo, what have you gotten me into?"
What I have to learn now, is how to say "no". I hate to say it, especially when I realize that what I'm being asked to do is useful, helpful and it might get one more cat into a good home, or change someone's mind about their attitude about cats. I'll do whatever I can, but there are only 24 hours in a day and during this last hour of my day, I'm preparing for what lies ahead.
You see, right now, I'm staging in Georgia with many other trucks carrying food, rolls of plastic, dry ice and other supplies for the wake of Hurricane Frances. My plate is full and I have my limits. I cannot take on anything else. Being at my limit now that's a hard piece of reality to take. After all, shouldn’t I be Superman?
At night when I am parked at a rest stop. I read over the internet forum boards. I've noticed that a lot of people are operating the same way. Full throttle with little or no time left for them. For example, one post talked about a woman who has a hundred cats. I have to ask myself about the quality of life for the cats, so too with the person who takes on more than they can effectively handle. What about the quality of their life, the quality of their work? If the cats are suffering from being with to many of their kind, doesn't it stand to reason that people also suffer from too many things to do all at once? The answer is yes, we do.
Sure, I hope that every adoption our group has great results in a good feline/human match, but another thing I secretly hope for is that the adopter will recognize the great need for homes and join in the effort in whatever way they can. It seems that everyone I know, and everyone I've ever heard of who is even remotely involved in animal rescue is working at full capacity all the time. And there is still a need for more help and more people to care because those who do are in desperate need of help. Lord Knows I am.
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