Ever thankful, DCIN in 2011 and beyond

As the year comes to a close I find myself looking back with such fondness.  Even though I lost my soul mate kitty and my sister lost her soul mate kitty tragically young, I still feel hopeful because of the people I've met through rescue and especially through DCIN.  Every day I see people join together and help others and their cats.  They will never meet these cats and probably never meet the people but when the chips are down they don't hesitate.

There have been some easy rescues, Murray who was in a municipal shelter in Connecticut and was found by his new mom as soon as we posted about him.  The Animal Control Officer who came in day and night to give him shots before DCIN was contacted.  The day we went to the shelter and demonstrated how to test blood sugar was the day Murray went off insulin.  Then to go home just two days later, I think for me the timing was perfect.  Sometimes I get tired and not really sure how to go on, but then something like that happens and it puts everything right back into prospective for me.

There's a DCIN assisted kitty named Big Boy who was on hock legs and skinny when he came to us.  He is now at a healthy weight and walking upright for the first time since his folks adopted him. A kitty in NY named Mikey who was going to be sent to a shelter who instead landed in a wonderful foster home with two people that love him dearly and while he's not been adopted yet, he's certainly being treated like a king.


There are some new fosters who are part of the DCIN family.  Mikey's folks, Luna's new foster family and Sweet Kitty's new foster family.

Mikey

There have been some difficult cases, a few kitties that were sick and have homes but their was financial help needed to care for them.  As sad as it was to watch these kitties go through so much and to wish that you could do something more for the kitty and their furparent, you couldn't even hug them because they were on the other side of the country. But thankfully the DCIN family, those on Facebook, Yahoo and other groups,  pulled together and helped get these kitties the help they needed.

We have lost some kitties, some that were in shelters, some that were in homes.  With each loss a part of us goes with them.  Dumbledore was lost, but surrounded by love when he went, the folks at the shelter loved him and were with him when he had to go.

DCIN also expanded this year, we have two wonderful new Case Managers and two fantastic ladies who make up our Transport Team and - yes there are a lot of ands!! - we have a new Behavior Consultant who we hope will help make rehoming our usually senior kitties who come with so much baggage a little easier on the new families.  All of these new folks, as well as Venita and myself, we do all of this for free.  Well, that's not necessarily true.  We pay for it, sometimes in heart ache and sometimes in joy.  I feel blessed to work with these amazing folks.  But there are others too.  Folks who have helped us with fundraisers, others who have created some artwork for us, others who help with corporate fundraising and share ideas with us.  We are very blessed to have all of these folks but I feel especially blessed to be a part of DCIN as a whole.  The fans, the friends, the family we have, all of that makes the work that I do so much easier.  Each and every one wears a cat on their sleeve and in 2012 I hope you will get to meet a few, if not in person, maybe they will write a post here and proudly say I wear a Cat on My Sleeve.