The past couple of weeks have been very challenging. The phone calls from people wanting to surrender their pets as well as strays in the community needing help are nonstop.
I know we are living in crazy times and I know the cost of everything is going up, but everyone has to remember that the shelters and sanctuaries are affected by this, too. Most places are full and many are beyond capacity.
Our small sanctuary has the capacity to hold 70 cats, and we now have more than 100. We have used every square foot of our building to accommodate the overflow. Our once kitchen-turned-lactating-room is now a full-fledged cat room. We have no storage in the building, like closets, because those have also been turned into cat rooms.
We have a waiting list of cats waiting to come in and we have lent out heated cat houses to wonderful people who are trying to help stray cats until we can bring them in.
Why am I telling you all of this? It’s not that we don’t want to help everyone — it’s that we physically can’t. We can’t be everything to everyone. We do not have unlimited space nor do we have unlimited finances. We do not get town or state funding. Our monies come from fundraising, donations and grants.
To put things in perspective, we are an all volunteer-based organization and most of us all work full-time jobs as well. On top of that, we have to make the time to fundraise. Why do we do this? Because we care, because there is a need and because it is the choice we have made.
We are asking you to make some choices in your life. If you can’t afford an animal then make the choice not to get one. If you can’t afford a neuter or spay procedure, then make the choice to wait until you can. If your future is unstable then make the choice to wait until your life is stable. If you still feel you need a pet in your life, then go to your local shelter and volunteer.
When you volunteer you will get to see firsthand what shelters and sanctuaries experience on a daily basis.
In a perfect world, every animal would have a loving home, but the world is not perfect and we as an organization are not perfect. We as an organization have the desire to help as much as we can, but we have limitations. We are asking you to understand that when we say we are full, we are not being difficult — we are being realistic. You as the pet owner need to exhaust every avenue when it comes to your pet, and not totally rely on your local shelter or sanctuary.
We are working on several fundraisers to raise money to care for the animals at the sanctuary, so stay tuned.
We have a Chewy wish list and we also have PayPal and Venmo. Supplies such as canned food, dry food, clumping litter, bleach and paper towels can be dropped off at The Hollywood Pet Salon, 70 Main St., in Houlton.
Thank you for your continued support and, as always, thank you for reading our column.
The Ark Animal Sanctuary is located at 102 Old Woodstock Rd., Houlton. Visit them online at arkanimalsanctuary.org/home, call 532-7387 or check out their Facebook page.
