The Purrfect Charity Blogathon

Editor’s Note:  Liz Carlyle’s  fabulous first title with Avon, ONE TOUCH OF SCANDAL goes on sale today! To welcome her,  we’re  working this week with 10 romance blogs  to do a charity blogathon benefiting Cat Angels, a cause dear to Liz’s heart.  Here’s how this works, for every individual comment, Avon will donate $1 to Cat Angels (for up to 3,000 comments across all ten blogs).  So have at it Avonites…your furry friends will thank you!

Today we’re cat-chatting with Deborah Fox, Director of Cat Angels in Cary, North Carolina:

Deborah, tell us about yourself, how you got involved in cat rescue, and why you started Cat Angels?

I worked as a software tester for 23 years, and during those last years started volunteering with another animal rescue group and realized I could do a better job for cats than they were doing, so I formed my own group in 2005.  A year later I retired from the software industry and now run Cat Angels full time (as a volunteer—I am unpaid, we have no paid staff).

Which of your cats has been with you the longest, and is he or she adoptable?

The cat who has been with us the longest is Olivia, a gorgeous, personable little lady.  Lovely Olivia came to us pregnant, and had her kittens in our program.  They were all adopted, and she is now patiently waiting for her turn to find her home.  She is adoptable and is very sweet; we aren’t quite sure why she hasn’t found her home yet except that she is in a room with some stunning cats, and she is overweight.  After all, she was half-starved when we got her, and because of this past trauma she never misses a meal.   We believe she would slim down in a home where she got more exercise (preferably a home with stairs and her food portions could be better controlled.

 How many special needs cats does Cat Angels have, and what special care do they require?  Do you allow people to “financially foster” your special needs cats—say, purchase their medications monthly, or pay for their specific medical care—that sort of thing?

We have about a dozen special needs cats, and their needs vary.  One is Haley, a gorgeous Manx who needs daily stool softeners.  We also have a couple who are diabetic, one has asthma, and some are simply elderly.  And we have Aiko, a stunning, sweet calico who is rapidly going blind so we really need a forever home for her, so that she can learn the terrain while a tiny bit of vision remains.  And a couple have urinary problems.  All these cats need special consideration and TLC and yes, some of them need regular medications.  We would welcome any kind of help or sponsorship with their medical needs.

What is the happiest adoption story you’ve had at Cat Angels?  Can you share it with us?

We’ve so many happy ones it’s hard to pick one.  Last fall we were asked by the Town of Cary to provide rescue assistance in shutting down a backyard breeder.  It was an incredible challenge!  In one day, we rescued 36 Siamese and Siamese-mixes from a breeding situation that had gotten completely out of control. 

Had we been unable to take these cats as the town requested, they would almost certainly have been taken to the local municipal kill shelter in Raleigh, North Carolina to be euthanized.   We could not let that happen, though it was a tremendous drain on our finances.  The community pitched in, though, and I’m happy to say that all those precious cats have now been placed in loving homes, so that cat tale had a great happy ending!   You can read more about The Big Cary Cat Rescue here:

We understand animal shelters are suffering terribly in the bad economy.  How is this affecting Cat Angels?

At first the economy didn’t seem to affect us, as 2009 was our best year for adoptions.  However, this year the effects have been felt.  Donations are down as some our major donors have had their own financial challenges, adoptions are down, and requests to surrender cats are up, way up.  Just for perspective, we average one adoption every other day but we get 5-10 surrender requests every day, most of which we have to turn away as we only have limited space, volunteers, and money.   It’s almost as if in 2009 people thought the recession would pass but in 2010 now they fear a double dip or a longer recession and they are really pulling back with getting pets and making donations.

How can people best help Cat Angels care for these homeless cats?  

What we really need are donations and volunteers.  No donation is too small.  We get no public funding and our adoption fees cover only about 15-20% of our budget.  All the rest comes from donations and fundraising.    It also takes a small army of dedicated volunteers to care for all the cats in our facility twice a day every day and facility help is much appreciated, by both us and the cats.

And last but not least—and be honest!—how many of them have you taken home to keep?

I never disclose that   But because of our no-kill shelter with the wonderful care we give our cats, I don’t feel compelled to bring them home to save them from being in our shelter, because it’s actually a very nice and loving environment for our cats.  The ones I’ve kept have been the ones I’ve fostered and then fell in love with.

Thanks so much, Deborah, for being with us today. 

If readers would like to help Cat Angels, even in the smallest of ways, donations are accepted through Pay Pal by clicking the link here: http://www.catangelsnc.org/RP_Donations.asp