When we lost my sister, an amazing woman, Theresa, jumped into action to help my sister’s cats and kittens find shelter for them. I had reached out to her to see if she knew anyone who could help these farm cats. I had tried every one I could find, and no one could help. She recommended the Canadian Animal Task Force. I contacted them about our situation. They were very sympathetic and kind (not to mention the only group that replied to me), but also realistic. They offered to put me on a waiting list, but let me know that they, like all the other rescues and shelters, were very overloaded with animals in need. I genuinely did not expect to hear from them. Then I got a call., R.J. from CATF was checking in to see if I got help yet.
On the last morning, as they were catching the final kitten from the farm, all of my pent-up emotions let loose (and this thought brings tears to my eyes as I’m typing). I was blindingly aware of the bigger picture of the moment. EVERY cat on this farm was being saved. We hadn’t let my father-in-law down for all these cats he (and we) loved and were his companions. I knew that CATF was there to help as many cats as they could, but the maybe unexpected impact this had on our family was profound. We weren’t going to have to watch a farm full of cats freeze or starve to death. We weren’t going to have to watch sick cats that we couldn’t afford to help slowly and probably painfully die. We weren’t going to have the overwhelming emotional and financial stress of wondering how we were going to get through this. We could manage the 7 cats who were brought back to us. The help of CATF was THE ONLY reason we and the 28 cats were going to be okay with the situation we had all inherited by default. I was asked how I felt about the support from the Canadian Animal Task Force. This question was easy. They perform miracles and change countless animals’ lives and people’s lives. They changed ours.