As many of you know, I'm helping Mrs. SOC with Pedal for Paws, a charity bike ride benefitting the Forgotten Felines cat shelter where she volunteers. The ride will be on Saturday, October 2nd in Old Saybrook, CT and the surrounding towns along the CT River and Shoreline.
But to get a better understanding of why're we're doing all this, I couldn't think of anyone better to tell you than Mrs. SOC herself. So, without further ado, I give you Mrs. SOC . . .
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About three years ago, Mr. SOC and I adopted this girl from Forgotten Felines...
Give me ten more...
and our lives have never been the same. She's the first feline coach we've ever had.
Blowing off your ride again today?
I started volunteering at the shelter shortly after she and Rosie came to live with us (Tim is still not quite sure about his sisters), and it was always my dream to do a charity ride to benefit all the cats that came after Rainy. Last August, with much counsel from the SDCs, Pedal for Paws was born.
With less than a month to go, the planning gets overwhelming. All the details make me crazy. But then I go to the shelter, and see all those faces, and I realize all over again there's nothing I'd rather do.
I can give you lots of statistics (but, alas, no Garmin): as a no-kill shelter, we have over 125 cats at any given time; we've taken in 167 so far this year, and adopted out 100. There are over 30 kittens placed in foster families, and as fast as we adopt them to new families, they keep on coming. We're an all-volunteer organization: 115 volunteers, and of those, 56 of us work a weekly shelter shift. As my mom used to tell my sister and I growing up, cats have to eat and have their boxes cleaned every day. And so we do, twice a day, seven days a week, holidays included. Our other volunteers help with the website, the phone calls, the vet runs, the supply runs, the building maintenance and lawn mowing. We rescue cats from 10 towns along the CT River and shoreline, and the shocking thing is that we don't receive a dime from any of them, nor the state. Our funds are all donated through generous people, through our fundraisers or otherwise.
But when I am there, I forget all of this. It's a special place where every cat has a name and is loved and spoiled and played with and treasured, til his or her forever family comes along. I'd like to give you a Tour...wait til you see the catscape!
Please check out the photo album in the column at the left, or click here.
And if you haven't already signed up for Pedal for Paws, I hope you'll do it soon. Coach Rainy is counting on you!
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