What’s more challenging than caring for one cat in a hopeless situation? Caring for well over fifty of them. Those fifty-plus cats were all rescued from one large colony, and each individual was in great need of socialization.
With such an influx, at Tabby’s Place: A Cat Sanctuary the expression, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” misses the point. In Ringoes, NJ and the local environs, it is raining cats and kittens.
With the large number of intakes from that exceptional situation alongside an extended kitten season, meteorological autumn has washed a flood of felines into Tabby’s Place. The same roiling waters are also causing a deluge or two in foster care. In the wake of this rescue to save very many cats, “over fifty” is only part of the story.
The number is amplified by the impact of some of the intakes bringing additional intakes with them in the form of fuzzy luggage in their bellies. So, the actual total intakes are even higher when including the additions that have arrived on a slight rain delay.
In the face of this downpour of cats and kittens, as well as their vast and varied medical needs, the amazing staff, fantastic volunteers, and marvelous donors to Tabby’s Place have done what they always do: they’ve gone to bat to save the cats and bring hope where it was feared that no angels could tread. That’s because every member of the Tabby’s Place family is a team player (More baseball metaphors forthcoming. You’ve been warned.).
Luckily, there are more than 9 humans who are willing and able to step up to the plate. Happily, the staff are more talented than all of Major League Baseball’s top athletes combined. Wonderfully, the generosity of donors helps The Linda Fund blast past the salaries of AAA rookies. That is vastly important! The Linda Fund is essential to meeting the medical needs of all the beloved Tabby’s Place cats from the eldest to the newest and every single one in between.
So, what happens when the number of resident cats seems to be enough to fill a stadium? Every person on the team comes out swinging. Every person brings their A game. Every hit is a home run or a grand slam. Translated into non-baseball terms, testing and diagnoses happen, medication and procedure needs are assessed, care is provided…lots and lots of care…along with many, many treats. Every cat’s every need is met according to that cat’s specific stats and comfort level.
Cats like Zinc and Salami are offered cubbies to curl up in and laps to fill. The choice is theirs, on their timing. Older kittens like Adder and Boa are scheduled to timeshare with Lita and Sebastian to ensure all four are comfortable in their space and with each other.
We could review each suite and situation in a play by play. We could tick off the stats for each individual cat. We could mark up the scoreboard to highlight every win. Those details don’t really matter. Cats are, after all, not stats. The win for each of them was sliding into home at Tabby’s Place where everyday and as a team, we smash it out of the park.