Week 41 - Rescued Critters Food Drive

Hi Folks,

Rescued Critters Need Food, a Forever Home ... and Space

Steve, my neighbor and friend, has been mulling over his retirement from the railroad recently. Moving to Texas came up, so has settling into a cabin he owns up north. In between, Steve talks about caring for his cats and how they give so much meaning to this daily life.

About a week ago, I suggested he take part of his ample home and turn it into a cat shelter. He doesn’t have to adopt cats he could just become a very cat-friendly foster home for kittens. PACC would love it.

Steve is already a major contributor to our Rescued Critters Food Drive so helping PACC is always on the table. In that initial conversation he was seriously considering the idea. To help define the concept of fostering further I said, “you know, besides donations and pet food, what PACC needs most is SPACE.” (I leaned on the word, a bit.) “They care for 17,000 rescued pets a year. With that many animals, they really need SPACE.

“Space,” Steve replied thoughtfully. 

Related Video: 12-year-old foster care expert. https://www.thedodo.com/videos/close-to-home/12-year-old-girl-fosters-kittens-nonstop

Monday’s Delivery

After turning in our donation, I ran into Bennett, our PACC contact and manager, as it were. He is always in demand with his smartphone chiming every minute or two, but he never fails to spends a few minutes with me.

I told Bennett about my conversation with Steve and the concept of space for the 17,000 rescues. He immediately talked about fostering and added that with a new, beautiful building, talking about space may upset some tax payers. That makes perfect sense. Then I told Bennett, I’ll start talking about fostering and space in the same sentence. Folks don’t associate both ideas when they consider fostering.

Then I thought about our $0.90 cents per pound idea. In general, how much space does one rescue pet take? While waiting for Bennett to get back to me, I’ll make a few calculations myself.

As Bennett left for his meeting, I thought about the day I rescued my Cody. He was in a cage with two other dogs just itching to get out. When the door was opened, he bolted past the volunteer and me and headed to the other end of the huge tent. (Remember, what PACC looked line in the old days?)

Cody is a solitary dog and he likes he space. I didn’t know that then. I just thought he wanted to escape again. Well, maybe that was on his mind, too.

Back to the cages, if the space size is 4 feet by 3 feet for dogs that would be 12 sq. ft. Multiply that by 17,000 and you get 204,000 sq. ft. Now let’s see, one football field is 57,600 sq. ft. so if you housed 17,000 pets at once you would need 3.5 football fields.

This is why fostering pets for a while is such a good idea, but keep in mind that you are also donating much need SPACE to PACC. Think of it as if you were babysitting your sister’s kids or your grand kids for that  matter. Not only are you providing a safe shelter, but you are allowing the parents to revitalize themselves. You know that. And that’s why you do it. PACC needs the same SPACE consideration.

This week we donated 135.3 lbs. of pet food and $118.00 in cash and one check. Again, a most generous week.

See you Sunday,

Peter