Sunday, Catathon day started out just fine, from the beginning! Cat furniture was moved out of the way, tables put up. All items for bidding were ready and waiting to be tagged with a name! Phone lines were tested, cams were in place, volunteers and visitors that were helping arrived. Food was abundant and delicious! And we started on time!
Here's the breakdown of the numbers:
Catribution $7,330.10 (includes the Ducktribution!)
4-fur $13,431.03
FB auction $770.00
Baskets $7,270
Big Ticket $4,930
Big Big Ticket $2,660
Small Big Ticket $2,140
Fun Raiser $4,800
Grand Total $43,331.13
Totals for 2018 was $39,375
Here's our 2019 goals for Catathon:
Electric line buried for a light on
the FFRC sign in front yard
Vinyl siding to Kitty City $1940
Spay/Neuter Fund
Bravecto order --- $990 - 60
treatments for 3 months for outside cats
Liability Insurance is due $2,800
Operating Funds—utilities, day to day
needs
All FFRC sheds need to be painted
again for preservation $760
Driveway—parking lines painted on
concrete $150
Vet bill at the clinic—to have a
reserve again Patterson medical supply bill $2,950
Annual maintenance on generator $300
Repairs/maintenance done $2,940 Cat walks, shelves, lights and repairs
Replace surgery autoclave 15”
$6,299 9” $5393
Load of stones for around people
areas $625
Replacement for 1 of the heavy duty
wagons $225
A super big thanks to all the people who made this Catathon possible by providing all the items that were in the baskets and all the individual items. Without you all, this Catathon would not be possible. You provided 95% of the items in Catathon!
A big thanks to our volunteers. Many of our volunteers have been with us for years. Some are just new in the last year. Each and everyone of them is important to FFRC. They are the ones that help keep this place together. They are not only volunteers of the highest caliber, showing love and compassion but they are our friends. And that is what makes this an easy place to be at.
Our friends and volunteers provided two awesome meals for everyone--absolutely delicious foods! Many thanks.
It truly takes a village of people to make this Rescue Center work: volunteers, mods, admins, chatters, supporters, lurkers, tweeters, family, vets, staff, fb friends, instagram friends. Thanks for being a part of our village!
I also made an announcement during Catathon. After much internal thinking and decision thinking, I made up my mind.........I was going to adopt little Hope. I normally do not do this....believing that these kittens and cats have the right to their very own home and should be adopted. It dawned on me (after talking to my family), that I too can be an adoptor! So, little Hope is now Hope Moss. For now, while she is so little and still being bottle/syringe fed, she is in the Rescue Center where I can keep track of her. She's already made a few visits in the house. But, she needs kitties to play with--her energy level and braveness is high!
I'd like to pass on the ending of Catathon:
Wow—what an awesome Catathon! Our 10th
one!
ALL of this effort today is because
of the cats, because we love them and care for them and have the desire to help
them and to find them homes. We truly have the greatest volunteers in the
world. We have support systems from our
families. And we have friends. YOU make up that awesome wonderful FFRCNation—we
are a team, a family that has come together, purely for love of the cats and
the desire to help them. FFRCNation
stands for Many Countries, One Heart, One Mission, One Nation.
We’re all in this together. And we’re
a pretty good team together! One of the keys to what makes this Rescue Center
successful for the cats is YOU. While we
are HERE and you are THERE, we all have our different things we do to keep us
going. WE HERE are the hands-on
caretakers, taking care of the physical, medical and emotional needs of this rescue
center. The volunteers give their love, compassion and hearts to FFRC. YOU THERE are important in the role YOU
play—you are our emotional supporters, always telling us—YOU can do this, We
have your back, to lean on you. You have
told us these wonderful words for years. And that is HUGE to me. Even though that cam is just a plastic ball,
it brings us all together. And for that,
I am grateful.
The purpose of this Catathon is to
help us meet some goals and to help us continue on financially. Isn’t it a bummer to have to think about
money!! But…..it’s part of life. We DO
need your financial support. You have again shown me that FFRC is important to
you too. Always know that I am very
respectful of all donations—it’s something YOU don’t HAVE to do, yet you do it!
And please don’t ever ever think that I take this support lightly. It means so much to me. The financial worry
of carrying on this Rescue Center is huge for Steve and me. But, time and time
again, you have shown that you want us to keep on going. And we do keep on
going because we have such a passion for what FFRC stands for.
I always have this worry in my
head—how do I possibly and effectively convey my gratitude? It’s hard to verbalize it big enough. But,
please…know my heart is filled with thankfulness for each of you and for every
penny donated to FFRC. I will always
give my best, to provide the best
medical care that we can, to make every cent count, to stand by each cat and
let them know they are important and to do my best at finding wonderful homes
for them.
You know, I see this fairly often on
FB—how you thank myself and FFRC for saving this cat or that cat. BUT, we could not possibly do that saving
without YOU.
Remember those Abel babies and how
sick they were? You helped rescue them
by supporting their lab work, all their many meds and their eye ointments. They have all been adopted and doing good.
Remember our dear sweet Mowgli? Oh what a special girl she was. You helped
rescue her by supporting her two surgical procedures to place her feeding tube,
her antibiotics, her soreness meds and her special tube feeding foods.
Remember Manville? You helped rescue him too. He had to have his
tail amputated. You helped with his antibiotics and his special ear medicines. He is now adopted.
Remember Barin? Such a wonderful boy.
You helped rescue him. Barin had to go to a cardiologist for all sorts of
tests. He also had tests at Dr. Darcy’s office. He is now adopted.
Remember Boaz, or Bozi as we called
him? He’s the one that fractured his leg
here. You rescued him as well. He had to go to the vet’s for x-rays and then
back again for his FHO—femoral head ostectomy surgery. Afterwards, you helped with his
antibiotics and soreness meds. He is also adopted.
These are just a few examples. Every
vaccine we use, every wormer, all the flea meds, the tests that we do, the
ointments and supplements—these are things that you help finance for us. YOU
are as much a rescuer as what we are. And I am grateful for this.
Quote from Desmond Tutu---Do your
little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together
that overwhelm the world.”
We give these cats our rescue center, they give us pure joy.
We give these cats food and nutrition, they give us love and loyalty.
We give these cats hugs and kisses, they give us their deep booming purrs.
We give these cats the love in our hearts, they give it back in unconditional love.
Now.......to start thinking of Catstock, which is September 7th! COme one, come all!
