Rescue Journal

The Plan

Carol  ·  Jun. 28, 2011

it is so easy to get overwhelmed around here...so many animals under foot and each with their own unique physical, medical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs, so much work that needs to be done...so many things that need to be paid with so little money to go around....sometimes i just feel buried in really important things.
and while i fuss and i fidget and i squirm in my skin from all of the things pressing down on me...i am thinking and figuring and seeking solutions.

the one thing i have learned from all of my years in rescue is...if you have a huge and heavy mountain to move..you won't get very far with just wishing. pick up one rock and move it to where you want and then go back for one more and keep at it, don't stop. eventually the mountain is moved to where ever it needed to be.

it is how i clean the shop 6 times a year..one corner cleaned up at a time, four days later the shop is tidy and neat (til it gets messed up again and then i start over in one corner.) i should deal with all of the overwhelming mountains in rescue the same way..once i get over my initial freak out and panic, i need to formulate a plan tackling one corner or one rock at a time...til i can breathe in some kind of peace again.

so firstly i identify how big and heavy are the rocks in this newest mountain of rescue that is crushing me.
they are big..i checked all of the vet balances in the past few days...eastridge is 2 grand, agwest is 6 grand and hillndale is a whopping 11 thousand today. first things first..i gave hillndale 3 thousand from the open house to bring them down to 8...sadly cash needed 800 of our weekend donations for her bill at cedargrove...oh well it is not like i could have turned her away. maggie and sheila have a little bit of fundraised money to deposit this week which will cover staff wages on friday.

hmm...now what? the receiver general can wait...we will pay them as soon as we can. i will FINALLY go in and sign my income tax and the 1200 i get back personally can be ear marked for half of the accountants year end bill and i can cash my last bond to cover the rest. so those issues are ok for now. hopefully we are getting a bit of a gst rebate for saints which will help with wages and utilities for a few weeks too...so theorectically we should be able to make it thru the summer if a few more donations come thru.

but to the vets bills..i need a plan for that. if we can pay hillndale $500 every two weeks, and agwest the same by scraping every penny that comes in together (there was a cheque for $500 in the mail today...yay!)..we can knock off $2500 off each of their bills by the time we have a big september gala and we should easily be able to clear off the rest of the vet bills with what we fundraise there.

but that means we absolutely cannot wrack up more bills while we are trying to get there.
so here is the new reality at saints..not only do no new animals come in with their freaking monolithic vet bills attached...but we are going to have to be really careful in what vet care happens over the next 3 months.

i am going to ask all of our vets to put a non negotiable $5000 limit on all of our accounts..once we get down to that goal..we have no more room for vet care until we pay the accounts off. this means we will never owe more than $15,000 at any one time..no more sliding up into 20 or 25 thousand which is just brutal to try to pay off.

how this will affect us as of today?...both hillndale and agwest accounts are on hold, no more charging...no one goes in or out for any reason unless we have the cash on hand to pay the newest immediate bill...and this will include our foster animals as well. if someone is sick and needs a vet..i will have to figure out how to immediately pay for that bill so for now routine and feel good stuff is going to have to wait until the account balances are under control.

we still have $3000 charging available at eastridge with this brutal and stark financial vet care plan that we can use for absolute emergencies and critical must have care.

we need to get out from under this pile of debt...we throw $5000 here and $8000 there as soon as we get it but we keep sending in more and more sick and injured animals so what we just paid just disappears into the newest mountains of vet bills..it is giving me a freaking ulcer.

so bottom line? no vet care for any animal anywhere unless it is run by me first and i think it is absolutely necessary. i will not let any animal come to harm..they will get what they need but at this point and from now on we will have to be very responsible and i will be watching every single vet care penny.

and just a cautionary note to our foster families...if a medical plan is in place for a foster...make sure it is followed to a T..we can't afford to be sending them back and forth, in and out to the vets because the medical plan is not being followed religiously....it has happened a few times over the years, thankfully not often... but right now, it can't happen at all.

it is going to take a few months of hard work, good luck, patience, and absolute dedication to the goal..but one rock, one corner at a time..i know we can clean up and reduce and get control of this monsterous stress mountain of vet bills once and for all.

Comments

Carol Ann

also if Ashley is around on sun maybe she can check angus's ears I will just bring him with me

Carol Ann

I can come in fri and sun instead of sat that would be better for my furry kids cause they wouldnt be alone

Ashley

I can head over to the house on Sunday and help after the MP room, I usually do anyway :)

Jenn

Hi zoe I emaile out the volunteer schedule lynn and brenda are away this week so that just leaves anne and you from sunday is there anyway you can make it sunday?

Zoe

Hey everyone I have to come Saturday this weekend instead hopefully that works out okay. Also Carol can I grab insulin on Sat? Thanks :)

K.O.

Just a little note to let you know that I have put my Employee Volunteer hours in at Scotiabank. They ask that you volunteer for 50 hours per year(I know I'm up to over 300!!). The application is for employees to qualify for 1000.00 grant that is given directly to SAINTS. I have recieved this for the past 2 years so lets hope they send the cheque as soon as possible!

Jenn

this post has given me an ulcer! ack. i totally agree with it but it all just seems so overwhelming and then i worrie about you cashing bonds and putting your tax return to the vet bills, what if an emergency happens and you have no emerg fund ... its all so worrisome--dispite the one rock at a time cause the mountain is still visible!