Cans For The Critters

Hello.  My name is Jeannie Baitinger and I am an animal rights activist.  I have found a way to provide services for animals in need.  You can too!  It doesn't cost anyone a dime. 

I guess it all started with a feral cat colony.  We were on a job when the thinnest Mama cat we had ever seen showed up.  Though she was wild, she was also pretty desperate for food.  We tossed her part of our lunch and she wolfed it down.  Everyday our new friend showed up and everyday we fed her. 

Soon more cats from the colony came.  All were rail thin, most nursing Mothers.  One day I quietly followed one home.  I went up a long driveway and there were cats galore.  They scattered at my presence and I noted lots and lots of kittens.  I knocked on the door and met Jack.

Jack is an elderly man who lives on just $700 a month.  $300 of that goes to rent alone.  Jack said he tried to buy cat food as often as possible but always runs out before the next check.  He admitted he has gone without his medications trying to feed the cat colony.  According to Jack, the cats just showed up one by one... 

I contacted several local animal organizations for help.  Help came in a big way.  Jack was granted 11 free spay or neuter certificates.  Two organizations provided traps and a lady came to help me.  We were able to trap and fix 11 cats within just a few days with cat food I bought for Jack's cats. 

But there were so many more.  Jack estimated around 40 cats total including kittens.  We were able to trap and catch all of the kittens and a friend took them into foster care.  Most died, why we don't really know.  The rest were adopted.  But how to get the rest fixed I did not know.  Then I got an idea...

I asked a reporter to put the story in the newspaper.  We asked the public to donate directly to the clinic to spay and neuter Jack's cats.  The money poured in to my delight, and we were able to fix every single one of them!  One of the organizations offered Jack free cat food when they had it.  To this day they have never turned us down.  All of the cats are fat and sassy now and it has taken a lot of stress off of Jack. 

I realized there are a lot of needy animals out there and I wanted to keep helping them.  We started saving aluminum cans and we asked our neighbors, family, friends, etc to save them for us too.  And boy did they! 

Meet Scruffy!  She was abandoned on the streets where we had another job.  Her only means of survival was a pit bull friend who lived outside and shared his food with her.  I asked why no one wanted her and they said because she kept having puppies.  We cashed in a huge load of cans and got her spayed.  She didn't have an easy time.  It turned out she had 9 puppies inside.  But the result was a nice retired couple took her in.  She is their baby now.  She sleeps in the bed and goes everywhere they go.  They named her Bell and she is now indeed the Bell of the ball!

She is just one of many, many success stories of animals we have helped by just saving cans.  I will post another success story tomorrow.