Tuesday, August 17, 2021 & UPDATE ON SEPTEMBER FESTIVAL

 The special Redbud tree that fell after one of our storms last week, now "lives" in the rescue center! It fits, after much work by Corey.  The tree is secured with wires into the ceiling and also is bolted into the cement floor.  It now displays a few shelves too so the cats can sit in the tree!

The kittens that have been in the back Thumper's Room had their door opened yesterday so they could freely come up front if they wanted to. Over the course of a few hours, they all came up with a few still going back to the back Thumper's Room. This morning, they were all still up in the Main Area, so the door to the back was shut. They're all one big happy family group now! The 5 smallest ones seem to be adjusting very well too. 

We did have a sad event over the weekend. Our little Lugh passed away. He's the little 3 legged black kitten  He was always a bit quiet, low energy level, not super interested in food. He had come from Dr. P's office where they had him for a while before he came here.  I found him limp in the morning and he passed about 15 minutes later. I've talked to Dr. Darcy about this but we're unsure what happened.  Even though he was here such a short time, he mattered to us.

Trish was adopted on 8/15. She is the calico with the tail that was amputated.  The folks that brought her in worked on catching her for quite some time because of her shyness.  Trish was fortunate to be here at the time when a wonderful lady we know was laid off of work. She likes challenges and decided she would love to have Trish to give her a good home and to help her feel secure. Such a pretty girl, now with a safe happy home. 

Thursday is our HumaneOhio day. We are hoping to send up 5 FFRC cats. HumaneOhio has been struggling as they are down to 2 vets, from having 4 vets. It's very difficult to find vets to hire. So, our numbers have been cut back so they get the spays/neuters done in a decent amount of time each day. 

We have Morrigan scheduled for her front leg amputation for a week from today. She too is up front in the Main Area now and runs like the wind with the leg dragging. Just think how fast she will be able to go without that draggy limb.  Fortunately, when that nerve was severed, it caused her to not have any feeling or pain in that leg. So she still thinks she is fine, just has to have more effort to carry that limb around. What a super determined girl! 

Yesterday we had our Advisory Meeting. These are always helpful to me, to go over many aspects of FFRC happenings. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

As many of you know, we have our Felines, Friends, Fun Festival  scheduled for September 11 and 12.  I have been having concerns about this event due to the rising COVID numbers in Defiance County and have been truly torn about what to do. 

So, yesterday I called our local Health Department and talked to them at length so they could advise me and guide me in the decision of whether we should hold it or not. 

Here is some of the discussion--Defiance county's community transmission is climbing. By bringing in friends from "outside" also brings in more possible transmissions.  The only safe way to do tours inside the Rescue Center would be to keep numbers down to 5-7 at a time (including volunteers that would be caring for the cats) and schedule groups going in to visit the cats. That would end up being very difficult. Being outside to visit would be good but because of the number of folks possibly coming, it would be difficult to spread out far enough as the Shelter House isn't gigantic. Serving meals would be difficult to seat that many people safely apart. And what if it rained? 

I asked for guidance in my decision and the advice given was to postpone. I feel that this is the right decision to make. In the best interest of our volunteers and visitors and wanting to be responsible in our actions here, it was decided to cancel/postpone this event. Several of our volunteers have also expressed a concern of having so many people visit all at one time.  I understand that. 

While we have so enjoyed being open again to the public, we still take precautions---it's all in the name of keeping people safe and healthy. We don't overload the amount of people in the rescue center, we wash hands and ask those not vaccinated to wear masks. 

This has been an extremely difficult decision to make. I was so excited to see folks that we haven't seen for a long time and to meet new friends. But, I sincerely feel that we need to be responsible in our actions. I would be devastated if, after the festival and after having been advised to postpone, some of our volunteers or visitors became sick with COVID, knowing we probably transmitted it here.     

I am deeply sorry for the trouble this may cause, especially for those that need to cancel hotel and transportation plans. We started this event in high hopes to have it but now realize that we simply can not do it. I am very sorry.