how to become an animal rescue. how i started.
I run an spca foster program. i started out the same way everyone does - feeding stray animals. i have fed strays since i was a little kid. i used to spend my allowance money on cat food. In the 90's i started feeding a small colony of animals, mom and babies in philadelphia where i was attending college. this expanded to southern nj by delaware and then to north florida when i was here. the woman who used to put ads in the newspaper for people rescuing animals and needing to adopt them out got sick. then her husband got cancer. then they had to move. she didn't know what would happen to all the people who needed to place out their animals. she had stopped rescuing animals herself because she had so many left over animals from the passed (more than twenty) years. but she was helping a lot of people by paying for the ads and screening potential adoptors. i have always volunteered at the pounds. just walking dogs or bottlefeeding. when i was placing out a bunch of kittens a woman who used to volunteer at a shelter here said she had gone by to visit a no kill shelter and went into the cat room and it was full of the SAME ANIMALS that had been there two years before that. wth? so i went over and talked to their coordinator and requested a list of animals in need of adoption who were at the shelter more than six months. she gave me a list of thirty animals and i placed them all out through the newspaper. then she gave me another list of twenty or so animals and i placed all of those out. then they asked me to foster and bottlefeed orphaned kittens. i told them only 3 week olds. they would slip in the two week olds anyway and they all lived and it was okay. i was nervous about doing newborns because so many of them die. then she asked me to take ones that have mange and i did that and i didn't get mange and they all lived and were fine. and the shelter people were kind of jumping for joy over this. i brought them in weekly and they were always fat and clean and healthy. lots of flea baths with those little ones and lots of moist food with baby rice cereal in it to make them fat and lots of kmr formula. i didn't know at the time how rare it is for a foster mother to work out, especially with little ones and how even more rare it is for the foster mother to be able to successfully adopt out the animals. i do professional sales, so for me, selling and screening potential customers wasn't a difficult thing. (i was ten years younger back then! lol.) their people just need training. the following year another county asked for my help. and if i was doing over one hundred animals then i'd need help so i recruited foster mothers and discovered what a headache that usually is. hiring people for ANYTHING is the hardest job there is. so many people lie and you never know what you are really getting. you have to really learn to read people and even then it often doesn't really work out. i had to become an official organisation on my own so i wouldn't have to do it through the pound i was helping. so i filed an ein tax form with the government and got advice from other rescues who stated being an spca of any sort is the better way to go because the name spca is recognized. many start with silly names and then have to switch their name over later. we started out as spca foster. about ten of us do rescue every year. some do multiple litters some do ONE cat each year. but its one more than the general public does - and they can tell you EVERYTHING about that one cat. some do ONE cat every OTHER year. some will help me but no help other groups because so many groups are very controlling. our group doesn't have meetings. i try to stay out of everyone's way as much as i can. i return all phone calls within 48 hours. (used to be 24 hours but its too much for me nowadays to do that). we do everything out of our own pockets. they can adopt out with my forms and their names in there or have me adopt, its their choice. they have first dibs on adopting the animals themselves just like in a foster care program for children. then i have another ten foster parents each year that are revolving door people. its a once in a lifetime thing for them and they probably will never do it again. some love rescue and just need guidance on how to do it themselves. i tell them what catalogs we use to order medicine the phone numbers and web sties and where we go for reduced spay and neuter. and i tell them what books we use like home remedies for dogs and cats by prevention to help us diagnose problems. i tell them they can call me anytime for help. this also works for MOST people but not for all of them. most of them will foster for the 3 months until the kittens are ready for adoption with no problem and others freak out over it. you never know what you are getting. some follow the rules and mine are very loose and basic rules and some can't quite get it, become anxious and lose it totally. its the humans that make rescue difficult, not the animals. best of luck to you with this. also doris day league which merged with aspca a couple of years ago, gives advice on becomoing rescue. best buddies in utah gives classes in how to become a rescue. doris day mostly fed colonies, set traps and had them fixed from trapping. one of the girls scraps metal to support her colonies, she picks up metal after garage sales in her pick up. another puts out jars for the fixing part of it. its not free. i don't like to think of how much i have spent on it, but its a great hobby. its very fulfilling.
Replies
All Rescue organizations and people are very special to open their hearts to all these animals that need care.
You are God\'s gift to them animals that you help.
I have always thought that maybe someday I would do something like what you\'re doing, but the reality is that I just can\'t. I can\'t take care of the little ones, I can\'t do things that hurt them like give shots, and I can\'t bear to see an animal in pain. I could never be a vet or a vet tech. And if I take in animals, they tend to stay forever unless I can get them out right away. I admire anyone who can do what you do! *HUGS*
My wife and I had 18 cats, 4 dogs and 4 horses at one time, all but 3 were rescues, we were very fortunate to have a vet that only charged us for cost since everything came out of our pocket. There\'s not much help up here where I live. I have even nursed baby birds and the occasional coon. I have also worked with abused horses,\" turning them around\" since most of them were really nasty due to their abuse We have lost our farm since then, so we have kinda retired.But I sure if a little hungry mouth comes to our door, it will be welcomed. We are now down to 4 dogs and 8 cats, we had to give away our horses about 7 years ago when both of our pain conditions got the best of us, that was the hardest thing we had to do. I still feel that loss to this day.
