May’s edition of the Purr-esident’s Press is an update and a plea. Last month we talked all about kitten season and what to do if you find abandoned littles. This month, I want to talk about the pounding that rescues take during this time. This year has already been super busy. We went from 12 cats to 150 in a little less than 3 weeks’ time. If you were to find kittens now, you would be very hard pressed to find a rescue able to take them in.
Although we would love to save them all, we only have so many fosters to house these babies and only so much money to be able to get them vetted and available for adoption. Even if we have people call us now saying they are willing to foster, we are still having to turn them away because our funds will not support anymore until we get a large group adopted.
As a rescue, we do get an advantage of a small discount through many spay/neuter clinics. We also do all our own shots (minus rabies), microchipping and deworming in house. This saves a great deal of money on the vetting these babies need which we pass on to our adopters. I’m not going to tell you that there aren’t rescues out there that will jack up their prices to make a hefty profit because I’m sure there are. We do not do that. We charge about $25 more then we spend on each cat. This is to help fund any medical needs that we may have. Just like with human babies, kittens can get sick easily. Most of the time we can handle the situation with antibiotics we keep in the rescue. Sometimes, it is beyond our scope and they must see a vet. One of those appointment can cost us hundreds of dollars. We’ve even had a few that cost us thousands, and yet, we still charge the same fee.
We rely heavily on the kind hearted that donate money and supplies to keep us running. Litter and dry kitten food are always in demand this time of year. 150 kittens use a LOT of litter. We will be asking for these supplies till the end of kitten season which should be late fall. So, if you are grabbing food or litter for your personal kitties, please grab one more for us!
All donations are a charitable write-off on your taxes and can be left at the Queen Creek PetSmart or you can contact us, and someone will be happy to pick it up.
You will also see information in this newsletter about the Fund the Shelter program we are a part of. It is super easy to set up and can help us greatly. There are other ways you can send us some money without dishing it out yourselves! Your local grocery store savings cards have a way to add a charity and they will send a portion of what you spend to us. Amazon also offers this. You go to smile.amazon.com and sign in as usual and then set us for your charity. Every time you shop through your smile account (which should be always – there’s no difference to you in the accounts) they send us a portion. Many more companies are doing this as well. If you work for a corporation, many offer employees the chance to give back. Check into it. If you are looking for us in their list of charities, we will show as Arizona Center for Animal Rescue and Education.
Our fist group of kittens will be showing their cute faces at adoption events starting May 4th and more will come every week. We are looking at between 10 and 20 new adoptees each week so there will be plenty to choose from! If you are looking for a new furry friend, NOW is the time!
And of course, I don’t want to leave out our barking babies. Because kitten season rules us this time of year, we tend to not mention our pups as much. We are in desperate need of dog fosters, so if you are interested, we REALLY would love to have you on board. If you’re looking for a tail wagging buddy to join your family, we have some great pups in rescue right now and more coming! Keep an eye out!
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