[Suzz]

Hi everyone... this one's for my mom...

Can anyone tell me how to get her licensed, sanctioned or what have you as a cat sanctuary? We are in NC, and she has nearly maxxed out everything on taking care of not only the animals I've written about below... but also any injured or hungry stray that happens by or that she gets called about. I'm trying to figure out a way to get her some help, because it isn't at all cheap. She's afraid that it is going to be too restrictive on her or she is going to get in trouble with her town... but I don't know and can't really seem to find any good answers.

For the rundown on her kitties keep reading...

In 1999, just after Hurricane Floyd hit our area, my mom was on her way to work one morning and spotted a bedraggled cat and kitten near the river. She felt bad for them and left them some scraps from her breakfast. When she got to the office she contacted the Humane Society to let them know, and was told something like they could trap them, but due to the storm and all the displaced pets, they had nowhere for them.

At the time she was cat sitting my sister's cat while sis was stationed overseas. She thought about it all day and could not stand the thought of it all, so she decided to open her home to them. She called the HS back, had the mama and baby trapped, took them to the vet and assimilated them into her home. When the baby was old enough to be fixed, Mom took her to the vet to be spayed. That's when they discovered that she was a he and his testicles had never dropped. So the vet had to correct that problem and then neuter the kitten.

So began the saga...

Over the next 5 years she managed to collect 15 more kitties, who were all strays or abandoned who came to her injured, sick, abused, starved... you name it.

One had been hit by a car and one of her neighbors called her and told her. She found him, rushed him to the vet, and other than a limp and what seems to be arthritis, is in good health now.

Five came to her by way of the mama kitty showing up on Mom's front porch out of the blue just scant hours before she gave birth. Again, the local shelters gave her no hope of adoptions, so she took care of the cat and her kittens. Mom still has the kittens, though the mama died 3 years ago a few days before Christmas.

Two of her cats are FIV? (feline aids) positive, and arrived on her doorstep in that condition... when they arrived they were healthy other than that diagnosis, so she had a small barn built with kitty doors and fenced runs for each of them. Six years later they are both still relatively healthy other than allergies that require almost daily meds.

A year or so before Mom retired the duplex across the street from her office burned. The tenants had been evicted a day or so before and apparently had left their cat. Mom arrived at work one morning to find a singed kitty, pitifully sitting on the charred porch of the duplex. You guessed it... that kitty was home with her later that day.

Another came to her one night while I was there. We heard a horrible commotion outside and so Mom opened the side porch door to see what was going on. We still don't know what was going on, but a black and white streak shot into the house through the music room, into the dining room and tried to go up the wall, but managed to jump a chair and perched on top of the china cabinet. From my vantage point in the dining room, it was like watching the cat in a Pepe´ Le Pew cartoon. The only warning I had was Mom's shouted "Cat in the house!" as it shot between her legs when she opened the door.

She took in another 3 when one of her neighbors died and the heirs just let the mama and her 2 half grown kittens out of the house to fend for themselves. We guess the cat and kittens were living in the barn behind their owner's home until it caught fire one night and one of the firemen, on the recommendation of another neighbor, came over and asked Mom could she come get them. So she did... A few months after they came to her, the mother began throwing up her food. After umteen trips to the vet with various tests and x-rays, and 2nd and 3rd opinions, it was discovered that her sternum was cracked. She still has to be monitored to keep her from eating too much and losing her food. Mom lost the two kittens summer before last to leukemia.

She acquired a black kitty who simply began showing up at dinner time each night. He was with her for nearly a year before he was murdered. Mom was napping one day when her next door neighbor called her and told her that the kids had been outside and seen a boy come by and shoot an arrow at one Mom's cat. Mom found him still with the arrow in him and though she took off to the vet's office while her ndn called him to let him know she was on the way, there was nothing to be done for him.

Her latest addition came to her about 2 years ago after his owners just left him to his own devices when they moved. He started sneaking up to Mom's to get food but was soon adopted in.

The last creature under the gat granny's protection is a dog... yep a dog. How did this happen you ask? Well, when I had a sweet dog show up at my door several years ago, I fed her. Turns out she was about to have puppies, which she proceeded to do under my house, under my bedroom! We came home from a trip to Cali to find mama and 7 puppies all happily settled in. Interestingly enough the mama was white with black spots, the male most frequently seen in the are was a neighbor's full blooded black lab,so we had 6 white, black. Or combo puppies... and one brown puppy with not a spot of black or white on her. We fenced in a small area for the puppies once they became mobile (read Houdini) and Mom would come over to check on them for us while we were at work. As they reached adoption age she was also helping by meeting prospective parents during the day. One day when she went to check on them everyone was barking and frolicking about except the brown puppy. She wasn't responding really to anything going on around her and when Mom picked her up she was limp. Off to the vet and days later home with an astronomical vet bill for parvo. She's not left Mom's side since... and is still all brown, lean like... well not anything like the puppy we kept who is her lab.


She is meticulous about her record keeping for each animal... meds, shots, spay and neuter records. She is specific about what she'll feed them, only uses filtered water, is never late with check ups, and will call the vet at the first sign of sniffles.

She has done all this basically without help, but I know it isn't easy... anyone have any ideas of how she can get some help?

[xphelper]

May God bless her for her efforts! We have a lady in our area that sounds just like your mom. Somehow, she has found a few volunteers to help her in caring for the animals. She also has some financial support from a "circle of friends" that contribute small donations when they can. I first found out about her work via email from my friend. This email contained an invitation to an open house and auction of her own articles to help her pay some bills that were behind. I attended and gave her $100.00 towards her winter heating bills. Now, she sends a status letter once a year (directly to me and others) but what's really neat is that she has found a way for people to donate directly to the utilities on her behalf... that way you know for sure where the money is going. Its sort of like designating your money to a specific charity when you give to the United Way. Now, I know this rambling doesn't identify any specific ways to help her but mabye you can get some of your own ideas from reading it.

[oneguyinohio]

One suggestion would be for you to look into obtaining a nonprofit status from the IRS as an animal shelter. That might allow for some tax deductible contributions. I don't know the specifics in your area as far as restrictions for number of animals that are allowed, but those are some zoning laws that you might want to look up and get information about.

There is a group called petsitters international that you can find at the link below, that might be able to put you in contact with others who have done something similar to what you are doing. They are based out of King, NC. A great bunch of people.

Home

They do not specifically focus on shelters, but may know of people doing very similar things.