By Paula Hunsaker
I would like to thank each and every one of you for your support of our rescue over the past year. We are so proud to say we have adopted out over 370 kitties since March of 2020, which does not include the many adoptions before the ‘shelter in place’ took effect.
We have worked so hard to help our kitties move on
to forever homes, and it has been so exciting and wonderful to see them going
to homes that will love them forever. Over the past years, we have not
only adopted out our kitties to forever homes, we have also made friends with
the adopters that have continued to share
updates of their kitties. Our rescue works so hard to adopt out kitties that we
pull from high-kill shelters that are not perfect when we get them from those
shelters in California. We work endless hours to nurse them back to
health, or help them not to be scared of humans and to be able to become loving
and trusting so they can move on to forever homes.
In the world of rescue, it is so rewarding to see the updates of them growing in their new forever homes with so much love with their new family and adapting to their new homes. In the world of rescue, we also see so many ugly things that have happened to animals who are just looking for love and care in their life. To see them happy and loved in a home is a reward to rescue that keeps us all going in saving more animals. Simply knowing that one day that special human will come to our rescue and pick their forever kitties is a thrill beyond all measure. And then, wishing them well when they leave our rescue and knowing that their past ugly life will change in their new forever loving homes, and the joy we see in the amazing updates we get so often of our adopted kitties.
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| Jinx |
Shelter staff told me that they were going to take the kittens back into the shelter and get the correct kittens that the other rescue pulled, but that these kittens are out of time and too young to be spayed, so they would be put down at the end of the day at the shelter. I looked at them in the carrier. It just broke my heart knowing that their young lives would be gone at the end of the day, and they stood no chance to moving on to forever homes. I was told they were in foster care and had been returned to the shelter, but not at the age or weight needed to be spayed. I do not understand sending them out to foster care and being bottle fed and cared for and then being sent back to the shelter knowing that their only way out of the shelter alive is by rescue pull. All the time and love put into them at the foster home just to come back to the shelter to die. I find that so heartbreaking.
Over the years of being in rescue, I know shelters are overwhelmed with incoming animals. But I cannot justify the killing of healthy animals. While standing by my vehicle loading the kitties I had just pulled and talking to shelter staff and the other rescue about these kittens, I knew at the time I did not have any intent to pull them. I kept looking at them in the carrier looking out, as if to say “don’t let us die,” but I told the shelter staff and other rescue I was not going to take the kittens. I stood there watching the shelter staff take them back into the shelter and seeing them looking at me in the carrier. I yelled “STOP! I will take them.” So, I loaded this family of four into my vehicle. In about a week, I took two of the sisters, Jinx and Binx, to our rescue vet to see if they could be fixed or if they were too small.
The vet was unsure, about them being so small and young, if being fixed would then have to be put off. Our rescue vet looked at them, and he saw they are small, but the weight was perfect to be fixed. Our rescue vet went ahead and told me he would fix them. I told him I had two other sisters that were part of this family that would need to be fixed. Our rescue vet said let us wait on them for a short time before fixing them since they are so small. I am so proud of our rescue vet that the surgery was a success for Jinx and Binx.
On Christmas Eve, I had no plans to adopt that day. I got a call to our rescue from a nice and kind man asking me about adopting a kitten for his wife for Christmas. I told him I was not planning on adopting out any cats on Christmas Eve. He told me that he really wanted to get his wife a black kitten to raise as her own personal cat, and that they had another cat that was older but was not a real loving lap-type cat. They had gotten the other cat years ago at an older age already set in his ways. He told me that he had been going all over looking for that special kitten for his wife, and that it was so important to give to his wife for Christmas. But the other kittens that he had gone to see just did not have the feeling of the perfect kitten for his wife. His effort and story as we talked was very heartfelt. I told him come on out and look at the black kitten Jinx that was incredibly young, and we were able to have her fixed. The gentleman thanked me over and over for letting him come out to the rescue on Christmas Eve. When he came out to the rescue, he made it noticeably clear that he was looking for a black kitten for his wife. I took him into our cattery and let him meet Jinx, our only black kitten at the time that we had fixed and was ready to leave our rescue. The gentleman held Jinx in his arms, and it was s heartfelt attachment at the very start. After he spent some time with Jinx, he said he wanted to adopt Jinx, and he said he felt this was the kitten for his wife! Over Christmas, I thought a lot about Jinx and the gentlemen that wanted the perfect black kitten for his wife for Christmas. It was on my mind, was Jinx the perfect kitten that he was searching for to give to his wife?
Shortly after Christmas, I received a message from the gentleman’s wife. This is the message about Jinx coming into their home.
“Hello, my name is Michelle. My husband Brad came to adopt Jinx from you on Christmas Eve. We have since renamed her as Bean. She is absolutely the best cuddler, she is sooo sweet! We are so grateful to have added her to our feline family! Thank you again so much for all the great things you do!”
Check out the Feral Paws website to learn more about them, and keep an eye on their Facebook Page. They are based in Fresno, CA.
Check out more animal rescue stories in our Pet Perspective section on Kings River Life, and the Pets section
here on KRL News & Reviews. Check back every month for another
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