Saturday, December 19, 2009

Nonprofit Feasibility

I'm still mulling the idea of forming a nonprofit. I can't find one single person interested in becoming involved, however. That's kind of scary. I can't find anyone other than rubber stamp board member offers, to even form a board. I am becoming slightly pessimistic about going forward. I also recall how difficult it has been to get even a $5 donation from a person for whom I might be taking in a dozen cats to be fixed.

In other words, I don't know how I could find the funds to fix cats even if I got the status. I don't know how I'd find the start up money either. Or functioning board members. It is a huge undertaking to consider and to do so alone here, is a rather staggering thought. I wrote a letter to the local paper a couple of months ago, suggesting the need for a two county cat fixing nonprofit solution. I did not get any responses to that letter in support or from people interested in joining me.

I have to consider these things, since the undertaking is very very expensive, $600 or more in initial filing fees, which is like a million dollars to me. And that's without hiring a lawyer.

I have not found any local nonprofits whose umbrella I could work under who are willing and who communicate. I'm still working on ideas, however. I see all these unfixed cat ads, and situations, and it kills me to be able to do nothing. I don't go online much anymore because I don't want to be tempted to look at craigslist or the free ads in the paper.

I have always felt there are far too many nonprofits, so none get donations needed to effectively function at their mission. I don't want to create just another nonprofit.

The only thing I want to do is round up unfixed cats, feral and owned, and get them fixed. It's all I've ever wanted to do.

Within one week, without funding, I think I'm going nuts. Human contact is zero and other than do projects around here, I have nothing to maintain my interest. I do feel lost, like I've been sucked to the edge of a black hole and I'm trying to claw at its edges to hang on, desperate to keep from disappearing into its violently swirling unknowns.

There are no possibilities I am not considering. I am even considering trying to buy an old RV and hitting the road, rather than stagnant and go nuts here for the rest of my days.

Everybody keep your fingers crossed for Jeanne and her family in Baltimore, which is undergoing a BLIZZARD!!!! Hey Jeanne, need some snowshoes for Christmas? I hope you're not out in the bliz making snowmen and snow angels!

In other news, the young man who adopted Pippi, one of Jade's girls, called me from Hood River. Just before they left to go to their family for Christmas, Pippi had sudden onset violent vomiting and lethargy. They took her to a Corvallis vet who found nothing wrong but gave her some fluids.

She showed no improvement, however, and once in Hood River, he was frightened for her. I asked if she was dehydrated and he tested her by lifting up on the skin on her back to check for rebound and reported that she seemed seriously dehydrated. I told him she needed fluids immediately and also suggested karo syrup on the gums, since she had not been eating and perhaps catlax or even olive oil.

To me it sounded like a blockage of some sort, since she had no temp and her gum color was pink and healthy. I told him it could be from something she swallowed or hairballs. He said she liked to play with globs of fuzz from the drier.

I called again later, concerned I could have given bad advice about suggesting catlax or olive oil if she perhaps had diarrhea already from maybe giardia or coccidia, although he'd said the Corvallis vet checked a stool sample. I'd asked how they got one if she was dehydrated and he'd already said she didn't have diarrhea. He said he didn't know because they took her back to a room, for just a couple minutes, and brought her out again, saying they took a stool sample. They told him they found nothing in that, which doesn't mean much since most of those gut protozoa or bacteria don't shed in every stool. He had told me her vomit was clear.

To me this sounds not like infection but irritation or pressure on the stomach from a blockage, either in the stomach or intestine or at one of the valves. I had also asked him if she possibly fell from a height. The most notable thing he said about her behavior before was that she likes to get into the garbage can and that she likes to carry things around in her mouth. Like dryer lint.

He had told me she was walking sort of stiffly. I once took a kitten to the vet who could barely walk. She'd been given chicken to eat by someone living on the property. The vet found a lump on her abdomin's lower right side. When under anesthesia, he was able to milk that piece of chicken gristle, caught between the valve seperating the small and large intestine through. She later was able to eliminate it.

He said they'd found an emergency vet there, who didn't even charge for the after hours call, who immediately really hydrated her and started her on antibiotics just in case. He said if she does not improve with the fluids, she'll need an X-ray to determine if she does have a blockage. He said though after she got home and had the fluids she felt so much better and was racing around. He said he'd keep me updated.

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