co-operation

I wondered how long it would take for them to get here. The SPCA came by yesterday. Apparently they had a complaint about there being too many animals at my house.
The funny thing was, she didn`t know my name ,only our group name. I answered all her questions as truthfully as possible and we chatted for quite some time , even shed some tears together. The poor woman has two counties to cover alone and handles every complaint. We talked about 'No Kill" and she understood that there are ways to handle most situations ( her reference point was aggressive dogs) without putting animals to death 'humanely'. I even offered to foster for their organization and she seemed shocked and amazed. But she is also upset that Woodstock has no facility for dogs and all have to go to Brantford or Stratford to face their fate.
This nice lady gets paid for what she does. SPCA is a business first and a charity second. Their cat adoption fee is around $140 while ours is $95. But thats not the point here. I totally understand her interest in something as new as a real rescue in Oxford and I can see why she would think that all the animals would be in one place because thats what their organization practices. I told her about all of our fabulous foster homes all over Oxford and about our friendships with petstores, Vets and Cranberry Kennels.
Without our friends, we couldn`t and wouldn`t do what we do. This isn`t a one person show. A rescue effort takes many ,many people . The SPCA relies on a building with cages to store their cats where they can be managed effectively. They also spread their funds around so that all their places of business have money for the necessities.
CARO is made up of volunteers. We have no money. We have no facility. We only have us and our determination to protect and rehome as many unwanted animals as we can .
It would be nice to have a building for our extra companions but for now, we have our foster homes in place and I thank God for that.
I told her that down the road a few years, we`d like to have a spay/neuter clinic with kennels for boarding and housing our intakes for their quarantine periods. It would make it easier for us for sure. We`ll take it slow, only take emergency intakes and surrenders and build our communities trust.
I`m hoping that she and I can come up with a plan to educate the general public about vaccinating and sterilizing their companions so there wont be so many going through their last days at the pound. And sadly, the SPCA. Maybe I can work on that with her too. There are alternatives to every issue in life. God gives us choices.
I`ve made mine.
later