www.octaviofelinefoundation.org
The Octavio Feline Foundation News
March 2009
From the President’s desk:
Well, you will never believe where I am doing our monthly newsletter this month, I am in the MAC unit from Animal Services! I’ve been volunteering since Feb. 12th when they started a Free Cat Spay/Neuter program thanks to a grant from Maddie’s Funds. For more information about this wonderful service see page 2 and to see the wonderful team of Dr. Pablo Perez, Tammy, Alexandra, Erika and myself see page 3. This month we have a special celebration, March 25 will be the 83rd birthday of one of our first and most loved members, Sara Gonzalez. Sara mentioned to me during one of our long conversations couple of months ago that she would like to visit Key West to see the Hemingway house and the cats. Without any hesitation I called my “clone” in Kendall, Giomar Villegas and we started planning a trip to Key West to take Sara for her birthday! When I told her she was thrilled!!! Next month you will see the pictures and a little note from the trip. Just for you to know, this trip will not be paid by the organization, Giomar and myself are going to share our one-day trip expenses. Also I would like to mention that on March 22nd
I am going to join several other organizations to do a massive spay/neuter event where we are planning to do 300 cats in one day! Since we do not have a mobile unit we cannot participate sponsoring the event but one thing that we are going to do is to provide snacks through the day for vets and volunteers! If you want to help us collecting snacks (fruits, nuts, chips) please e-mail me for details. For more information see page 4.
Talking about our own spay/neuter mobile unit, I am working on getting one for our organization!!! Like most rescue groups we are seeing the impact of country’s economic crisis that’s why not even in my wildest dream I could think of having our own truck but one of my vets (and a personal friend) offered to perform free spay/neuter surgeries for me!!! I couldn’t believe it and almost drop dead! Then I told him I didn’t have any place and he suggested getting a small truck. We’ve been searching for different possibilities and last Friday I saw a used RV that we can transform in our spay/neuter clinic. If you or someone you know wants to donate to this project, please feel free to contact me, we need as much help as possible to make our dream come true. Last Feb. 15th
we had an Open your home and your Heart to a shelter pet event at Miami-Dade Animal Services and we adopted 122 animals!!!!! That day alone I pulled 7 cats, one adult Maine-coon mix, one declawed male, one 2-months-old baby with lice and ……….. 4, 3 weeks old babies!!! Then on March 5 after I discharged all the cats from the truck, I went inside the shelter and what do I see????? 3 more babies! These ones are about 3 weeks old as well, so as you can imagine I have my hands full!!! So far everybody is doing fine and unbelievable the last batch of 3 have a home already!!!! They got adopted together!!! By law I cannot adopt them yet but I promised the person to hold them for him. Like always, all the best to all of you and your furry family and I would like to know your opinion about our newsletter. Send your comments to smvalles@bellsouth.net