As many of you know i foster and help out at a few animal rescues all around the country.I also take in any unwanted pet and try to find it a good home.Most are injured or sick or come to me a state. !!!!
Now ive never asked for a penny help from any of the charities i help out and we pay all the vets bills and spaying/neutering costs.Its getting to the stage now where i have an influx of cats and kittens handed over and i am doing my best to help everyone.Ive been told by one charity i help out that if i was to continue i would have to have a cat pen in the garden to house the cats.The worse of it is is that i will need to BUY my own pen !!!!
I now have two choices and thats to buy a cat pen to house these cats or give up alltogether on these rescues.I know the charity are really short on foster carers right now so i am worried what will happen to the ones i have and also the ones that need help in the future.
Why are these charitable organisations so uncharitable?? !!!

I think you need to point this out to the charity, Lizzie. Frankly, from the sounds of it, they are placing a strain on you when they should be thanking you for your contribution.

With all the time, money and love you invest in saving animals they need to be more supportive and meet you half-way both financially and otherwise, in my opinion. I realize they may not bring in a lot of money, but the money isn't the point. If they make demands on those who help them they should expect to also bear the financial responsibility for those demands. But, like with many animal "charities" I think they get desensitized and push the people they need away with their heartlessness or their inability to understand a larger picture. They focus so much on the animals they forget that they need to remember that people are important as well.

I think what you do is great, Lizzie. But, in my experience, those who help animals in charities often lack the people skills to actually benefit the charity and the animals long-term. A friend (a vet) does charity work in her clinic and helps wild animals, strays and the like. She has done major surgeries on strays and even kept one as a pet at the clinic because he had major reconstructive surgery on his face. She has turned away cat charities because they don't follow-up on the animals here in Japan. They rescue, pass the problem onto her to deal with and disappear. She doesn't want the money for the treatment. She wants them to place the cats in homes after she treats them but they don't. My friend feels passionately about the cats themselves. But if the cat rescue people can't handle the placement of kittens or cats, then there really isn't much use for that cat "rescue" society.

At the end of the day, though, the harsh truth, Lizzie, is that you can't save them all. Perhaps instead of doing it on such a large scale you could scale back how many cats you take?

Lizzie, I think they really need to value you and the work you do MORE!!!!!
If we foster children we get a small salary to cover the majority of the costs of caring for the child/ren. It should be the same with animal foster carers. If they want you to do this they REALLY should be providing you with the equipment to do this!!!

I hope you are able to stand up and say how it is to them. Hopefully if they see how you value yourself and the work you do, they will start to do the same....?
Many hugs,
Becky xxxx

I am afraid its the old saying again "give them an inch and they will take a mile". You can't take on more than you can handle and you are doing more than most people and I for one feel very proud to know you Lizzie.

Luv Janet

Lizzie, please don't make yourself ill over this!
You can only do so much, and you should be very proud of yourself!

When our Son moved back in we couldn't have his Staffie because of our dog (believe me we tried and our dog was traumatised)
Staffies are very hard to rehome...all the rescue homes turned us down...they said they couldn't take another Staffie until one left.

So I contacted a lady that rescued Staffies...even she couldn't help (and was gutted that she couldn't)
What became apparent to me in our conversations was that this poor woman was making herself ill mentally and financially due to her love of these dogs.

My sons Staffie eventually stayed with his ex (she had been using the dog for mind games)



Linda
xx

Lizzie don't feel guilty over this. You are doing much more of than is expected of you by paying vets bills and paying for the cats to be spayed, surely the charity should be meeting these bills!! I sponsor two dogs through Dogs Trust at £10 per month and they never make such demands. They should be paying you and be grateful for having such a loving, caring and selfless person as a helper. Lynette

amen to that
just a thought do you have a freecycle group running where you live you might beable to ask for a cat pen or an avery that you could adapt to a pen be surprized wha people have that they dont use and are willing to give it away to someone who deserves it such as yourself xxx
http://uk.freecycle.org/

Oh dear Lizzie I think Ive just heard about everything!!
People who give up their time-their home-their money and offer safety-love and care for these animals and charities come along and dictate "you must have this and that and that"!!!!!
like yourself and others do a wonderful job and the world would be in even more desperate states if there wasnt...

It makes my blood BOIL that they would EXPECT you to pay and provide a cat pen!!!!!!!

If no-one did the work you do--imagine how many horrific masses of ferrel cats all running amock with illness and diseases and such like. .doesnt bear thinking about!

You give out your home etc to provide for as many as you can and THEY dictate to you!!!

Another idea would be to put on your LOCAL RADIO station a PLEA for anyone giving FREE an unwanted aviary etc...or one better GET ON the local paper -FAB footage for help!!!
PROUD OF YOU LADY!!

HUGS JACK

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

I could juet give it all in and send the animals to shelters everywhere in hope they can find homes for them.Its that or they get PTS.Charities dont have alot of time for the "unrehomable" pets out there.Everyone wants the well,pretty young pet but no one wants the old,infirm and sick pets or the ones that are scruffy or dissabled.!! Ive recently lost one of my long term guests.He was an old white and black cat with one eye,no ears,three legs and hardly any teeth.His name was William. He was left at the vets and no one wanted him.He lived in a tiny cage with no acsess to outdorrs at all.I just couldnt leave him there to die in place like that watching the sickness and suffering all around him.No home or people to call his own.We were lucky enough to be blessed with William for just over two years before he went to Rainbow Bridge.Who else would of taken him home i ask you??? !!!

People can look after themselves but animals have no voice.Some one has to be their voice and i feel that person is me.I do what i can when i can.If i didnt i have no doubt i would be better off money wise but my heart would be in tatters knowing the suffering i am being blind to.

I have many many tales of sights ive seen and places ive been to to collect all sorts of pets.It would make you sick to see some of the places and situations ive been in.I just cant leave them like that.A poor german shepherd pup kept by drug dealers and locked in a cellar to be beaten and abused in hope he would turn into a guard dog.The poor dog was so scared when i went in to collect him.I couldnt exactly say that i was full of confidence either being surrounded by drug adicts high on some drug or other but hey-ho.Its got to be done.

A young female cat turned up at my house yesterday so i bought her indoors and did the usual enquiries as to who she belonged to.She couldnt of been any older than around 4mnths old.
I found she belonged to a woamn who lives right opposite us so i took her back.Now i dont like this woman at all but needs must.When i got there she said it was her kitten so i advised her to keep her inside till she has been spayed.She then proceeded to ask me if i knew of anyone who wanted kittens as her other cat was just about to have her 4th litter !!!! I asked her why she hadnt been spayed and she said she had meant to get her done but hadnt got round to it !!!!
Any day now another litter of unwanted kittens will be born and its another job for me to find homes for them.!!! I am suppose to be nice to people like this and offer help or send them in the right direction to get help but i dont think i can any more.This woman isnt stupid and has got enough money to get her 4 cats spayed/neutered but she chooses not to as she just cant be bothered to find the time to take them in.THEN she wants to take charity money rather than pay out herself. !!!!!
The last couple of cats she had she gave away as one had a stomach upset and she couldnt be bothered to get it sorted out at a vets and the cat was making a mess in the house.!!!! WHY do these people bother with pets? They are NOT disposable objects to get rid of when they no longer want them.