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| Porridge, now Ushi, adopted by Charity |
Last year, we rescued a total of 148 cats.
Cats rescued refer to cats that were taken into our custody and given shelter at our foster home (and prior to June at Angels Pet Shop before it closed down). It does not include our rescue work with respect to sterilisation of stray cat colonies (TNRM).
Of these 148 cats rescued, 102 were re-homed via adoption.
This means that of all the 148 cats we rescued, 68.9% were found forever homes through adoption. The remaining cats that did not go to new homes either, 1) were released back as stray cats after rehabilitation from sickness, injury or sterilisation, or because they were not suitable for re-homing, 2) were surrendered to SPCA, or 3) died due to illness as senior cats or very young kittens.
NB: We no longer surrender rescues to SPCA due to the fact that we have managed to control the issue of anonymous dumping of abandoned animals at Love Kuching, a phenomenon that was occurring very frequently when we used Angels Pet Shop as our main boarding space. Anonymous dumping led us to have to surrender animals to SPCA because when uncontrolled influx of abandoned cats occurred, our boarding resources could not accommodate all of them. The influx of anonymous dumping of rescue cats has been controlled and we have not surrendered any cats to SPCA since April 2010. Thus, going forward in 2011 the adoption-rescue ratio should improve.
An average of 8.5 cats were re-homed per month in 2010.
The highest rate of adoption per month occurred in March where 30 cats were re-homed. When we moved our boarding space from Angels Pet Shop to our foster home, officially from June 2010 onwards, our rate of adoption was at 3.7 cats per month from June to December.
We hope to increase our rate of adoption to 5 cats per month in 2011, which would make the year's minimum goal at 60 adoptions. In January 2011 we re-homed 6 cats - we are on track so far. In a bid to increase adoption rates per month we are providing vaccinations as part of the adoption package for all cats 8 weeks and older. We are also putting other measures in place such as further maximising communication mediums in advertising adoption opportunities, improving adoption after-care, and increasing our boarding capacity.
Our Adoption Fees to Boarding Expenses ratio in 2010 was at 0.763.
This means that of the total amount of expenses incurred in boarding the rescues, we covered back 76.3% of the amount through adoption fees received. This further cements the fact that adoption fees are not adequate to cover the amount we spend on fostering rescue cats.
Prices of some pet supplies we use are now higher in 2011, namely Solid Gold Indigo Moon and Revolution. This will affect us even though our sponsor The Water Dish already offers us pet supplies we can buy at charity rates and monthly donations-in-kind. It is prudent to expect that our boarding expenses will go up further. Also, apart from pet supplies expenses such as food, grooming supplies, supplements and Revolution, we have also begun to include other environmental boarding expenses such as cleaning aids - disinfectants, paper towels, detergents, trash bags etc. There are also other environmental boarding expenses that ought to be included but are not at the time being, such as electricity, water, rental, toys and other furnishings. Going forward these expenses eventually need to be included in our boarding expenditure for long-term sustainability and financial reporting accuracy.
Despite the above concerns, we will not be increasing adoption fees for the rest of the year 2011 even though we need to cover the increasing boarding expenses incurred by the rescue cats. Neither will we downgrade the standard of care for the rescues due to increase in prices. We will continue to perform due diligence in sourcing for the most value-for-money purchases to procure for our boarding needs, and The Water Dish will continue to sponsor us pet supplies every month. You, our donors, have helped us with the shortfall through your financial contributions, and we believe that with your continued support we will be able to keep on providing quality care to the rescues we foster.
What you can do:
We appeal to you to help us in lowering our boarding costs, by considering gifts to the cats in the form of donations-in-kind. Click here to view a list of the boarding supplies you can consider giving.
There are other non-numeric performance improvements in our care for rescue cats over the last year.
- Since moving our boarding premises to our current foster home, we have improved in the quality of food we are feeding the rescues by feeding only grain-free food.
- We have built up a larger cache of nutritional supplements for aiding recovery of various feline ailments and improving the health of the cats we re-home.
- We have invested in herbal remedies that can adjunct pharmaceutical medications, or used instead where medication is not possible, increasing rates of recovery from sickness.
- We have greatly reduced the occurrence of contagious disease and parasite outbreaks through the use of quarantine, increased levels of environmental disinfection, boarding cats in separate groups of maximum to 5-6 cats each, increased use of preventative parasite treatments like Revolution, and recognising and adhering to our boarding capacity.
- We have improved the quality of the boarding environment - our foster lounge - through pen furnishings, diffusing therapeutic essential oils, and background music (usually jazz or Music Cats Love!)
Next 2010 KPI report will be on sterilisation of stray cat colonies.
