We hope the Fabulous Felines 2013 Year End Letter finds you well, and enjoying what has been a beautiful autumn and the coming winter weather that brings the holidays. As is our tradition, we would like to take this time to reflect on the events of the past year. As is always the case for small charities like ours, the year has been filled with successes and challenges, and with your help, we have faced them all with a positive outlook. In particular, we have lost the services of Merry Stubblefield, our Executive Director and primary Fundraiser, to medical problems until early spring, and hope you will help us through this difficulty by including us in your year-end giving, and by passing the word to others who may wish to help the kitties.
So, we hope you will enjoy this letter and the opportunity to learn of the work we have done with your support, and will continue to help us as we move into 2014.
Much of our energy in the last year has gone into continuing our major, long-term projects. For the past few years, we have been working with residents of a local neighborhood to manage a colony of community cats. This effort, named Project Apollo after one of the first cats we trapped, neutered, and returned (TNR), has demonstrated the viability of TNR in stabilizing these colonies without killing animals. With the generous help of neighborhood residents, we have been able to provide food and shelter to these animals, and by neutering the cats, have prevented the feline population explosion that would otherwise have been inevitable.
Cassiopiea
In spite of this success, such efforts are not without their heartbreak. Cassiopeia, a beautiful black, bob-tailed member of the community was found deceased in her shelter in late November. She has been part of the colony for many years, and although her loss was heartbreaking, we are grateful that she showed no sign of injury or other trauma. She appeared to have passed peacefully in her sleep, while in her favorite hut where she felt warm and safe, and we suspect that she was even older than we originally thought. Although we will miss her on our visits to the colony, we are grateful to have given her years of safety and comfort, and have renewed our commitment to helping sustain the colony.
We have also continued to work to help people in need keep their cats in their homes, by providing cat food and help with veterinary care to families in need. This is always the best solution to the problem of homeless cats.
Cats enjoying their new aerial habitat!
Our other continuing effort has been our foster house. This is a small house that is home to animals we have trapped, but for health or other reasons could not be returned to their colony. We also have a number of friendly cats who are seeking loving, permanent homes. Maintenance of the foster house depends entirely upon our volunteers, with food and supplies being paid for by your generous donations. Our little foster house has also been the focus of an ongoing refurbishment effort this year, thanks to the generosity of one of our donors. We have removed the old carpet, patched the cement flooring, put down area rugs, added an aerial habitat for the cats and painted all the rooms. We have purchased new tile for the floor, and will be putting it down as time and help permits.
Perhaps our newest and most noteworthy effort has been the Fabulous Felines Free Lecture Series. Thanks to sponsorships from Clark’s Pet Emporium, VCA West Mesa, and VCA Montgomery, we have been able to offer our community a series of free lectures on topics concerning cat care, veterinary care, and the joy these animals bring to our lives. The series has included talks by Dr. Dawn Nolan on her work in achieving Gold Level certification for VCA Montgomery as a Cat Friendly Practice; Jon George of Southwest Myotherapy on the benefits of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy for our pets; and Dr. Carol Breslin on Feline Dental Care. We are also proud that we were able to fill the auditorium at the New Mexico Bar for Dr. Ray Hernandez-Duran’s talk on The Historical Representation of the Cat in Global Art. In addition to our sponsors, we wish to thank all of our speakers for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm, as well as VCA Montgomery, Southwest Myotherapy, and the New Mexico Bar for letting us use their sites to present these talks, and especially want to thank everyone who attended these talks.
We also would like to remind you that Jess Langer will be speaking on methods for socializing cats into an existing situation sometime in January. Please follow this web site for the time and location of her talk.
Of course, no effort is without challenges and setbacks. In addition to the loss of Cassiopeia, we currently find ourselves without the help of our Executive Director, Merry Stubblefield. In 2010, Merry had a total hip replacement; unfortunately, the hip proved defective, and had to be replaced this November. Thankfully, her surgery was a success, but she will not be back at work until early spring. Had it not been for the heroic efforts of our volunteers, all of whom have increased their commitments by many hours, we don’t know how we would have continued our work. Although our volunteers have kept our services and our foster house going, Merry’s absence has had a severe impact on our fundraising. Like many small charities, Fabulous Felines depends upon the efforts of a single individual – in this case Merry – for nearly all our fundraising, so we hope you will help us through this difficult time by considering us in your year-end charity giving plans. There are so many ways you can help, including
- Cash donations made through our web site or by mailing a check to
Fabulous Felines
P. O. Box 14841
Albuquerque, NM 87191
- Including us in your United Way donations, by specifying Fabulous Felines of Albuquerque, or in your Combined Federal Campaign donations by designating # 83472;
- Donating food and supplies to our ongoing food drive at VCA Montgomery (download and share our Winter Flier or our Victorian Christmas Flier);
- Volunteering to work with our foster cats;
- Adopting or fostering a grateful animal;
- Purchasing cleaning, body care, and nutritional products through the kitties’ Shaklee store; or
- Simply telling your friends and family about our organization – perhaps by passing this letter on to them.
As is often the case, these challenges bring the gift of compassion, and we would like to end this letter by thanking our volunteers, donors, and friends – both individuals and businesses – for making our work possible and for their help in this difficult time. We wish you a wonderful holiday and greatest joy and prosperity in the coming new year.
Always,
Merry Stubblefield,
Executive Director
Fabulous Felines.
