It is Time to Take Accountability Back into Our Lives

We respond every year, to thousands of calls asking for help to rescue homeless animals who are either injured or starving. Whenever possible we try to send volunteers to help. However, since our resources are very limited we have been helping more and more people statewide by convincing them to help the animals themselves with Animal Umbrella's counseling. Some of the counseling includes advice on:

Feeding and sheltering an animal

• Trapping it and bringing it to our shelter in case of injury or serious illness
• Fostering it in a basement, garage or other places where it can be kept warm until we are able to take it in our shelter.
• Socializing it if it is a feral cat or kitten and someone wishes to adopt it
• Spaying/neutering and releasing in an area where the animal lover will continue to feed and shelter the cat(s)

Many animals have been saved because we have encouraged people to have compassion and feel responsible for their lives. People need to be told that helping strays is the right thing to do. We are a civilized society, letting an animal suffer or die simply because it does not belong to anyone is cruel. It is time for all of us to take more accountability into our lives-it will make us feel better to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Annamarie Taylor

A Boy's Cat Rescue Story

An old, emaciated cat was seen wandering the grounds of a Newton school during a cold October day. The pooer animal tried to get inside attracted by the food smell coming from the cafeteria. A boy, son of an Animal Umbrella supporter sighted the cat and called his mother for help. The woman called the local dog officer but was told not to feed the cat because it would go away as if probably belonged to someone in the area.

The condition of the cat convinced the woman that the poor animal was a stray. A call was placed with Animal Umbrella seeking advice on what to do. We suggested to the woman not to touch the cat but to attract the inside a carrier with some food. When the woman and her son returned to the area, the cat which was later on called Brownie was gone. We recommended to them to continue the search cause sooner or later the cat would try to get into the building again to keep warm and try to find some food.

Back to school the following day, David, the young animal lover continued his search and did not want anyone else in the school to try to rescue the cat. Brownie reappeared and this time David was able to catch her. We asked David and his mother to take Brownie a very sweet cat to the Natick Animal Clinic for immediate care. They found her to be severely dehydrated and extremely thin. She was quite old. After a few days at the hospital, Brownie seemed to improve and David and his mother took her back to their home. Unfortunately, the ordeal had taken a very severe toll on Brownie's health and she died two days later. This is a very sad story we wanted to share with you. Whoever abandoned this loving cat was cruel and inconsiderate since because of her age she could not cope with cold and hunger.

The positive note about this story is that two animal lovers, a mother and her son, felt accountable for a poor homeless cat and made an effort to rescue it, defying other people's indifference and inaction. David taught the lesson to his school mates that you are never too young to start to care and have compassion for defenseless animals. We hope they learned.