Dear friends,

Another month is gone forever, and what a beautiful month it was! I know, many of you can’t handle the heat; and there were times when I almost wished for winter, but I pushed that notion way back in my brain. We broke heat records up here in Maine, and I sure hope that doesn’t mean that we will be breaking cold records soon. My chickadees, who are at my birdfeeders all winter, normally disappear in the nearby woods from spring to fall, but they have been at my feeders, already, for several weeks. I consider that a bad sign. I have watched chickadees burying seeds in the ground, just like squirrels, and both, the birds and the rodents, are very busy doing just that. And with the oil prices hitting an all time high, it’s a very scary outlook for all of us. Thank God the dogs have their fur coats, but they still need heat in the kennel. Anyone who wants to donate a certain amount for our two oil tanks, we will NOT turn you down!

This brings me right to something one of our donors asked me to mention to you: She thinks you may prefer making out your checks straight to the companies which provide us with their services and goods.

There are two disadvantages to that: First, you can’t claim your donation, as such, if the check goes to a non-profit organization, like the vet, electric and oil companies, and so on.

Secondly, you still need to send the check to me so I can make a note of it. I then have to try to keep track of the amount, to ensure these people do credit us with the money, and I have to mail the checks to them, which also will cost extra postage. If it puts your mind at ease, please do so. I know many charitable organizations who use their donors' money for things they should not. I would not blame a soul to make sure we are not following their example.

So here are some of the creditors you could make your checks out to:

For property taxes: “Town of Clinton” – Another huge bill coming up by the end of this month, and we do need your help very badly paying for that bill.

For Heating Oil: MainGas Co.

For Electricity:  CMP

For the “Cat”-Vet: Animal Hospital of Waterville

For the “Dog”-Vet:  N.E. Animal Hospital

These are the monthly creditors. Of course there are many other bills to pay, but most of them come once a year, like the insurance, or every few months

Jim and I spent another week at the Shelter to repair the sagging roofs over the outside runs. I left a day early because by Thursday, he didn’t need my help anymore. After I was gone, Jim let one-eye-Bandit out for playtime. Now this is the dog who was returned to us because he was so MEAN. Bandit came in the room where Jim was taking a break -- sniffed out everything and then hopped on top of Jim’s lap and made himself comfortable there. Jim thought that was a riot, nasty old Bandit being a real lapdog! So it seems like we do know how to make our dogs feel right at home! Ruthann, the new lady at the Shelter, also has a knack for dogs -- they mind her. They get lots of playtime with her, and they seem really happy from what I could tell at this last visit. The kennel is clean and actually smells clean, the grass or lawn or whatever green we have is cut, even the summer-runs, the ones which are separated from the kennel, had their grass cut. And that has not happened in years. So hopefully she and Mike will keep up the good work. I am a pessimist when it comes to people, so I am NOT going wild with praise. We see what we will see: Time will tell.

Cindy Houston, our organizing lady when it comes to the fundraiser; she rents the room for us, pours the coffee, tends to our guests, has just informed me that the Radisson Inn where we will have our fundraiser, once again changed ownership. It is now called “Holiday Inn Select." We will change the name on the tickets, but not to confuse you: it is the same place as all of our previous fundraisers in the past 10 years. I remember the first time in 1997

when Jim and I went there it was the “Ramada," a couple of years ago it changed into the” Radisson” and now it is the “Holiday Inn." If we ever win a few billion dollars in the Megabucks it will be named “Charley's Inn," and then we can provide everyone with a free good night's sleep. The extra rooms will provide quarters for cats and dogs J. Yep, the fundraiser is coming up soon, only another 6 weeks. Our friend Jackie Lowney is hard at work filling baskets for sale. She and her friend Joan Ryan  are the people who have been making the most beautiful baskets for the past couple of years. The weather should be cool enough by then. I am so glad we have changed the date to October, June’s heat would have been unbearable for us inside the building. Even though the room has AC, it was never enough, with all the heat generated by our guests; heated discussions, hot coffee, hot flashes and so on. Anyway, besides the baskets Jackie and Joan are making, I will bring hand-made items that are painted, glued, knitted and crocheted. I have the feeling our car will be filled to the top with them, which means if you don’t come, we have to take everything back home, and we will not have space in the car for the food, blankets, detergent and other goodies people bring for the Shelter. So we are hoping for a HUGE turn-out!

By the way: I just noticed that some of last month’s tickets had a little spell-devil crawled into them: Instead of “New Heater for the Kennel” It said  “New Heaer." Sorry, we do like to keep you guessing about things, don’t’ we? J

CAT REPORT – August 2005

Bad news first: another cat has died. Gray Cat never recovered; he ate less and less and finally nothing, until I had to give up on him. He was only eight and a half years old, and had been with me most of his life.  The young woman who had him and his mother, Speedo/Heidi, had to give them up when she moved. I try not to play favorites, but Gray was one I especially liked. He had a nice disposition and a distinctive way of walking, padding on his front feet so that he always seemed determined to get where he was going.  We play a game when I bring canned food to the upstairs back room: the cats dash out the door and down the hall while I carry in the dishes of food, and then I call “Suppertime!” and they all scramble back. Speedo is always first out the door; Gray always went farthest, exploring most of the upstairs, and came padding back with his handsome plumed tail in the air.

