A way to keep the sun shining
It wasn’t any better this morning than it was for the last six months. I seem to awaken daily to the news that some calamity has befallen our country from fires to hurricanes to insidious viruses … and don’t forget those murder hornets. You just want to stay in bed and pretend that all you have to do today is eat lunch.
But today, well, the sun was shining, a bright, brisk kind of sun that said, “Come on, let’s get moving. You have things to do.” And, as it happened, I did have an important errand to accomplish. I bought into the idea that I should get up and get out.
One of the descendants of the little gray cat that I started to feed in 2018 gave birth to four kittens. After two weeks of miserable failure trapping neighbor cats, our cats and some surprised chipmunks, I was able to trap two of the kittens on Saturday and one very early this morning. My spouse and I took the first two to Friends Forever Animal Rescue on Saturday and today it was me, solo with the next one, taking a good 45 minute drive on this very sunny morning.
With one little black kitten in a very large borrowed crate on my back seat I set out to wend my way over highways and byways to Pennellville. If you haven’t been to Pennellville, there is a T-shirt in my collection that says, “This is not the end of the earth, but you can see it from here.”
Casey and Suzanne greeted me at the door, or rather I arrived as they were bringing huge bags of kitty litter to the garbage cans. It was morning cleaning, which happens every day. I had interrupted them before they had started to mop the floors.
The facility sits on a country plot of land, an amazing feat of determination and thrift, re-crafted from a trailer and its addition specifically for the mission of Friends Forever. To say that it was spotless would not be an exaggeration. As a normal person who fights dirt daily in a house with two adults and five cats, this place was squeaky clean and it houses cats and dogs and gerbils and bunnies … lots of them.
Some are surrenders, most are rescues, animals that have been abandoned, abused, neglected and unwanted. The Friends Forever staff – namely Casey and Melissa – goes out, finds and captures the needy animals, brings them back to the facility, gets them the appropriate veterinary care and arranges foster and permanent homes for each one.
My little jet-black girl with the golden eyes occupied the upper “berth” in the waiting area. Two black and white kittens occupied the lower “bunk” and a vocal tiger striped kitten was housed across the room. The tiger striped kitten had been surrendered by its owner and the poor little thing was crying for attention which I, of course, gave it. The surrounding rooms were temporary homes for animals of different species and ages. The kitten room was at full play mode as I watched. And how can I describe the older animals, once loved, now without that home or that companion to whom they were attached, their eyes pleading for answers. They would melt a heart of stone.
My words can’t really convey both the concept and the reality of Friends Forever. The internet may help. You can visit the facility online and keep up with what is going on by visiting Friends Forever Animal Rescue and Casey Newton’s Facebook pages.
While FF has many volunteers, most critical to its success are the foster families that take care of the abandoned, abused, neglected and rescued animals until they are adopted out. But the organization needs more volunteers, not only as fosters, but also to help with the maintenance and care of the facility. Helping to raise the funds to implement the mission is also critical. It takes money to buy food, litter, vet care, heat and water and light, etc.
The work involved in providing the service of rescue, neutering, spaying and general vet care as well as maintain the facility and raising the funds to do all of this is overwhelming and exhausting.
If a dollar meant something more than what it can buy, a dollar donated to Friends Forever means saving the life of an innocent animal, providing loving homes for animals and freeing the small three-person staff which take no salaries to do their work. Yes, they take no salaries. They have “outside” jobs to support themselves and Friends Forever. Where do you find dedication like this? It is rare. They need help.
My husband and I contribute as we can and will continue to do so, not only because FF has helped us, but because we love animals and remember those that have made our lives so much richer – our Chica girl, our Clarence, our Kiki, who have passed, and, now, the five formerly-feral felines who have chosen us as their family that have brought us light in a sometimes difficult world. Yes, we do have to empty the litter boxes, but we have never had to bail them out of jail.
I am secure in the knowledge that the little girl kitten that I brought here today will find a loving home.
Fire, plague and pestilence are nothing in the face of the goodness that people can accomplish. It is so easy to wring my hands at what I see happening that is not good, but I know that the “not good” that assaults our minds daily is a fraction of who we are. I know that we rise to the occasion when we see something worthy of our own goodness.
Fire, plague and all the rest eat away at our souls, mostly because there is little we can do to affect change. Friends Forever gives us a chance to do something here, right now, something that will have an immediate effect, something that warms our hearts and sets our mind at ease, even for a little while.
Helping is a real, honest, charitable, kind … human thing to do. A dollar or more means life for those without voices to ask. An hour or two as a volunteer? Why not? A way to keep the sun shining.
You have things to do.
