Alisse Russell, Puff Cat Rescue, Inc.
March 24, 2020
Elaine Spencer and Melanie Gardner, T-Town TNR
March 31, 2020
Wow, times are changing quickly. Our world of caring for community cats has changed dramatically in the last week. Our spay/neuter resources are much fewer or non-existent. We are being told to let kittens be born and leave cats that are not in distress out on the streets until we can begin our trapping operations again. Hopefully, our return to “normal” will happen very soon. But in the meantime, hopefully, we can make this “break” a productive time of opportunity for our organizations.
What sort of things can we do to help our organizations and feral cats down the road? This is a great time to review your structure, regroup, and do all of the things on the list that you haven’t had time to do before now. Maybe focus some time on setting up fundraising initiatives for the year, or do a phone “thank-a-thon” for donors.
One thing that is critical at this point in time is to communicate with your supporters, feral cat colony caretakers, volunteers, and staff. Anxiety levels are high and the more that we can do to support these folks’ concerns, the better. We will make it through this; we just need to be creative and inventive on how we can do the best possible things for cats. There are many webinars, articles, and posts sharing information about COVID-19. I try to post them to the CCP Facebook page as they come into my inbox. Join us there to stay informed, to share resources you’ve found helpful, and to be part of our ongoing conversations.
These are just a few articles of interest related to the coronavirus crisis that I saw this week:
On Fundraising
Fundraising: How to Get Your Community to Help During COVID-19 Outbreak
Fundraising During the Corona Outbreak:
Answers to 5 Pressing Questions
4 Ways to Engage Major Donors During the COVID-19 Crisis
On Human Resources
Veterinary practice during COVID-19: An essential service?
Something for Everyone
Yale’s free online happiness class,”The Science of Well-Being,” which might be good for all of us to take if this is going to be a long haul.
I have also read about some incredible stories of wonderful adoptions. I have especially been trying to follow the stories of the adoption programs in the south, as they were so dependent on transport and now they are adopting out or fostering hundreds of animals on a daily basis. It is really quite amazing to see what these folks on the front lines are doing. Things like drive-up and virtual adoptions are becoming our new normal. There are challenges everywhere. But the most important thing I want to know today is this How are you doing? Join us on Facebook or in our pop-up panels (March 28 and March 30) and let us know.
