We’ve been pretty quiet lately and I guess that most of the people believe that no news is good news and there’s no need to worry – if something bad had happened, everybody would know. But is it so? Our random updates, too few and far between, are not even faintly
reflecting the biggest crisis the shelter’s been in over the last few years. It’s not that we’re being secretive, it’s not that we think all of our friends aren’t interested in what’s going on, it’s not really just a plain lack of time. Somehow, once everything is
explained in detail and said loud and clear, it seems even worse than when we keep our worries to ourselves and try to act as if we have only some insignificant problems that can easily and quickly be resolved.
I don’t even know
where to start. Shelter repairs are not finished yet due to the lack of funds and although we’re totally aware we must find a way to get things back to normal while we still can, we simply don’t know who to turn to anymore. We’ve already tried everything we could
think of to no avail, and if we don’t come up with some brilliant ideas right away, the future of the Felix kitties, particularly when the winter chill kicks in, is uncertain and definitely not promising.
The renovated part of the roof above the
kitties’ rooms in the backyard (which was being fixed this summer) looks nice and sturdy, but we’re still not able to purchase the gutters nor the metal sheeting necessary for extending the metal lower part of the roof over the path. Since we can’t manage the
water from precipitation without gutters, the entire backyard turns into a muddy, swampy mess whenever it rains and the next door neighbor’s garage is flooded every single time.
The metal part of the roof is another matter.
If we fail to extend it over the new path in front of the cats’ rooms which was put in with the sole purpose of preventing the cats from stepping directly into the mud when they come out of their rooms in rainy/snowy weather, this corridor that’s half finished already
will be useless. The idea was to make a sheltered place for the kitties out of what’s now a walkway, bordered by the walls of the cats’ rooms on one side and support columns and little dividing walls on the other, that will be enclosed with tarps attached to the new
roof during the winter.
Unfortunately, the metal part of the roof is lower and shorter than the new one and if we don’t extend it over the path, we’ll have an empty space at the end of the corridor, through which rain and snow will be blowing in and
none of the cats from the backyard will have a dry outdoor space when the weather is bad. However, if we manage to raise the funds for both the gutters and for the metal sheeting necessary for extending the lower part of the roof over the path, the new
corridor will truly be a sheltered place for the kitties, as it would be bordered by the garage on its other end. But to our big regret and despite all of our efforts, we’re still $1.500 US short, we’ve already exhausted all of our resources and we’re literally backed up
against the wall, with no idea how to complete this phase of the shelter repairs. Summer is rapidly coming to an end and it rains almost every day, so I don’t even dare to imagine what kind of weather the autumn and winter will bring.
At this time of year we should be thinking about purchasing the first tank of gas for central heating, but we’re still struggling with the renovations and time has flown by. The wire mesh above the front yard, or more precisely the chain linked fencing, has been loosened and
stretched again a zillion times and its links are now entirely too large to prevent kittens and skinnier adults from squeezing their way outside. As a consequence, kitties are happily escaping almost every day, running and having fun around the shelter for hours until I finally
catch them or somehow persuade them to come back home. Needless to say that with all of the current problems, chasing the runaways day by day is the last thing I need…
Is it even worth it to try and ask for help once again? We’re
immensely grateful for every single donation we’ve received for the shelter repairs so far, but there so much more to do and yet we’ve stopped halfway through weeks ago and no repair work has been done since! Please, step in with anything you can afford and help us
enable a three digit number of Felix kitties to continue living happy and safe in their beautiful forever home!
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