Animal Rescuers Need to Hear This

24 Comments

1. I love this I just lost my first foster kitten and after 25 kittens i lost one and it’s been so hard like I think could I have done more

2. Girl we social workers have those feelings. Many people "burn out" then end up doing less. No…you can't save all the….cats…children…trees…water sources…and on and on. Do you know the story of the little boy throwing starfish back into the ocean. It will give you perspective. Do all you can…no more or less.

3. All i have to say is a HUGE THANK YOU !

4. I'm not first, I'm actually 139th, but I'm not last. When I wake up and see kitten lady on my screen, I click fast.

5. Can u do a vid on how to stop teething pls the reason is my baby kitty who is 1yr old is teething my tablet case a lot

6. I was 35 and remember crying in my doctors office because I was so overwhelmed. I volunteered a lot as you do with kids, but also doing my own volunteering. And you're right, the more you do, the more people ask. Finally after I had my good cry, he said the line that changed my life "it's ok to say NO". For some reason it clicked and I did less and it was the best decision I made.

   You can't be supermom, superwife and super friend unless you take care of yourself first. So it's ok to be selfish every now and then and say no or relax and enjoy a cup of coffee all by yourself, sleep in, binge watch that Netflix show with a bottle of wine or whatever else you enjoy, just enjoy.

7. Kind of off topic, but have you gotten any new tats lately? I get mine to mark milestones in my life, like a reward, so it's… kind of a selfcare thing? ?

8. Need help.
   2 days ago I found abonden 4 newborn kitten at the bus stop on my way back home from school and i took it home with me.
   I just want to ask it is normal for their poop ti be yellow?
   Sorry for my bad english ?

9. You're awesome Hannah!

10. Gardening, even weeding, is a great stress reliever for me.

11. Awesome message Hannah! This is something people really need to know.

    I have seen, and experienced myself, the burn-out and exhaustion that can happen when someone does animal rescue or is caring for an elderly parent at home or caring for someone needing around the clock care.

    It's good to find someone reliable who can help you, so you can take some time for yourself. Take a day or weekend, but take time for you. And don't feel guilty! This gives you an opportunity to reenergize so that you can care for them better.

    Thank you Hannah. Enjoy your time in the garden!

12. Well said, Hannah. Thanks!

13. This is so important. I've been involved on the opposite side of rescue from where you are involved pretty heavily since 2010. My specialty is senior cats with medical needs. Specifically, cats that wind up dumped at shelters because they are diagnosed with diabetes, although not exclusively.

    There is an overwhelming tendency to believe that if you need to take a break, that you need to step back for a bit and clear your head and do some normal non-rescue things in your life, that you are doing the cats for whom you would normally advocate to death. You can't think that way. You have to have faith and confidence that others who are in a healthier place in their journey emotionally and mentally will step in to fill the gap!

    It's so important to remember, especially if you need to take a step back, that being involved at all in any capacity or for any amount of time is and was a valuable and life-saving contribution. I guess what I'm saying is, I can look over the last nine years and point to so many cats that I have been involved in saving. And I need to remember to be proud of the ones that I've helped, and not dwell on the ones that I've had to let for the sake of my own mental and emotional well-being.

    Compassion fatigue is real. it happens to different people at different times for different reasons. Knowing when you are on the edges of compassion fatigue and taking a necessary and justified break is not a personal failure, it's not dooming cats to death. Just because you don't personally rescue the next cat that people see on Facebook or social media, doesn't mean someone else isn't going to step in when you don't. My experience has been that they will. So take a break when you need it, because really you can't continue to be effective with diminishing returns. You have to pass the baton to those in a fresher place to help, and then rejoin the effort when you are refreshed.

14. My current set of kittens are relatively easy. My last set was not, they were undersocialized and sick with coccidia and what seemed like a never ending URI. They took so much out of me. I have the choice about whether I return them or keep them through adoption. I ended up returning them to the shelter and felt so guilty even though they were all adopted within five days. I had to let go of a lot of guilt. I’ve learned that I have to a break between fosters to do it well. Also that I need to alternate kittens with adult foster cats.

15. Self care is so important for me. My job is probably one of the most thankless cat-related jobs out there… Medicines! Every morning I go in and stuff syringes and pills down throats. Cats catch on quickly and you often lose a lot of relationships you wish you could have. After I started doing meds I had to make the hard decision to say no to other responsibilities so I can recover from the particularly hard days when a more difficult cat is sick or I got scratched. But it was the right decision , otherwise I'd get burned out and not even be able to do meds

16. Anybody else think she needs to make a t-shirt that says self-care is Animal Care? This is such a great video that I really needed to hear, I am 13 and I have fostered almost 50 kittens in my time doing so. I started my own rescue called "A Bigger Purpose Kitten Rescue" and we are soon going non-profit. This video is the definition of my life. I tell people to take care of them selves and do self care, yet I forget to do it myself. I agree to taken in more then I can handle and afford with being a small rescue with only 700 followers (@abiggerpurposekittenrescue ) once I had 13 kittens at once and it cost me about $150 per healthly kitten just to get medical stuff done.

17. What important words! Remember…you need to put the oxygen mask on yourself before helping others!

18. We do TNR for two colonies. We absolutely cannot find anyone to foster feral kittens in our town. We are unable to foster ourselves because the TNR work is all we can manage with our space and resources. We get so close to successfully clearing the colonies every year but it's just that one litter that we CANNOT find anyone to foster for. Each colony has one completely untrappable queen who keeps getting pregnant several times a year. Those litters grow up and we are stuck again with the same horrible cycle. Watching the kittens grow, mostly die from the elements and traffic, and the rest we have to TNR. Our only hope is that after the two queens pass we may be able to make progress.

    It's so depressing and so maddening. Also financially depleting. There are no happy moments, no sense of satisfaction. Just tragedy after tragedy and more misery.

    A big thank you to everyone who fosters kittens. I wish so much there was someone like you locally. Your communities are very lucky to have you.

19. Because of your videos, I'm fostering kittens. I saw one of your videos years ago and I immediately started pestering my mom (Because I was like ten) to let me foster kittens. She said no for years, and then one of her friends contacted her to tell her that she worked with a feral cat colony that lives around her house (feeding, TNR, ect.) and she had some feral kitten that needed socialization. My mom said that we'd take them. Since my first litter I've had three more and I have two little bottle babies right now! They're running around on my feet and chasing each other on their wobbly little legs. My mom and I have an agreement, she helps me foster kittens and she gets to name them.

20. I will probably become a Puppy Lady in the far future.

21. I needed this…I got ghosted by a rescue I've been fostering for I has 6 kittens(3 are sick) with a mom they bailed on.
    In addition to having me having a tooth go abscess. This week I just can't win

22. I need this today! I got a 6 week old kitten, in addition to my current fosters. We are keeping her bc she needed medical care the rescue won't cover her needs. Her leg and tail had to be amputated. I feel terrible know she could have siblings out there. I haven't slept all week and I really needed this today, thank you Hannah

23. What an important message you've made! No matter what type of caregiving we do, we must remember that we cannot do it all, and most importantly we need to practice self care!? I've worked in the medical field for almost 29 years, and I had always let my stress level get out of control and tried to take on more than I could, ultimately I ended up in the hospital. Tyfs??❤

24. Amazing pep talk !!

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