Oscar went to his Forever Loving Home today!

Congratulations Oscar!

Last night, at the end of my shift at the Community Cat Connection H and I said “goodbye” and “congratulations” to Oscar the cat.  For today he went to his forever loving home.

All of us volunteers at the CCC will miss Oscar.  He came into us after having endured some extremely traumatic conditions of severe abuse and won all of our hearts. (see earlier post)  He is such a gentle and loving soul he will make his new “mom” very happy.  

This is what I love about the volunteer work that I do at the shelter.  Now, you think it would be sad to say goodbye to a cat or kitten that you have gotten “attached” to or “bonded” with, and I will not say that it is not a little tug at my heart.  But it makes me thrilled to learn when I go in for my shift each week to discover that one or more have been adopted and gone home.  That is what we are about, rescuing cats & kittens from bad environments (whether it be abandonment, surrender, abuse, neglect, or stray) and finding them PERMANENT homes to love, protect, nurture and respect for the remainder of their lives whether they be 10 weeks or 8 years.   I thrive on the sense of hope that all of our cats, even the “old unadoptable” ones will someday go home.  

I have learned in the short time at the shelter that for most people, the real cat people who know cats, when you walk into the CCC to “adopt a cat”, you do not pick out a cat because they are pretty or cute, truly, the cat choses to adopt you and deep in your heart both you and the cat know that you have found “the one”, your pet, your new “family”.

I love my work at the Community Cat Connection, yes even scooping the poop.  I now am privileged to sit on the Board of Directors.  As an all volunteer operated organization we are doing pretty good, we are developing business plans, working on sustainability and everyday we become a more stable respected organization.  However, we are far from hiring staff, having an investment account, and a multi million dollar facility, but I have confidence that we will get there someday.  It is an honor to work side by side with the humane, dedicated and loving team of CCC volunteers, the CCC Family. 

But we cannot do it all alone! If you are able please consider contributing to our humble little shelter.  Money is a good thing, but we also accept donations in the form of cat food, litter, toys, hand sanitizer, beds, bleach and laundry supplies, paper towels etc……  We are also selling Cookbooks and Calendars, they make great gifts (we even take Pay-Pal online).  Community Cat Connection, Webster Massachusetts.      

Your assistance would allow us to continue to help cats like Oscar find their home. 

Meet Oscar

He only has Eight Lives left

I do not know where to start.  Oscar has such a horrible story.  I know I will sob if I try to document it all. The short of it is that Oscar was beaten with a shovel, and thrown away in a plastic garbage bag with the trash.  He is healing from a broken jaw and skull fracture.  When he came into the shelter he was infested with fleas and mites and covered in his own feces.  The “powers that be” only know how & why he survived. We at the Community Cat Connection are privileged to be his temporary guardians until he is well enough to move into a permanent forever loving home.  

Our volunteer family is tight knit and we communicate with each other through e-mail constantly. Everyone who has met Oscar has been “touched” by him.  I met Oscar tonight.  I went in to the shelter on my day off just to meet him.  He is indeed an amazing cat!  Despite all the horrible abuse he is nothing less than a love bug. As you approach the cage he starts to purr (loudly), he head butts your hand seeking attention and then (sigh) sadly cries when you shut the cage.  All he wants is love and attention.  He is such a good boy!

I could take this opportunity to go off on a rant about the deranged, sadistic and mentally ill in-human individuals who abuse & kill helpless animals such as Oscar, but I won’t.  I would rather spend my time channeling positive energy.  

Oscar was brought into our shelter by an innocent third party.  I do not know her name, but I praise her courage and spirit for caring enough about Oscar to drive from a neighboring state to our little shelter, the only one she could find that was willing to take him in.  She would not accept our waiver and paid the shelter’s “surrender fee” of $35.  This person is a saint and I personally thank her where-ever she is out there in the world.

Oscar is a survivor.  We all have lessons we can learn from him about unconditional love, trust, hope, strength, courage and survival.  I do feel “touched” and privileged for having met him and I look forward to my shift on Thursday to see him again.

I am thankful for our wonderful shelter the Community Cat Connection and our family of dedicated loving volunteers.  As small & humble as we are, if we were not in operation, Oscar would still be in peril (another part of the story I would rather omit) and he would not be in a safe nurturing, loving environment.  

Oscar is around 6 years old, and despite his frail appearance he is a large cat.  He could certainly stand to put on a bit of weight.  Oscar goes to our Vet tomorrow for a full work up including combo test (Feline HIV & Leukemia).  As one volunteer so aptly put it…..

To quote Ernest Menaul: “The cat has too much spirit to have no heart”.…Oscar obviously has a lot of spirit, and I hope his eight remaining lives are spent in the comfortable and loving home he deserves… 

Keep Oscar in your thoughts and send him as much positive healing energy as  you can.  I will let you know when he is ready to move into a forever loving home (that is if us volunteers let him go to one other than family…. I have a feeling we might fight over him). 

The Community Cat Connection now has a pay-pal account.  Please donate if you want to help support us in caring for cats like Oscar until they are placed with forever loving homes.

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