07/16/2022
Back in 2020, I began working on plans to open a feral cat sanctuary. I have been caring for feral cats since 2015, and the main colony I was feeding, spaying, and neutering was "kicked out" of their territory at the end of 2016. I had to rescue as many of them as I could to save them from illegal trapping and dumping, and euthanasia. I attempted to socialize them and find homes or farms for them to live out their days, but this only worked out for a few of them. Instead, I acquired a number of new roommates. When my fiance bought a nice piece of property on which I could open a sanctuary, I put a lofted barn there and fenced in the yard. I moved some of the cats there as I began to work on the physical (cat-proofing fence, running water/electric to barn) and legal aspects of opening a sanctuary. As often happens when opening a business or nonprofit, I faced many road blocks. The opening date of my long-dreamed of sanctuary for feral cats has been pushed back year after year, and is now entirely on-hold, at least for the time being. I still care for the feral cats and descendents of the south Carbondale colony that I originally worked with back in 2015. Some of them remained in their original location. Others are in my home. A few remain unspayed and unneutered, so there have been litters of kittens each year. I have more spay surgeries scheduled this summer. For now, I will post about their lives and tell their stories, while I wait for the day I can return to work on those sanctuary plans. For the time being, I am just an individual helping feral cats, as I always was, not a business or nonprofit. Yet.
