Meowy Monday – Let’s Honor the Hard-Working Cat Rescue Angels

A few days ago I received the winter edition of Paws for the News, a beautifully done newsletter put out by RESQCATS of Santa Barbara. I have to admit this is not the only newsletter I receive from cat rescue organizations. I also get one from a local homegrown raptor rescue center and a local land preserve. But RESQCATS is one of my favorite charities.

Jeffyne Telson has been rescuing cats and kittens through her amazing organization, RESQCATS for nearly thirty years. This is her passion and her life’s work. She has a beautiful facility where she houses the cats. With a small dedicated staff and volunteers, Jeffyne gives cats and kittens a place to rest along a sometimes difficult life journey. She treats any ailments and injuries (per her veterinarian’s instructions), socializes them, and works hard to find the appropriate home for each and everyone. She has, to date, rescued and cared for nearly 4,000 cats. What a worthwhile, exhausting, sad, beautiful, and satisfying way of life.

Jeffyne won the honor a few years ago of being chosen from thousands of applicants to care for cats at a rescue facility on a Greek island. She wrote a book about her experiences there and has won some prestigious awards with that book and hopefully touched some hearts.

But that is not the end of Jeffyne’s story. She continues to serve the cat community with the same passion that she started with all those years ago. She’s a cat rescue angel—one of many and one that I respect deeply.

I donate to RESQCATS. I’ve visited the facility in Santa Barbara. I’ve written about this organization. I even did a little volunteering there, and this also happens to be where my beautiful calico, Olivia, came from. I adopted Olivia from a photograph in 2020 and had the task and privilege of finishing the socialization process with her. As you’ll recall, there were few if any opportunities for us to socialize with other people, let alone have people in to help socialize a kitten during that time. Olivia is my snuggle bunny, but we’re still working on her socialization with others. So far she has learned to trust her cat sitter. And she will come out of hiding and watch certain guests from a distance. Happy about that.

But this post is only a little bit about Olivia. It’s also about the thousands of cats and kittens RESQCATS has rescued.

I read RESQCATS winter 2023 newsletter with tears in my eyes. These were tears of sadness and pain at how some people and the elements treat cats, along with tears of pure joy upon reading some of the sweetest happy-ending stories ever—like the one where someone found a seriously underweight, near death kitten in a garbage bin, and the struggles to save him. The happy ending came when Mr. Jeffyne (as they call Jeffyne’s dear husband), walked through the cattery one day. It’s a cute story because it’s actually against policy and house rules for Mr. Jeffyne to go anywhere near the kittens during kitten season. Why? Because he’s a foster cat failure. He has fostered kittens before and he always fails—meaning he always adopts them himself..

So this day, with staff and volunteers gently reminding Mr. Jeffyne that he’s not supposed to be there, he walked in and straight to the pen where the tiny orange tabby (garbage can) kitten was fighting for his life. Long story short, Mr. Jeffyne adopted the kitten and he’s now living the good life in their home with a houseful of other cats that no one else wanted. With a new name—Mufasa—and renewed health, this perky, happy orange tabby is living his best life—as it should be.

There are a whole lot of “holidays” throughout the year honoring cats and people and so many other things—why not one honoring rescue cat angels? There are rescue cat angels in every state and most communities doing wonderful work. It’s hard work and it can be heartbreaking, but these people do it with love. Let’s not forget to honor them and to help them in meaningful ways—through your donations of time, needed items, and, of course funds.