i want to tell you something about sheltering animals
Carol · Dec. 9, 2009
you damn well better be totally honest with yourself when things ain't going really well. we have three starting to sneeze cats tonight, add them to snickers (who is really sick with the full blown virus) and we now have 4...3 long termers who ought to be immune to the different virus's that float around here from time to time...and tonight they are no longer immune. (ok, the 3 are really old cats with other problems, but they don't need a cold on top of that)
you damn well better have your eyes wide open and see what is staring you right in the face. the only new cats in here in the past several weeks are both 2 new indoor cats...they came from private homes and did not bring the virus in here with them.
so two things are happening....first, there are too many cats back there...15 for those 2 small rooms and the open travel hallway is probably too many...10 would be better. AND we are not keeping it clean enough. winter is here...doors and windows are shut, it is a perfect breeding ground for disease. the same thing happened over in the feline leukemia area a year ago...it just got a basic once over at the end of the long day and germs breed and accumulate where ever and at every opportunity that they can. since helga took it over, coming several times a week...you not only could feel the cleanliness spreading, every single week...but those sick cats got better. we still have the occasional sniffles in there (the cats are all terminally sick with no immune systems) but the viral symptoms never really progress very far. helga and now louise do not let the germs get into the environment, they clean them out before they can reproduce.
i remember the months of multiple antibiotics and seriously sick cats while we fought to get in control of that area and we did get it back to where it should be..but it was a lot of freaking hard work and worry.
it looks to me like the same thing is happening in the back 2 cat rooms...and trust me it IS a sign from god. clean it up, keep it clean, get the sick cats well again or the freaking shelter plague curse of unhealthy and unhappy animals will be upon you....and that kind of hell, none of these animals need.
so here is the thing..i am not going to lie to you and tell you that sheltering multiple animals does not come with inherent risk. i am not going to tell you that we do not struggle with our own burden of responsibility in this.
what i will tell you is this...we know when things are not going well..we know when we have to pull out all of the stops and pull up our socks and get back on top of some things. and while we also know it happens in the best of shelters, we know that just because it happens does not mean it continues..it means we do whatever we need to to get the virus cleaned out of here so the cats feel good and are comfortable again.
soooo....yeah, yeah, yeah...i know, you have heard it before but you heard it for all of the wrong reasons. you heard me say i was not taking in any more because we were too full, because i was afraid, because there were too many,because there was too much work...and i still took some in (actually not that many, but still TOO many) because they were going to die if i didn't.
well now i am saying it because the ones we have are starting the downward cycle of animals who were healthy a few weeks ago, are now starting to get sick...and i know exactly what that means. i don't need a crystal ball to see where that could go...somewhere that the animals don't want to live in.
and if the worlds animals die because our doors are closed.... oh well, sorry to say, it is not my problem...these guys are, here and now.
so here is my promise, my word and my bond, saints doors are closed to everyone now...god sent me a few sneezing emails and i am paying very close attention to him.....i now see where we were going and i am turning around...i don't like that dark road i see ahead of me.
That's okay, Phebes and I know the truth. She is the best, sweetest, and cutest dog around. She's as great as a cat.