I must say this kind of work is one from the heart and takes a lot of dedication and commitment, so I thank you for sharing your big beautiful heart to the truly innocent of this world, Blaine
That is a very inspiring story!!! Thank you so much for sharing this. :) I think if people can...they should foster animals until they\'re able to find a home. :) There is such a high demand for foster homes for animals.
you have a huge heart my friend..
There\'s a special place in Heaven, just for you! xoxxo
Hi my friend, I think you are doing a wonderful service ! I have adopted many dogs in my life. I also worked as a foster for my local Golden Retriever Rescue Group before moving to Canada years ago. Today of course I can\'t in my situation. But my son and his wife are now foster parents for our local humane society !
Like your friend said.........There is a place in Heaven for you !......And I agree.
Hugs and Love, Patricia :-)
U HAVE A SPECIAL HEART FOR THIS ANIMALS
God gave us animals, and He made you to be there for them. What you have done for so many is very special.
OH wow! Ok well in 2000 I began fostering animals here for a cat rescue group. I first took a pregnant mama. Then she had 7 kittens, the mom was sick with upper resperatory so I had to give her antibiotics when she was pregnant so I was worried. Then they brought another pregnant cat to my door begging me to take it in. Ok in the spare room they go. That ended up being the cat room. Later my garage because cluttered with cages to take 30 at a time and medicate them, get them well and adopt them out. I ended up adopting 92 cats even 3 ferral cats got a good home. The problem is there were some who could not get homes one was a ferral cat named Tad. He is still here living at my neighbors house now. But I had ended up with 9 cats that didn\'t get homes and then I just kept them all. 3 were mine to begin with. Now I have no cats. They all lived their lives and one even was an amputee her right front leg from cancer. She lived a good long life though. I had to stop because it was too hard and I had to use too much of my own money and I could no longer afford to do it. I had to say no more. Well I know what you are going through and you are doing a good deed in the community. I wish all pet owners were more responsible and spay and neuter their pets because there are so many unwanted animals each year. Here comes kitty season right now too. Wow you are one of those very special people who cares. I care too but my limited income made me quit doing it. The cat litter, medications, and the food was a lot each month and you always had some emergency. The vets killed me. Too bad they dont do special freebee\'s for rescues. I know you can get spay and neuters but nothing else really. Then buying vaccinations, antibiotics etc... cost too much.
You are one of the of the special people in this world. I have three dogs and a bird. I also have volunteered at The Seattle Human Society and the Paws, Wild Bird Clinc. I am always catching strays, and I find their homes or homes for them. If I were rich, I would do this full time. It totally breaks my heart to see unwanted and or abused animals, I have seen my share of terrible things, and also my share of great things.
we use catalogs for all meds. fish and bird antibiotics, even human antibiotics, they are all the same. we use remedies from 100 years ago. a pinch twice per day from a capsule into moist food or gravy in a syringe for ten days, and wala, the animal is well. a chart of which antibiotic for which kind of illness. generally its amoxicillin or doxycycline, and wala. we have bad things happen too, its the odds. 100 animals per year, something of the 100 will have something happen, and you pray for there not to be anything more than uri (upper respitory). we have garages, bathrooms, dens screened porches....ANY kind of room to house the animals, ideally indoor outdoor as it saves on cat litter. up until a couple of years ago it followed a pattern we would empty out by christmas of all kittens to six months of age and then only have a few strangler adults and from february to may we adopted adults as the new pregos and orphans came in in march and april. it no longer follows a pattern. more come in and return because of the economy. we will need land to continue. there are bed and breakfast pig rescues in many states and have thought of copying them, i am nervous of people because i have seen what lunatics do, jodif was a lunatic and killed animals everywhere she lived including by our house and street and around the block there is a man who traps. nutcases. humans ruin everything, that is the reason people stop. working on changing the laws is next. vet care free would be good. free and mandatory spay and neuter. but i hear enlgand has all that and there is still overpopulation etc.
your work sounds very impressive. it comes back to reward you, tho\', doesn\'t it?
Wow.
I socialize feral cats so they can find homes.
It is, like your work, very rewarding, but not quite as intensive.
I agree, humans ruin everything.
We have a neighbor who recently shot a harmless little garden snake. It was like, Really, Rambo? You, a 45, and a foot-long garden snake, and you\'re prancing around yelling \"I killed it!\" LIke that was a *feat*? Ack.