Conference misery::feline_v1

3178.0. "THE RESCUERS" by SCRUZ::CORDES_JA (Set Apartment/Cat_Max=3) Tue Dec 26 1989 14:48

    Here's another story I borrowed (without permission) from the Christmas
    Day issue of the San Jose Mercury News.  I thought you might be
    interested in another group doing what they can to rescue animals.
         
    
    
    RESCUERS GIVE REJECTED PETS A SECOND CHANCE by Delis M. Rios
    
    Santa Claus delivered early this year to 8-month old Maxwell.
    
    The black and tan puppy, his muzzle permanently scarred by rubber
    bands that kept him from whimpering, got "his own 9-year-old for
    Christmas," said Dixie Porter, the woman who brought the boy and
    the abandoned dog together five days ago.
    
    A good home is the gift that Porter and the Rescuers of Los Gatos
    have been giving for three years to abandoned and stray animals.
    They dodge traffic, search in the rain and leave their beds at all
    hours to coax dogs, cats, birds and even wayward geese and chickens
    to safety.
    
    The group receives calls to help about 1,000 animals a year in Los
    Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno on a 24-hour hot line answered
    out of rescue volunteer Betty Wilke's apartment.
    
    Some of the animals have been forced from their homes because of
    divorce, death or their owner's allergies.  Others fall victim to
    old age or illness and are left to fend for themselves when owners
    tire of caring for them.  And sometimes the problem is just owners'
    carelessness:  A lot of opening and closing of doors during the
    holidays results in more than one animal on the loose.
    
    "Please, please tell people to put tags on their animals," Porter
    pleads.  "Most of them have callars but no names."
    
    The Rescuers are not the official portectors of the county's animals.
    That job falls to the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley, which
    acknowledges that it can't do the job alone.  While the society
    doesn't sanction any animal rescue groups, it does occasionally
    cooperate with them.
    
    "Considering the size of the county, if we were the only people
    in town doing the job, we'd be hurting," said Cynthia Smith, a Humane
    Society spokeswoman.  Those groups are doing a worthwhile service.
    The Humane Society and animal control can't be everywhere at once."
    
    Neither can the Rescuers, but that hasn't stopped them from trying.
    The group started with an idea shared by Porter and Wilke.  Now
    they have their own logo and a float in the Los Gatos Christmas
    Parade.
    
    The group's phone rings constantly, bringing 700 calls a month--
    everything from reports of dogs running through traffic to questions
    about adoption.  A few of the rescued animals are too old or too
    sick to adopt.  They become permanent members of the families of
    20 rescuer volunteers who offer their houses and apartments as foster
    homes.
    
    QUAKE BURRIED PETS
    
    During the Oct. 17 earthquake, volunteers spent four days digging
    injured animals out of the rubble and rounding up frightened dogs
    and cats.  Porter, 58, still wears a bandage on the right hand she
    injured lifting furniture off a trapped cat.
    
    On the job, rescuers use dog biscuits, soothing words, humane traps
    and anything else that works.  John Elliott, a former Marine, relies
    on his own confidence:  "All dogs like me," he said.
    
    Three days before Christmas, with the streets crowded with frazzled
    last-minute shoppers, Elliott was directing a golden retriever out
    of traffic on Blossom Hill Road near Winchester Boulevard.  The
    retriever, thought to be about 8 years old, joined a German shepherd
    and fluffy cat in 79-year-old Wilke's apartment.  All three animals
    arrived within an hour of one another.
    
    If there is one guiding principle of the group, it is that every
    animal deserves to live.  The Rescuers try to find animals before
    they are picked up by animal control officers or taken to local
    humane societies, knowing that thousands of dogs and cats are put
    to death every year because their owners never claim them.
    
    Once they pick up the animals, the Rescuers take them to a local
    veterinarian and arrange temporary boarding in a foster home or
    a Los Gatos kennel.  There, animals await the arrival of their owners
    or adoption.
    
    $30,000 A YEAR
    
    Of the $30,000 the Rescuers spend every year, $25,000 goes to
    veterinary care.  Food and telephone bills take the rest.  All but
    5 percent of the costs--which volunteers make up for themselves--comes
    from donations, Porter said.  Fund-raisers are held throughout the
    year, including a recent animal photo session with "Santa Paws."
    
    Even with discounts from the local veterinarian and kennel, the
    bills can be high.  Holly the cockapoo, for one, is recovering in
    Wilke's apartment from a recent hernia operation.  And a 4-month-old
    kitten, its leg badly mangled in what was probably a gopher trap,
    has just had extensive surgery.
    
    But there is a payoff.
    
    "They give you back so much, more than people sometimes," Wilke
    said.

    That's an inspiring story Jan.  Thanks for entering it.
    

    
    
    Jan....thanks for entering the story.  For a change here's a
    story that makes me feel good about being a human being.  God
    bless their efforts!
    
    Carole

    Jan,
    
    Thanks so much for entering that story.  Just made me feel real
    good.  Does anyone know if there are any groups like this in the
    Boston area?  I'd like to get involved.
    
    Zoe
    

    You can help me by fostering some of the abandoned cats from
    Weymouth Commons.  You need to be sure you have a separate room
    tho because its important to isolate them from your cats.  They
    seem to be very very sweet cats once they're inside.  THey need
    lots of love and petting so they get used to humans.
      Send me mail if you're interested.
      Nancy DC

    Pet rejection is one of the cruelist, senseless things that we can do
    to our cats.  Once domesticised there is no way they can easily survive
    in the wild.
    
    My in-laws live and work in the Sultanate of Oman.  They tell me that
    it breaks their hearts seeing English and American families adopting
    wild cats as their pets, domesticising them and then throwing them out
    back into the wild when it is time for them to return home at the end
    of the contract.
    
    These cats are often seen by my in-laws, desperately trying to return
    to the apartments, often starving and bruised with bad injuries
    inflicted upon them by other cats whose territory they have invaded.
    
    In my opinion they would be better off putting them down then
    subjecting them to that kind of mental and physical torture.
    
    
    Ruthie T.

    
    	I was reading a story in a magazine over the weekend.  It's about
    	a wealthy Moslem who has set aside $2.5 million dollars to house
    	stray cats.  They are housed in his $3.2 million  dollar mansion
    	in Miami Florida.  They have 9 feeders/bathers/keepers and I think
    	2 or 3 nurses to take care of the sick/injured ones.  He wants
    	to buy an island somewhere off of Florida and have it solely for
    	these kitties!!  It's truly a great story.
    
    	In fact, he went into a store or a restaurant where there were
    	25 lobsters in a tank.  When Mohammed found out that we Americans
    	boil them and eat them, he bought every one of the lobsters and
    	released them into Biscayne Bay!!
    
    	Truly an animal lover!!
    

    I'd love to read that story.  Do you remember the magazine/issue?
    

As a regular contributor to the Rescuers, I can offer our Santa Clara area
feliners an address to which any spare change can be sent:

		The Animal Society of Las Gatos/Saratoga
			P.O. BOX #64
			Los Gatos, Ca. 95031

Between NDC's efforts and these fine people, I have my list of charitable
contributions figured out.    

				Wishing you all the best for the year,

						   D

    re: .7
    
    	It was in last week's STAR magazine.  If you like I can make
    	a copy and mail it to you.
    
    	JJ