Blog - Show Your Soft Side

I’m No Longer A Rescue Virgin

It started like most stories do – with a text. However, this one wasn’t addressed to me, but to my husband. Hey Mr. Don, I found out about a group of kittens living in an abandoned house on Miles Avenue. My grandmother and great aunt have b …

Why Do Those Who Have The Least Often Give The Most?

When Saturday rolls around on Street Kitty Fund duty, you always hope your last 48 hours will be quiet ones. That was not the case for me on Saturday, June 15. That morning, a name popped up on my phone that sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t p …

Cat Ladies To The Rescue

Where would we be without cat ladies? I’ve written numerous blogs about our Street Kitty Fund and, in each of them, I’m the first to admit that of the five (now six) women who administer the Fund, I am the most medically illiterate. To give you an ide …

Taking Mr. Black Home

Funny how things work. We’d been going back and forth for weeks trying to arrange a day when I could accompany Juliann on her colony feeding rounds and had finally settled on Saturday, February 18. What made it so fitting was that in additi …

They’re Cuter When They’re Neutered

We may be a small all-volunteer non-profit, but Covid proved that we are nimble, and dare we say. . . mighty. If we recognize a need, no matter how daunting, we strive to help. Moreover, we’re not saddled by a corporate ladder – a Zoom call …

Wrestling Alligators

We’ve written a number of blogs about our Street Kitty Fund, so most people are aware that there are four of us who are on duty one week a month and that week swings from glorious highs to hideous heartache. It would be normal to think, “What’s t …

44,500 Pounds Of Gratitude

It’s a beautiful thing when the stars align and, in this case, the heavens began to move in our direction with a simple phone call. On the other end of the line was Softie, Chris Hughes. “Hey Sande, the VP at Weruva just called me because t …

How Love Is Keeping 16 Cats Alive

It was my week on Street Kitty Fund duty when the request came in for emergency medical care for a kitty named Bug. As full-time staff and love-struck Mom to a former street cat named Bugs (plural), this one struck close to home. I started …

The Job I Hate To Love

It’s ironic to think that after all the years I spent chasing awards and money in the advertising business, I finally found happiness working for free. Not long after we launched the Show Your Soft Side campaign in 2011, I soon realized that my paying …

Never Has Being Wrong Been So Right

Over the course of the past two years, our Street Kitty Medical Fund has seen so much action that it now requires four people to run it. Three of those people are not only experienced, but fluent in pretty much any disease, condition or illness t …