The past: As most of you well know, The Goathouse started as a small rescue. Over the years it grew into a much larger rescue. Our friends and supporters helped us become a major recourse for people who could no longer take care of their cats and for volunteers at some shelters who begged us to take cats and kittens when they could no longer make room for them (to save them from being put down). We took special needs cats that other organizations turned away. And we took many, many, many kittens, some with their mothers, some without.
The present: Times change. My poor health has aged me over the last decades, against all my wishes and intentions. Times have changed too, post Covid. Inflation has weakened our donors’ ability to give and driven up costs of everything that we must pay for. Many rescue organizations and shelters have been forced to close in this difficult environment.
We don’t want to be one of the life-saving places that have to close, And with your help we won’t.
Over the past year we have talked about the transition to a Sanctuary, where we will focus on cats that are older or that have special challenges. We have also tried to find ways to economize even further and prioritize. We have reduced the population down to about 220 kitties by taking relatively few in. As much as it pains us, we turn away potential surrenders constantly now. Of the 220 current cats, about 100 are older or have special challenges; these cats are much more difficult to get adopted and are the cats that will be the core population at the Sanctuary.
If we can successfully downsize further and transition to The Goathouse Sanctuary from The Goathouse Refuge, our costs will drop dramatically. Our operating costs (food, litter, cleaning) will go down. So will our fixed costs, as we will be able to close the large refuge building and most of the ancillary smaller buildings. And, a great blessing, our vet who has worked with us for so long has agreed to do house visits to see multiple cats at once for much less money.
However, we are also having difficulty adopting out the remaining 120 cats. This is an industry wide problem in the wake of the tremendously high adoption rate during Covid and the ensuing inflation and housing shortage. Indeed, in many areas the surrender rate significantly exceeds the adoption rate. Shelters are overcrowded and are often forced to kill animals. Rescue organizations are overflowing and are doing what they can to pull the animals from shelters, but many rescue organizations have had to close because of lack of funding.
We ask for any help you can give in placing the 120 or so adoptable cats that we have, and in sustaining the current facility while completing our transition to a Sanctuary. Over the coming weeks we will be publishing bio’s highlighting these fabulous creatures.
The future: Why establish a Sanctuary for older or challenged cats? And why is this important?
A remarkable and quote from Mahatma Gandhi is apt here: ‘the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members‘
Some people think the easiest thing is just to euthanize an animal that cannot be conveniently dealt with (in this case adopted). In establishing a Sanctuary, we are making a strong statement that feline lives have value and cats are not to be dispensed with just because they cannot be conveniently turned into young, healthy long-lived companions. And to dispel some misunderstanding, the Sanctuary cats are not cats that necessarily have high medical costs. Some are just old, some are blind, some crippled, a few have cerebral hypoplasia. Certainly, the older we humans and cats get, the more likely it is that there will be frailties and medical problems that must be dealt with. Of course, this is just as true of all the young cats and kittens that have been and will be adopted. Old age is a fact of life, if we are fortunate to live long enough. Just as we would fight against putting Grandma or Grandpa out by the side of the road, because they had become inconvenient, more costly, or less fun, we are fighting for a good life for those cats that are among the most vulnerable, who require protection and extra care and support. (Of special note, if you know someone, many of these cats could be adopted by a devoted person with the right circumstances.)
Please join us in this mission. You can help by sharing this with kindhearted souls you know. And in trying to downsize into a new Sanctuary while supporting the Refuge until we can adopt out all the cats there, we need your donations more than ever.
