Something For Nothing. Fear for Fate of Poppa Inc.

I can't persuade people to donate to Poppa Inc. I'm no good at it. I can't even get people to give small copays or to understand they should contribute to fixing their own cats and why--Poppa Inc. will run out of money and then other cats can't be fixed.

Last week, I was able to get $30 in donations for the 14 cats taken up on Tuesday. None of those 14 even came under help from the Albany grant. The lowest income of the three caregivers whose cats I transported to be fixed that day, gave them most--$20. That was more than she could afford.

Could the others have afforded to pay something? Probably so. How to persuade them to do so. Poppa Inc. will run out of money and then no cats will get fixed. I tell them this.

How to change the conversation so they understand it is ultimately their responsibility, that nothing is owed them by myself or Poppa Inc. and that it is a larger responsibility to fix their cats owed to society, who pays the costs when they don't, one way or another.

How to also bring in the kindness factor, regarding the massive death and suffering caused by overpopulation, that every kitten born to their cat means others die, regardless of whether they find homes for, or, to use the popular local phrase "get rid of" the kittens born to their unfixed mothers.

Right now, there are tons of people struggling to even feed themselves or pay rent, with the economy.

I have to figure these things out. Poppa Inc. will run out of funds. They told me a year ago, the money they had left would probably last two more years. That gives me only a year left, if I don't find some way to raise money.

I have to do better.

We need a hotshot grant writer. Fixing cats is the greatest need for cats in this state, not more shelters. I took in about 550 cats this year to be fixed. Think about that number, just that number. Then think about how many cats those 500 odd cats would have reproduced, in just this coming summer. Almost all the cats I took in this year came from Linn and Benton counties.

If half those cats were females, 225 say, then by the end of the summer, those 225 females, with the help of a lot of males, would have reproduced on average three litters each with four kittens per litter (many litters are far larger), that's 2700 more cats born next summer alone just from the cats I got fixed.

What shelter could handle that?

I thought of a great movie plot. The movie starts with the cat wrangler in action, in their old junky smelly car, digging kittens out from under a house, facing off under the house with a racoon or pitbull or whatever (fill in blank, we've seen it all), then, digruntled filthy, cursing, worn out, maybe being chased by meth addicts who think their cat is in the cat rescuer/fixer's car, the cat wrangler sees as they're driving, a house, cat sitting on the porch, obviously pregnant, thinks she should stop, hems and haws, doesn't.

After passing this cat by, the cat wrangler is sitting in a junky diner and a friend is asking, "If you could do it all over, what would you change?" (they'd been talking about life and their pasts in general).

From there the movie takes off in tangents, following the sordid dramatic sometimes twisted and violent lives of those people who pick up the latest litter of kittens from that female. The cats lives and suffering, and subsequent litters from litters, entertwine inexplicitly with the lives of the humans around them. Tragedy after tragedy results for both the offspring, offspring's offspring and the people who take the free kittens handed out.

Near the end of the movie, the two friends are again in the diner, with friend asking same question, about what the other would change. It is not apparent at first that this is the same moment in time as at the beginning of the movie.

As the camera probes deep into the cat wranglers eye, it cuts to a scene of the wrangler passing that junky house and seeing that pregnant cat. This time, the wrangler stops, grabs the cat, as the stupid meth addicts are screaming "get the guns" from inside and makes a dash for it. As the wrangler does this, the whole future begins to collapse, all those horrors and tragedies to come, involving the cats offspring and the people surrounding, dissolve into a much much better picture.

I think it would be a great movie.

If done right, it could illustrate how one act can completely change the future. One act, like spaying a cat, really can rock the future of the world, and change a million things. It's really unbelievable if you have the capacity to imagine what isn't going to happen because Poppa Inc. helped me get 550 cats fixed this year. you would not believe how this shakes the earth and molds the future. \

Close your eyes. Think about it. Think about all the horror scenarios that will not occur, because those 550 cats were fixed. You gotta have somewhat of an imagination to realize the unbelievable reality of what this accomplishes. Try it.