**sigh** (why I'm here)

I've only been an animal activist for about 6 months...but at times I wish I could go back to being ignorant. I read so many sad things on a daily basis and since I cannot solve it all..at times it's hard not to give up. Take for instance..Akron, OH or how the Fish and Wildlife is now trapping and killing Feral Cats...and I can almost guarentee that feral cats is NOT the issue. I come home every day and just hug my 2 cats and pray for a day when the No Kill movement expands beyond the few cities it has reached.

It's really hard to be positive...so I cling to the stories I read on here and am soo appreciative to find others who care about feral/stray cats and are trying to do things to treat them humanely. For now..I will simply continue to spread the word about TNR and volunteer at the feral cat clinic..but I hope that someday, I will be able to be more active and do more so that these cats will not have to suffer for trying to live.

Katie

Katie,

I know it is hard, it is like trying to hold back the tide with a teaspoon. But you have to tell yourself that you are only human and you can only work this one section at a time. To look at the whole picture is pretty daunting, and it does become disheartening, especially considering the apathy that exists with some people when it comes to the subject of feral cats.

I read recently where in 1992 Australia decided to come up with a pill designed specifically to poison the feral cats! Thankfully, it never really got off the developing stages, but they were considering it as the only viable alternative to the problem.

Just do your best, and keep educating the uninformed- that's all you can do

Dear TNR1,

You are not alone out there although sometimes it may feel like it. I am working with a low cost Spay and Neuter organization in my small town. It is an endless problem though. I put out food for the strays and ferals around my house. There are about 5 of them. I did manage to get the female fixed. One by one I will get the rest. We can't save the world but we can try to make a little part of it better. Hang in there.

Goblin/Annette

You hang in there Katie, I feel the same some days. So I tell (yes I talk to my feral cats) the feral cats that show up, the deal is I feed you and you stay two weeks and you go and get fixed TNR. So far 2 have stayed after being fixed and another has shown up and he gets fixed Dec 4. The female feral I have had kittens last April, we kept 2 (they are inside cats now) and found a home for the other two. The person who took these kittens stays in touch with me and he plans to have them fixed this month. I offered to help with the transport of the kittens to be fixed if he needed the help.
My husband is a big supporter of me and all these cats 3 inside and now 3 outside, plus a 70 lb puppy (who loves to play with the outside cats). My husband tells me that all the abandoned cats know to come to our house because we will feed them and give them shelter. He is a cat lover and that helps alot.
Every night at 8pm it does my heart good to go outside everynight call the kitties and the dog and they all stay the night inside the garage safe (door locked) and everyone gets along
So do just what you can do and when you get the chance try and educate someone who does not know about TNR.
Clara

And 10-20 years ago there was no organization really helping ferals. Today there are national organizations to spread the awareness and try to educate the public. A lot of folks did their own personal rescue and TNR because they were compassioned and knew by practical experience that this was the right thing to do. We have a long way to go, but we have also come a long way from where we were.

Like so many other movements, it sometimes takes the next generation (or longer) to fully implement the ideas of the previous. Look at history of the women's and environmental movements. Educating our young is a big answer, but I agree this is still a "world-hunger" type issue.

Katie - like you point out, the saying "Ignorance is Bliss" is really the truth, isn't it? I remember going to anti-nuke marches, and boycotting lots of companies for their labor practices in underdeveloped countries. Yet today our orange growers in Florida now effectively use slave labor. As a matter of fact, the whole reason I studied economics in college and got a job in "finance" was to understand just how money worked - with the goal of tackling the econmoic injustices of the world. There's always something, and there's always "more of it" than you ever thought possible. It never ends, and the older you get and the more you experience and reach out there, the more you find to have problems with. Sorry!

In the end I decided not to try to fix the world, but just to find a way to live with myself. A perfect world would certainly be a boring place, for there could be no free will and no change. It would have to be a static place full of zombies. People can certainly be hateful creatures, but I've decided not to take it all on. It's just not possible. I've developed a very "eastern" outlook on "how life works," and I simply try to account for myself: to figure out how to express my caring for life and the environment in which we live. The numbers are out there, and I may need to use them in my work or my research or my writing - but I don't try to comprehend them. We try to identify what we can do, here, with the resources that we have. And we believe in being creative about it, and pushing for solutions other people don't necessarily recognize. Like Gary always says - there are a million reasons why something can't be done - you just need one why it can. And even then Gary and I don't make the logical choices all the time.

We saved Flowerbelle. We've spent easily over $1,000 on her surgeries, her vet visits and her medication. Should we have euthanized her and put that money towards spay/neuters for other ferals? I don't have the answer to that. But I am sure happy to have little Flowerbelle alive, happy, and bouncing around our home - entertaining and loving us and our other kitties.

Doing research for the SPA site is that double-edged sword. I feel like I'm helping to do something - and it helps me focus on the issues. But the problem IS overwhelming. That's why I just try to take it one day and one cat at a time.

And for more inspiration visit the Save Samoa site! There are some incredible rescue stories there.

(And we're always here for hugs).