$20,000! Safehaven Gets that Much from Fundraiser for Spay Neuter

Safehaven made a killing on a fundraiser in Lebanon for their voucher program. $20,000!

That is a lot of money.

It's great for them.

I do feel even more inadequate, since I can't seem to raise a dime in this area for Poppa Inc., even to pay my gas to take cats to be fixed. I hope we get a grant from Albany this year. If we don't, it's probably the end of efforts in this area. We don't have any manpower to do fundraisers. Or community support to do it.

Poppa began as a state wide assistance program to help those who fell through the cracks. The board ran a nursery to raise funds, making their money rather than getting it from fundraisers or grant writing. That was because the founder is a master gardener and that's what she knows--plants. She doesn't know grant writing or fundraising.

When Recycled Gardens closed, she intended to shut down Poppa Inc. as she never intended to keep it going longer than ten years. She and the other two board members work their own jobs to support themselves. They don't have time to fundraise or write grants either.

Poppa Inc. remained viable probably only because I went into a deep depression when I was informed they were going to close. I think they kept it going for my sake, which I appreciated greatly. Moving to Linn County was something I'd never planned on. But when I moved here, a few years ago, when evicted in Corvallis, I was not prepared to face how bad the situation here was for cats. Nothing could prepare a person.

The streets over run in cats, entire neighborhoods over run, even my own yard at my new rental over run. If I had not been able to use Poppa funds, I would have gone nuts, to see the misery everywhere for the cats and not be able to do a damn thing about it.

I'm no fundraiser either. I came here with a dozen cats and now have 40 and still can find no volunteers or routine donations for Poppa Inc., for transport gas, of cat food for adoptables here, or help from any other groups finding homes. Time, limited money, exhaustion all become factors. I was dismayed with Safehaven's blind eye to the problem. I'm glad they're finally getting on board with some spay neuter money. I wish they and all shelters with paid staff would be far more aggressive at solving the problem.

With that amount of money, Safehaven should be able to go at spay neuter in this county full force. I hope they do, for gosh sakes. They need to. They're all paid there. They've got the money. No excuses.

I think I'll refer everyone outside Albany city limits in Linn County to them, since they have the money now, $20,000 for spay neuter, which is a lot, and Poppa is running real low and I don't have money for gas.

It's quite amazing actually to think what three people, who are not even paid, who live way up in the Portland area, have accomplished for cats in this area. Yeah, I have done an amazing job here, working my butt off for nothing, living on nothing like I do. I know I live like a ghost here, overshadowed by the bigger shelters with their publicity machines and paid staff.

But I have a wry little sense of humor over that. It's a private joke, between me and the cats, a secret we share, and they know well who it is who comes to their aid.