Message from the President – Why are we doing this?
Thanks for clicking on this, our 3rd issue of the TASP e-newsletter. We’re a little late getting this edition out the virtual door……..family illnesses turned our focus to our own loved ones who were struggling. Happy to report things are slowly stabilizing on all fronts, and so we are gradually getting back on track with our animal welfare email communications.
This edition, I thought you might like to see through our eyes for a bit. Although there are quite a few of us doing fund raising, special projects and distributing supplies, there are only a small number of us who do the hands-on field response work of TASP animal support. It’s the one-on-one work we do with pet owners who need a TASP representative present in the home to assess a situation and develop a response plan. This affords us a unique set of experiences and a unique perspective that I thought I’d share with you, so you can see for yourselves how crucial your support of this organization is. I’ll do it via some sample images and stories from just a handful of projects we’ve been working on over the past months. Just for fun, I’m going to show you the image(s) first and then explain the backstory after. Ready?
OK, anyone care to guess what this is all about? Well, it’s actually entirely innocent. Bosco the pug belongs to a man who is gravely ill and will not recover. This gentleman, a virtual shut-in, has been suffering with severe health issues for longer than we have been associated with him. As his illness has progressed, his immune system has become permanently impacted. For about a year now, he has been the victim of shingles; his doctor has told him that they are likely to be with him until he passes away. Anyone who has had shingles knows how painful they are and how even the slightest touch to the affected area can be absolutely excruciating. Well, in order to endure the pain for the long term, this gentleman finds it necessary to keep his wardrobe to a minimum, only donning clothes when visitors arrive. For this reason, the TASP volunteer ALWAYS calls in advance before we visit to trim Bosco’s nails, and drop off food, and/or flea & heartworm preventives. We’ve never been exposed (sorry for the pun) to any rude behavior or embarrassing situations. This is just a good person who is suffering some very bad circumstances.
Imagine for a minute that you are this pet owner. How valuable do you think it would be to you to have someone overlook your predicament and help you to care for your most valuable treasure, your best friend and primary companion, the one who loves you no matter what you’re wearing?
OK, here’s the next one; it’s actually two photos that go together:
Backstory: Imagine your home went up in flames while your pets were inside, and you weren’t able to get all of them out in time. A beautiful lady in Rensselaer was in just that situation awhile back. She lost two of her beloved cats in the fire that destroyed her home and changed her life. Disabled and broken hearted by the experience, this lady is trying to pick up the pieces of her life and start over. But she is haunted by the knowledge that two of her precious pets died such a horrific death. So she has created a shrine to her cats where their ashes rest, along with the ashes of one other of her kitties who died of cancer. Her remaining cats are kept impeccably well and the entire apartment is furnished with the feline in mind. BTW, all the furnishings and cat toys were obtained by this lady for free from the local church store and I’ve got to tell you, she has created a lovely little home for herself and her companions from these random found items. While she is in transition and trying to get back on her feet, TASP has supplied her with litter and kibble now and then. The donated supplies are helping her focus on moving forward and just knowing someone cares enough to help has been a big boost to her psyche and to her cats.
Next: 
This is Smoaky. Her Mom was unexpectedly rushed to Albany Med for about a week. Smoaky was a very diabetic senior kitty, and with Mom in the hospital, there was nobody left at home to feed her and to give her the insulin she needs to survive. If there had been time, Mom would have booked her a cage at their vet hospital; TASP has transported Smoaky to her vet before when something like that happened. But with this situation breaking on a holiday weekend with no advance notice, TASP took a different approach. Our volunteers were given permission to access Smoaky’s apartment to crate her and bring her and her medical supplies to one of our foster homes. Sarah and Jack’s spare room became Smoaky’s vacation cottage for the next week while Mom was being treated and stabilized. This kitty especially was drawn to the piano and she decided to make her lounge under the piano bench. Once mom returned home, the TASP volunteer brought Smoaky back home again and nobody was the worse for the experience.
We recently learned Smoaky finally succumbed to her disease many months later (at age 16!) and was put to rest. To help herself get through the grief of losing Smoaky, this lady contacted TASP and asked to pay it forward. She asked to foster two cats for us. These are two cats, Jefferson and Angie, who belong to another lady TASP is helping while she’s in nursing rehab. Now Jefferson and Angie are living with Smoaky’s Mom, safe and comfortable while their Mom is getting the therapy she needs to return home. And when she does, Jefferson and Angie will go back to her!
If YOU were unexpectedly hospitalized or otherwise kept from your home, or even home but incapacitated and unable to carry on with your regular household responsibilities, would you have a plan in place to care for your animal(s) throughout the dilemma? What will happen to your pets while you’re away and who will care for them? If you haven’t got a plan yet, why not visit FEMA’s ready.gov website or contact TASP to learn how to prepare in advance for personal disasters like this? It could be life-saving for your pets and sanity-saving for you.
I could go on forever recounting stories and sharing images from our responses. In our region, TASP is the glue holding situations like these together so the people involved can concentrate on getting their lives back to normal without sacrificing their companion animals. Our phone and our email inbox are constantly receiving requests for help. In each case, we do whatever we can to respond, because we know how important a pet can be to someone who can’t claim much else. We are the boots on the ground for all of you out there who are supporting our mission. I hope you recognize how much your support is needed and appreciated.
In 2016, working entirely as volunteers in our spare time, TASP raised just under $45,000 for local animals in crisis. We spent about $48,000 and served over 300 animals. This averages out to about $150 per animal; I would wager that’s far less than is spent on sheltering the same number of animals. What we do makes financial and humanitarian sense and it is efficient. The animals avoid the distress of being uprooted and the people who own them remain in the picture, becoming a part of the solution, part of a more humane community. It makes me wonder why more shelters and rescues aren’t setting aside just a fraction of their annual budgets for pet retention programs like ours.
Now, to close, I wanted to bring up one more thing. A little over a year ago, I had no choice but to say good bye to my own best friend, Buttons. Anyone who knows me knows Buttons, because she was usually attached to me wherever I went. That little dog attended weddings, funerals, college, a myriad of public presentations and fundraisers, and ALWAYS went with me to work. She went on sales calls with my boss and me, and whenever possible, I brought her with me to visit the homes of pet owners who were in need of help. She was a marvelous little ice-breaker and her compassion and kindness to those folks gave them hope and something to focus on other than their problems.
Life without Buttons will never be the same and I thank God for the years we had together. Those years were a special gift and will sparkle in my memory until I close my eyes for the last time and join her again. In memory of this special little soul and to share her one more time with all of you, I made one of my hokey little videos. I hope you’ll enjoy it and remember her as the faaaabulous little ambassador she was for her species.
CLICK ON SMILING BUTTONS TO WATCH HER VIDEO.
