Craig Street Cats

It’s been a crazy week here at Craig Street Cats.  We have 25 kittens in, and 14 of them went in for spay and neuter this week.  The rest will be going for their big days in a couple of weeks.  The cute factor here is through the roof, but we’re willing to share with qualified adoptive families

Ferry has been in to Fort Garry Veterinary Hospital 3 times this week.  On Monday Dr. Bebchuck, orthopedic specialist, was going to operate to repair Ferry’s leg, but blood tests showed that he had an infection, so surgery was delayed.  On Tuesday, one of Ferry’s hind feet was badly swollen, so he went in to have that checked, and Dr. Mander decided to make some changes to Ferry’s splint and bandage.  Today he went in to have his bandage checked, and it was decided that the splint wasn’t really helping, so it was removed.  He’ll be checked again in 2 weeks, and a decision about further treatment will be made at that time.

Many incredible things have happened since I posted about our financial woes.  Wonderfully generous people have come forward to help with dollars and supplies.  Others are planning amazing fundraising events.  We are no longer completely broke.  The bills are up to date, and we have enough food and supplies to get through a couple of weeks.  We have a couple of months worth of dry food on hand.  Thanks to Friends Fundraising for Animal Shelters, the vets will be paid in full.

We are not out of the woods, by any means, but things are not as dark as they were 2 weeks ago.  Thank you to everyone who has donated food, supplies and money to help us keep going.

This year we will, once again, have a booth at the Manitoba Cat Club Cat Show.  The show runs July 3 and 4, 9am to 4pm, at the Holy Cross Gym, 290 Dubuc.  Some of our cats will be there, just to say “hi”, and one of our alumni will be entered in the Houshold Pet category. 

Sketch, now known as Charlemagne, will be shown by Meaghan West, who adopted him last September.  We’re looking forward to seeing Char do well in his class.

Of course, we’ll have a full assortment of goodies for sale (catnip toys, cat beds, hammocks, t-shirts, cards, dish cloths, raffle tickets . . .), as well as a very nice assortment of goodies in a gift basket.  Hope to see you all there!

No, we are not becoming a PBS station. We are having a pledge drive, though.

The cost of running Craig Street Cats has gone from almost nothing to almost $100,000/yr in just 2 years. We are not raising anywhere near that much at our fundraising events. Our regular monthly expenses (vets, food, equipment, supplies, phones, etc.) total almost $5,000. Emergencies and unforeseen events bring the yearly total to almost $100,000. That does not include any salaries — nobody is getting paid to do this.

We currently have monthly pledges totalling $175.00. I sit at information tables 5 or 6 days every month, and raise approximately $750 / month. Donation cans bring in another $40 or $50 / month. We receive an average of $250.00 in one time donations each month. That’s an average of $1,225.00 / month, leaving an average shortfall of $3,775.00 / month. Money raised at our fundraising events, like the Spay-Ghetti Dinner and the rummage sale, goes to cover the accumulated shortfall, instead of being held to cover future expenses and emergencies. This means that we have no funds available during our busiest rescue and TNR season.  Summer is when we most need money, but we have no time to do fundraising events because we are so very busy doing rescue and TNR.

Because of all this, we are having a pledge drive. In order to continue, we must be able to pay our bills. We are asking our supporters to make regular monthly contributions to help us do that. Any amount will help. You can make your pledge through our donation page.  The subscription link will accept amounts from $5.00 on up.  If you would like to make a pledge in an amount not listed, you can download our mail in donation form and send it to us.   If you would prefer to send a series of post dated cheques we will gladly hold each cheque until its proper deposit date.  We can accept email money transfers, as well.  We’ll even answer the phone to take your pledge.  You can call us at 223-6652.

Thank you for your help!