Everyone else is fine at the moment, including Kennebec, whose turn it was to have a bad spell this month. Those of you who’ve followed these reports will remember he’s the half-wild son of half-wild Evita, and my poster boy for prenatal care. Evita didn’t get proper food or shelter until the last two weeks of her pregnancy, and Kennebec has chronic issues.  Most of the time he feels fine, though his disposition is never reliable; sometimes he gets sick, the vet thinks when his maldeveloped liver acts up. Anyway, he stopped eating.  When I decided he had to get treated, he still had the strength to bite me as I stuffed him into a carrier.  The doctor managed to get enough steroid and antibiotic shots into him to save him, but it took a while; I brought him home on a Friday evening and it wasn’t until the following Wednesday morning that he started eating properly again. 

Now he’s making up for all those missed meals, asking for and getting food five or six times a day.

Besides worrying about sick cats, the other thing on my mind recently is what a waste of good animals it is to have them living in bunches in kennels and foster-homes like ours.  I see the woman who adopted Peaches every couple weeks, and she always tells me the latest thing he’s done to amuse her and her husband or himself or all three. Gray Cat would have been a loving and entertaining companion, too.  Of course our cats and dogs are treated affectionately and their physical needs are seen to, but with so many none gets the attention that household pets get. 

Some of you may have seen the story in Down East magazine earlier this year saying that adoptable dogs are in such short supply that kennels and shelters in southern Maine import them from out-of-state.  There was a half-sentence in the story saying that cat overpopulation is a crisis in Maine, and how true that is! Through my fostering for Charley’s Strays, I’m connected with half a dozen other people who are rescuing cats literally 30 and 40 at a time, from other rescuers who are too old or too broke to continue, from trailer parks where packs of cats and kittens scavenge the dumpsters, from farms where they get abandoned. This month I took three kittens (born in late April to a mother I fostered for another rescuer who hasn’t space for a maternity ward) to spend a week at a local pet-supply store that sponsors adoptions. No one wanted them. Yet a woman down the road has a sign inviting people to come and see, and I assume, buy. her Persian kittens. I bet she’d be upset if I told her every kitten she sells condemns another one just as good to death, at worst, or life in a shelter if it’s lucky.

There, now I’ve raved on for so long I barely have room to say thank you – again – to all of you who help with the vet bills and other expenses for our cats and dogs. I also want to thank Olivia Charles and all the Parent family; the doctors and techs at Animal Hospital of Waterville, who have been generous with time, skill and sympathy (if they ever start charging for telephone consultations, the way lawyers do, there won’t be enough money in the world to pay what I’ll owe them); and the man at Kennebec Professional Pharmacy who made sure I knew about the discount on Gray Cat’s medication.

Thank you very much!

Marcia Smith, Bucksport

Sandra Nicholson, Beverly

Willa Rockett, Belmont

Jean Catignani, Conway

Lisa Montmarquet, Raymond

Ruth Willis, Braintree

Joseph Arouca, Ormond Beach

Iris Martinello, Tewksbury

John Caswell, Newport

Roberta Chaves, Westport

Joan Ryan, New Bedford

Marian Delarue, Woburn

Dorothy D’Alessandro, Ossipee

Harriet Snyder, Brockton

Dorothy Biron, Waterville

Cristine Cardello, Melrose

Robert Moore, Thorndike

Dorothye Andrews, Warwick

Marlene Kaplan, Melrose

Irma Simon, S. China

Joseph D’Alessandro, Tuftonboro

Donna Bering, Lynn

Doris Lary, hartland

Jackie Lowney, New Bedford

Dorothy Eckstein, Medford

Beulah Fortier, Thorndike

Naomi Teixeira, Jay

Josephine Smith, Woburn

Robert Hull, Lawrence

Judy & Al Smith, Belmont

Elizabeth Johnson, Sanford

Dante Bartolomeo, Temple

Nancy Capone, Wakefield

Jon & Barb Anderson, Augusta

Linda Merriam, Dresden

Viola McDonald, Woburn

Michelle Hardin, my Texas-friend

Dorothy Watkins, Amesbury

Susan Fiske, Pawtucket

George Hinds, Cambridge

Beverly Maheu, China Village

Alice Winston, Swampscott

Lorena & Harry Clark, Beverly

Enid Hayes, Halifax

Inge Maiellano, Marblehead

Roberta Chaves, Westport

Cindy Houston, Woburn

Mary Klayda, Winchester

Steve Martin, Augusta

Kathleen Hillman, Chelmsford

Dale Critchley, S. Weymouth

Josephine Ford, Holden

Carole Parker, Stoughton

Sandra Nicholson, Beverly

Nancy Capone, Wakefield

Rust Pappathanasi, Swampscott

Francis Archer, Canton

James Lavita, Dennis

Judy Rohweder, Northport

Lisa Montmarquet, Raymond

Betsy Anderson, Framingham

Enid Hayes, Halifax

Gabriele, Mary, Ted, and Jim

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