Meet Lisa! 

I met Jen and Cynthia, the founders of Carroll’s Sanctuary and Rescue, when they were at the pet supplies store I work at for an event. This was the first time I had ever heard about their sanctuary. Coincidentally, just that day a customer had noticed a baby kitten in the parking lot of a grocery store, and I called my husband to pick it up and take it back to our farm. We quickly realized that this sweet kitten was not cut out to be a barn cat and needed a real family. That’s when I called Jen, and Jen said that they would take the kitten and find her a home. About a month later another orphan baby kitten came into my life, and I once again reached out to Jen to asked if the sanctuary would be able to help find this baby a home, too. I fostered that kitten until it was old enough to go, and then I offered to continue fostering for Carroll’s.

While I love every resident of the sanctuary, the cats have a special place in my heart. I love bottle feeding the babies, helping with the ones that aren’t feeling well, and working with ones that most people just give up on.

Once of my favourite stories about volunteering with CASR is about a very scared cat named, Snow.  Snow was so scared when she arrived at my home from the sanctuary for fostering that she would not let people touch her. She would actively climb to get away. She displayed many characteristics of a feral cat, and they can be quite challenging to work with. Snow was with me for over six months, and during those six months there were many times we were about to give up on her but then she would show me something new and I understood that I was reaching her, and she was learning to trust. Snow lived in my room so every night so I would try to pet her and encourage interaction with treats, but it took me forever to even get her to purr.

One day we took Snow to an adoption event to see how she would be in that environment.  At the event there was a family looking to adopt one of our other cats. When I told them about Snow they initially weren’t interested and it broke my heart, but by the end of the event, they did decide to adopt Snow and another cat, too. It wasn’t long before we were getting updates on how Snow was coming out of her shell, playing with toys, and coming to them looking for attention. Fostering is very hard but so worth it. I do get attached to all the cats that I take care of, and it is sad to see them go but when you have one like Snow that finds a loving home, there are no words to describe that feeling. I always tell people fostering is not for everyone. It is hard and you do get attached to your fosters, but if you can remember that there’s another one out there that needs your help it does make it easier to let them go, especially when they end up with homes like the ones that Carroll’s finds for our rescues.