Dear Friends of Golden Oldies,
Imagine a Tiny House designed and built solely for cats with an attached catio … a safe place for kitties, featuring lots of windows with perches, floor-to-ceiling scratching posts, ramps, walkways, toys, tunnels and basically anything a cat’s heart desires!
Welcome to the Cat Cottage, the newest vision from your friends at Golden Oldies Cat Rescue. The Cat Cottage is the Big Idea we submitted for the 2020 Monterey County Gives! fundraising campaign.
And we have exciting news!
WE JUST GOT ACCEPTED TO MCGives! 2020.
This is the fourth straight year we have been chosen to participate in MCGives! It is our biggest fundraiser each year.
Last year, thanks to your generosity, we raised almost $38,000 for our adoption program. And this year, we hope you will be able to give a gift and help us build the Cat Cottage.
MCGives! 2020 kicks off November 12th and runs through midnight December 31st.
Here at Golden Oldies, our motto is New Beginnings For Older Cats. And our vision is A Safe Place For Every Older Cat in Monterey County.
Because we are 100 percent foster-based, to provide these new beginnings, we must have the ability to place cats in foster care. We continue to recruit individual fosters to provide temporary care, with a goal of finding a loving permanent home for every older cat. But sometimes we don’t have enough fosters, and must turn cats away into an uncertain future.
The Cat Cottage will enable us to better assist guardians and local shelters by rescuing more cats.
As we’ve increased the number of cats we’ve rescued (6 in 2016, 25 in 2019, 14 so far in 2020 with hiccups due to COVID-19), we also have increased the number of new fosters (3 in 2016, 9 in 2019, 14 so far in 2020).
By building the Cat Cottage, we could save 12 – 15 more cats annually.
We would be able to respond more quickly when guardians need to surrender a cat on short notice. We could provide temporary emergency foster care for adopted cats when guardians are facing short-term medical issues, but don’t want to surrender the cat permanently.
Potential adopters could meet more than one cat at a time. All of this will enhance our overall mission to find loving homes for older cats.
Our community has shown that they need, want and support our mission. It has been a challenging 2020 so far, as we attempt to adjust to the changes and look to new and different horizons because of COVID. But we have been working hard and even have implemented some new programs this year:
· Matchmaker Fund: The Fund covers all supplies and expenses for a Golden Oldies Matchmaker Cat for life, when someone wants to adopt and is a “perfect match”, but cannot afford to do so
· Temporary Emergency Foster Care Program: For guardians of adopted Golden Oldies cats who are facing short-term medical issues
· Seniors for Seniors Program: We currently are working on a card-writing campaign for the seniors at Del Monte Assisted Living in Pacific Grove. When safe to do so, we will expand the program to include bringing cats to visit the residents
Thank you everyone for your continued and loyal support and for helping make Monterey County a better and safer place for these older cats.
When I worked at a shelter and dreamed of starting a rescue for these old souls who looked at me with such trust in their eyes and too often I had to tearfully utter the heart-wrenching words to them: “I’m sorry, I can’t save you,” I never thought the dream would come true. But thanks to all of you and our wonderful volunteers and staff, Golden Oldies is no longer just a dream!
Please keep us and these Oldies but Goodies in mind November 12th through December 31st during MCGives! 2020.
With much appreciation,
Margaret Slaby
Founder/Director Golden Oldies Cat Rescue
