FFGW TURNS 30!!
There are competing, equally valid, visions of rescue – and many rescues lean toward saving the largest number of cats, which more often than not results in rescuing the easily adoptable ones, and the ones without significant medical needs. There is nothing wrong with that, as shelters are overflowing with cats… but the vision of the founders of FFGW was to rescue cats who otherwise had no way home because they needed more than routine care, or to succeed in a home needed more than routine support after adoption. According to Lisa, FFGW tried then – and tries now – to balance taking “easy” cats with taking ones facing certain euthanasia in a shelter. This extends not only to cats with medical needs, but to cats that take longer to be adopted and tie up resources and fosters – bonded cats who must be adopted in pairs, and kittens with moms (the moms always are left after the kittens are adopted). The founders are proud that FFGW was one of the first rescues in the area willing to take FIV+ cats – and to educate adopters that these cats can live a long and normal life with just routine care.
Then and now, FFGW tries to make an adoption that will last. Denise told the Times, “We also work with people on matching up personalities. We spend an awful lot of time with the people to match them up with the right cat. Because our cats are in foster homes, there’s a wider range of knowledge about their personalities, since they’ve been living in a home with people.” It is perhaps a testament to the care that FFGW takes in placing each cat that some of our fosters have been with the organization almost its entire existence.
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