If you’ve spent time with us at the cafe or followed alongside our journey on social media, then you’ve heard us talk about our big adoption goals – 500 adoptions by January 2020.
We’ve had 46 adoptions as of the date of this post, so we have a loooong way to go. Here’s the great news…
These 46 adoptions prove our concept works!
And what’s even cooler is that this number actually means that 52 cats have been saved. See, each cat adopted from Cat & Craft enables our rescue partner to save another life.
Let’s a have look at how this works…
The Cat Rescue Cycle
It is often said that rescue takes a village, and I can assure you there is a LOT of work that goes into transitioning cats from an at-risk situation and into a safe loving home.
STEP 1: LYFF Rescue Pulls Cats From Area Shelters
After pulling a new rescue, all of the behind-the-scenes work begins…
- intake examinations
- blood work
- physical exams
- spay/neutering if necessary
- vaccinations
- microchipping
- specialty care
Once each cat is deemed healthy and ready for adoption, it’s time the next step…
STEP 2: Transfer into a temporary foster home.
Cats live with a LYFF Rescue foster volunteer for a period of around two weeks.
During this time they can learn whether the C&C cat lounge will be good fit and what kind of permanent home would be ideal for that particular cat (e.g. good with dogs, good with other cats, etc.).
If the cat shows signs they’d cohabitate well with other cats then they ‘graduate’ to the next step…
STEP 3: Welcome to the Cat & Craft foster lounge
In the Cat & Craft foster lounge, these cats get more exposure to people than they might in a traditional adoption setting or in an individual foster’s home – allowing for more opportunities for interactions.
It’s sort of like dating – the more people each cat interacts with, the more likely it is to find it’s forever family.
And given the cage-free layout of the foster lounge, the cat behaves more like they would at home – increasing the likelihood of a great match.
Then comes my favorite part…
STEP 4: Adoption to a ‘furrever’ home
When you see the pictures on our Instagram or Facebook pages with the blue cat background, most likely it’s an adoption pic like these:
Hopefully you can see now a better picture of all that happens to get these kitties into C&C and ultimately to a loving home.
So what can you do to help?…
LYFF Rescue needs temporary fosters
Adult cats just like those you see being adopted from Cat & Craft are sitting in shelter cages waiting for a savior every day and LYFF Rescue is ready and willing to be that savior – they need your help though.
LYFF Rescue needs temporary foster volunteers in order to help save more cats and transition them to C&C for adoption.
Here’s how foster volunteering works…
- You provide space in your heart and home for a rescue cat.
- LYFF Rescue provides you with all the supplies you need to care for your foster – food, toys, litter, etc…
- After two weeks, your foster either graduates to the Cat & Craft foster lounge or goes to a more permanent foster.
Pretty easy right? Well if you think so, then here’s your next step..
Apply to be a foster volunteer with LYFF Rescue
…it takes a quick 5-10 minutes to complete.
My first foster experience
Andrew and I had our first foster experience back in 2015, long before we ever arrived in California. I had considered it for years, often hearing how rescues desperately needed temporary homes for the animals they worked to save.
Back then it was easy for me to come up with excuses about why I couldn’t be a foster – we worked too much, we traveled too much, we already had three cats, etc.
Then one Fall a feral cat had kittens under our back porch.
I called every single rescue and shelter organization I could find expecting someone would come out and get the kittens and momma and put them into an adoption program.
Many of the organizations I contacted laughed at my naivety, and others took the time to explain how they had less than zero resources to help.
So if these animals were to have any chance at a better life, it was solely on Andrew and I to provide them with the option. While this specific situation involved trapping and handling all the veterinary care and adoptions on our own, it forced us into fostering and the realization that all my reasons for why I “couldn’t” were just excuses and my fear of the unknown.
We’ve since fostered cats and kittens in our home here in California. We’ve even “foster failed” in that we adopted one of our fosters from LYFF because we fell madly in love with her (I’m talking about Letty, our gorgeous tortie gal you’ve probably seen on my instagram).
And because we are crazy we then built a business where we could care for even more cats and help them find their happy endings!
I say all of this to tell you first hand how easy – and rewarding – it is to foster. You get to play a pivotal role in saving a life with almost zero commitment.
The cats need you. And we need you too.
Your next step…
Apply to be a foster volunteer with LYFF Rescue
…it takes a quick 5-10 minutes to complete.
Know someone who might be a good fit as a foster?
Just forward them this post (or use our social share links at the top and bottom of the page to get the word out.)
With Love and Light,
Caroline