CATT!TUDES
ca-r-ma.org Moncton Volunteer Bulletin Volume 16
Sept 2008_
September TNR and Support Activity
In September we did 20 spays and 13
neuters. We found homes for Tiny and
Timmy, the two handicapped kittens we had
in care, and took in several more kittens
including two with slightly deformed front
paws and one with a missing rear paw and
deformed front paw. Linda V. has her first
foster kittens and Sue R’s Mom, Linda is also
fostering.
Our major fundraiser for
September was the Yard Sale. Pictured are
Eileen and Becky handling cash. We had a
mountain of goods for sale and took in $1339
plus receipted donations of $90 and ticket
sales of $122. Several kittens were adopted
at the yard sale, we had a barbeque offering hot dogs and pop and Faith herself made an
appearance. We donated the leftover goods to a group in Kent County that is attempting to
build an SPCA shelter there; they needed a truck and trailer to haul away the donated items.
In September, too, we met with Fanny LeBlanc who has been trying to start a ca-r-ma group
in Memramcook and she decided to join the Moncton group and work with us. We have
already altered several cats from Fanny’s neighbourhood. We are most grateful to Royal
LePage for the use of their parking lot at Edinburgh Drv and St. George Blvd and Hotel
Beausejour for the use of their banquet tables.
Fundraising for Fun and Profit
Ca-r-ma.org Moncton raises money in a
number of different ways in order to meet our
obligations to our vets and allow us to buy cat
food, office supplies and marketing materials.
Pictured are yours truly with Denise
Johnstone, Manager Sobey’s Northwest
Centre, Leanne Carter, winner of the Labour
Day BBQ draw and Todd Redmond, Assistant
Manager Sobey’s Northwest Centre on the
day Leanne received her prize. We do a lot of
raffles, and for good reason. The BBQ raffle
brought in $1195. We are currently selling tickets on a basket and have already taken in
$396 on this raffle.
Kelly focuses her remarkable energy on fundraising projects, and is
already planning future raffles and a craft sale. Several people are also managing begging
boxes that generate revenue all the time. I’d like to thank all the people who have been
coming out faithfully to sell tickets and those who are managing begging boxes. Our big
fundraisers…..NBLCC, the bake sales and the yard sale….are a lot of work and great fun
and they do provide large influxes of cash, but the raffles and the begging boxes give us
steady income we can count on month after month.
Looking at the Numbers
As we near the end of the trapping season, let’s take a quick look at what we are
accomplishing. September this year saw the largest number of spays and neuters we have
ever done in one month. Let’s suppose these cats had not been altered. Cats have two
litters a year, sometimes three, and can have as many as seven or eight kittens at a time,
and of course males can father any number of kittens depending upon how many females
are available. Let’s suppose, however, that these 33 cats are moderate breeders and sire or
give birth to only 8 kittens a year. Some of these cats were in foster care and have been
adopted which means their life expectancy is about 15 years and they could breed for 10 or
more, but let’s pretend all 33 cats were ferals with a life expectancy of five years. These
cats would, at that rate, produce 1320 kittens in their five year lifetime. Now let’s suppose
half of those kittens survive to breed for five years at the same rate as their parents. That
comes to 24,400 kittens born unwanted in just two generations. Do you think we are making
a difference? If not, re-read the above.
Financial Stuff
In the month of September, we took in $1514 in donations, 198.87 from the begging jars,
$122 in ticket sales $1339 from the yard sale and $30 from the sale of dish cloths. We also
received a donation in kind of $45 worth of cat food. Vet bills came to $2309.90 and we spent
$656.09 on kitten food. We are buying food from Maritime pet supply now. The food bill was
still very high, but we were fostering a dozen or more kittens most of the month. We paid
$282.50 to participate in Hands Up and $75 for insurance for the event. We also spent $5.20
on postage stamps, $48.15 on printer ink and paper, $15 to get our gift basket wrapped,
$350 for rabies shots for our volunteers and $709.92 (offset by donations) on volunteer
mileage.
Poster cat Faith appears at the yard sale.
Don’t forget the
Hands Up Expo
at the Coliseum
Oct 24 and 25
ca-r-ma.org Moncton gratefully acknowledges the support of Maritime Animal
Hospital and Elmwood Animal Hospital. Our vets make our work possible.