Homer's Heroes for WV Kitties!
49 cats and kittens in West Virginia are in need of immediate rescue!
Their human caregiver is elderly and going to a nursing home next week.
Without our help, these loving, well-socialized, and healthy cats will
be euthanized by animal control.
The good news: We've found no-kill shelters in TN, PA, IL, GA, and NC to take at least half of them! Now we need your help! These no-kills won't be able to take the kitties without some help to offset vetting costs. (It's kitten season, and these shelters are overwhelmed as it is.)
Homer's Heroes to the rescue! Anything you can spare is desperately needed, and will help save a life. I will personally collect all funds and distribute them to the shelters in proportion to the number of cats each is taking. These are all organizations I've personally worked with in the past, and can personally vouch for. :)
Most of us are the proud guardians of rescue cats--cats who wouldn' be alive to enrich our lives if not for the kindness of rescuers. These 49 cats are just like our own kitties, except that they're still in need of help. Be a Homer's Hero--donate and help save a life today!
The good news: We've found no-kill shelters in TN, PA, IL, GA, and NC to take at least half of them! Now we need your help! These no-kills won't be able to take the kitties without some help to offset vetting costs. (It's kitten season, and these shelters are overwhelmed as it is.)
Homer's Heroes to the rescue! Anything you can spare is desperately needed, and will help save a life. I will personally collect all funds and distribute them to the shelters in proportion to the number of cats each is taking. These are all organizations I've personally worked with in the past, and can personally vouch for. :)
Most of us are the proud guardians of rescue cats--cats who wouldn' be alive to enrich our lives if not for the kindness of rescuers. These 49 cats are just like our own kitties, except that they're still in need of help. Be a Homer's Hero--donate and help save a life today!
UPDATE: Thank you so much to everybody who's donated! We now have places for all
but 15 cats--and, thanks to your generosity, we're hopeful that we'll
soon have places for those kitties too. Summer is an overwhelming time
for most shelters (it's kitten season!), so the more we can do to help
those shelters out with intake and care costs, the likelier it is that
they'll be able to take the remaining cats. So keep the donations
coming, keep helping us spread the word, and than you for being one of
Homer's Heroes!
August 5th UPDATE: Great news! We've found a no-kill shelter for the 15 remaining newborn kittens and cats in West Virginia who are in danger of being euthanized by the end of the week.
Now we just need a bit more to pay for transportation to New Jersey and to cover the shelter's initial vetting costs. Any help you can give us in getting the word out will help us save these final few kittens and cats.
You've all been so incredibly generous already. The original 49 ballooned up to 65 cats and kittens--and, THANKS TO YOU, all but these remaining 15 have been safely transported to no-kill shelters.
Anything at all you can spare to help us get these last 15 to safety will help us save their lives. Thank you for being #HomersHeroes! From the bottom of my heart, I can't begin to thank you enough
August 12th UPDATE: Even better news!
" Good news! The rescue effort was successful, and not one of the 65 cats (we started with 49, but it's kitten season!) with was left behind. :) This would not have been possible without your incredible generosity. On behalf of all these kitties--and from the bottom of my own heart--I thank you!
Volunteers worked in relay teams this past weekend to transport the cats from West Virginia to the no-kill shelters in 6 different states who were able to take them. Those shelters include:
Seer Farms in Jackson, NJ
www.seerfarms.org
Forever Home Feline Ranch in Springfield, IL
www.felineranch.org
the Animal Service League in Rochester, NY
www.animalserviceleagueny.org
Good Mews in Atlanta, GA
www.goodmews.org
And, last but not least, the rescue group who first alerted me to this situation and really spear-headed this drive:
Kitty's PURRsuit of Happiness in Spring Branch, TX
www.kittyspurrsuitofhappiness.org
Overall, the cats were in worse shape than we'd hoped, but better shape than might have been expected. 4 of the newborns were simply too sick and malnourished to survive more than a few days after transport, which broke our hearts. But the other 12 survived, and I'm told that at least 3 pregnant mamas-to-be are due to have kittens any day now.
