by Paula Hunsaker

Feral Paws Rescue Group in Fresno shares with us some of their animal rescue adventures every month. Check out KRL’s article about Feral Paws to learn more about them and check out their website.

Fosters are so important to rescue groups. They open there homes up to moms and kittens, cats, and kittens in need for special care. When a rescue group is so blessed with a foster that is amazing, its can be a life saver to a rescue group. Rescue work isn’t a forever one. It’s not cake and ice cream. It can be so ugly at times too often then we in rescue want to see. But we must remain strong and fight for the life that is in danger. Our rescue group has been so blessed with an amazing foster for one of our moms and kittens that are doing amazing well and are in the best care every. Thanks to our foster Arthur O’Brien Jr.!

Arthur O’Brien Jr.

Arthur has a special area at Valley Animal dedicated to him in the feral area; he cares for it and daily volunteers to care for the feral cats at Valley Animal Center. Arthur is a blessing to all the cats he cares for. Our rescue is so blessed with such a loving and caring person to be part of our rescue word. If you are ever at Valley Animal Center in Fresno, stop and visit the feral area that Arthur puts so much time in caring for. If you are blessed and Arthur is in the area, you will see the trust and love the feral cats in that area give to such a special person that has given much to make sure they remain safe.

I wish everyone had to see and hear what rescuers had to see and hear. The graphic pictures, the sad stories, the continual, relentless, urgent pleas for help. I wish they had to be tagged in the dozens of cases we get tagged in daily. I wish they had to say sometimes yes, but mostly no to the personal messages streaming in at all hours begging for help. I wish they had to feel what it feels like to say no to that animal in dire need because you do not have the resources, the fosters, or the funds to say yes more often. I wish they had to feel that every single day, in and out without fail. Animal cruelty cases. Neglect cases. Abandonment cases. Full shelters on euthanasia lists. Owners threatening to shoot, poison, destroy. Animals that have been hit by cars and left to die. Bait animals. Animals tied in garbage bags and thrown in the trash. Animals tied to a pole and left for dead. Animals that are sick, animals that the shelter won’t help, even though they are funded with millions of dollars, and rescues are funded with nothing. Most cases we never even share with the public or our FB friends because people always say it is “just too sad!” It is. It is way too sad. But that doesn’t change that they still need help. Every day. 365 days a year. No break, no reprieve, no time away. I wish everyone saw that because they might feel the need to do something to help, too.

If you have ever considered helping a rescue in any way, I implore you to take that up. We are exhausted. Help gives us a minute to breathe sometimes. Help helps us to not burn out and just quit because it is far too much for far too few people to handle. Help lets us continue to help those broken, sad, terrified, hurt faces we get flooded with every single day. The never ending please to save them…save them…save them. Please. Help a rescue. Donate funds. Donate your time. Be a foster. Offer to drive animals to vets or pick up from transport or drop off supplies. Offer to help them organize events. Educate and advocate to your circle. Maybe more would help if everyone made it a little more important.

The endemic of unwanted animals in California due to carelessness, lack of spay and neuter laws, and backyard breeders is the worst I have ever seen. All the rescues are drowning. We need help. Sincerely, every rescue. If you truly want to understand a rescue and what is going on behind the big picture and endless hours, become a foster or volunteer and walk in the rescue shoes even if it’s for one day. Maybe then the public wouldn’t be so fast to pass judgement when a rescue can’t take in their animal at the time they ask because they are full. For if rescue groups had more wanting to help with fosters and volunteers, maybe more lives could be saved. So many animals die at high kill shelters daily. We can only save so many, and we must walk into a shelter knowing we can’t save them all. Then we must look at the animals, so many in need of help, who can we save knowing we are leaving some behind that will die that day.

It’s hard to leave a shelter knowing we can’t save them all. But fosters like Arthur is what keeps rescues saving more lives. Our rescue is so blessed with Arthur O’Brien Jr. on our rescue team.

EMAIL: feralpawsrescuegroup@gmail[dot]com
Phone: 559-412-7226

Check out more animal rescue stories in our Pet Perspective section & watch for more stories from Feral Paws every other month, and we would love to have you join our KRL Pets Facebook group. Advertise in KRL and 10% of your advertising fees can go to Feral Paws.