Mostly the cats were filthy and hungry, but with plenty of TLC from the rescues that took them, life is already MUCH better for them! Many are also being treated for minor URIs and are expected to be just fine.
I've heard from each of the shelters individually that all of these cats are incredibly sweet and loving--little purr machines who are just so grateful to finally be clean and well fed, and don't know how to thank their rescuers enough. :)
They should be ready for forever homes soon--I encourage you to check in with the shelters listed above if you're interested in adopting!
I've done a lot of fundraising and worked on many rescue efforts in the past, but I've never undertaken something quite like this. Most days, I tried to resign myself to the reality that we likely wouldn't be able to save all the cats, and that if we could save even half, that would still be important work accomplished.
That not a single cat was left behind is a testament to your incredible generosity. There's nothing I like better than being proved wrong once in a while!
I'll post a more complete update to my website ( www.hihomer.com) in the next few days. Before signing off for now, though, I'd like to once again thank Shelley Blessing of Kitty's PURRsuit of Happiness. If not for her passion, compassion, and round-the-clock efforts for three solid weeks, none of this would have been possible.
I thank you all."
August 5th UPDATE: Great news! We've found a no-kill shelter for the 15 remaining newborn kittens and cats in West Virginia who are in danger of being euthanized by the end of the week.
Now we just need a bit more to pay for transportation to New Jersey and to cover the shelter's initial vetting costs. Any help you can give us in getting the word out will help us save these final few kittens and cats.
You've all been so incredibly generous already. The original 49 ballooned up to 65 cats and kittens--and, THANKS TO YOU, all but these remaining 15 have been safely transported to no-kill shelters.
Anything at all you can spare to help us get these last 15 to safety will help us save their lives. Thank you for being #HomersHeroes! From the bottom of my heart, I can't begin to thank you enough
August 12th UPDATE: Even better news!
" Good news! The rescue effort was successful, and not one of the 65 cats (we started with 49, but it's kitten season!) with was left behind. :) This would not have been possible without your incredible generosity. On behalf of all these kitties--and from the bottom of my own heart--I thank you!
Volunteers worked in relay teams this past weekend to transport the cats from West Virginia to the no-kill shelters in 6 different states who were able to take them. Those shelters include:
Seer Farms in Jackson, NJ
www.seerfarms.org
Forever Home Feline Ranch in Springfield, IL
www.felineranch.org
the Animal Service League in Rochester, NY
www.animalserviceleagueny.org
Good Mews in Atlanta, GA
www.goodmews.org
And, last but not least, the rescue group who first alerted me to this situation and really spear-headed this drive:
Kitty's PURRsuit of Happiness in Spring Branch, TX
www.kittyspurrsuitofhappiness.org
Overall, the cats were in worse shape than we'd hoped, but better shape than might have been expected. 4 of the newborns were simply too sick and malnourished to survive more than a few days after transport, which broke our hearts. But the other 12 survived, and I'm told that at least 3 pregnant mamas-to-be are due to have kittens any day now.
Mostly the cats were filthy and hungry, but with plenty of TLC from the rescues that took them, life is already MUCH better for them! Many are also being treated for minor URIs and are expected to be just fine.
I've heard from each of the shelters individually that all of these cats are incredibly sweet and loving--little purr machines who are just so grateful to finally be clean and well fed, and don't know how to thank their rescuers enough. :)
They should be ready for forever homes soon--I encourage you to check in with the shelters listed above if you're interested in adopting!
I've done a lot of fundraising and worked on many rescue efforts in the past, but I've never undertaken something quite like this. Most days, I tried to resign myself to the reality that we likely wouldn't be able to save all the cats, and that if we could save even half, that would still be important work accomplished.
That not a single cat was left behind is a testament to your incredible generosity. There's nothing I like better than being proved wrong once in a while!
I'll post a more complete update to my website ( www.hihomer.com) in the next few days. Before signing off for now, though, I'd like to once again thank Shelley Blessing of Kitty's PURRsuit of Happiness. If not for her passion, compassion, and round-the-clock efforts for three solid weeks, none of this would have been possible.
I thank you all."
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