Local cat rescue struggling to make ends meet
The Feline Café and Rescue Foundation in Hintonburg needs the community’s help to meet the financial demands for their rescue cats and kittens.
The café posted to social media this month saying “To put everything into one sentence; we are struggling.”
Katherine Clements runs the Feline Café’s Rescue Foundation and says, “These past few months have been especially hard... Really hard to keep going and get the vet care for these little ones.”
Clements says the pandemic has greatly impacted both the café and the foundation. “March 2020 hit and we lost everything,” The café was forced to shut down temporarily, which resulted in no one visiting the cats, and revenue plummeted. Fundraising efforts were also canceled.
But the need to rescue cats continued. There was also an increase in cats that were surrendered during the pandemic from owners no longer able to care for their pets.
“We have been pushing it... it has always been at the back of our mind—will we survive? We have no idea,” says Clements.
The café had to pivot during the pandemic, starting a takeout grocery and online store. Visitors are allowed to now visit the cats, but it is under provincial restrictions. The have tried to do fundraising online as well as a take-away, but that has not been enough.
In the past few months, the rescue took in three pregnant cats, who gave birth to 14 kittens, and nine other adults. Some required emergency vet care.
The rescue cats include mother Dash, who was taken in this winter and gave birth to premature kittens.
Clements says, "If we hadn’t taken her on they would have all perished because it was way too cold for her to have kitten at that time.”
She says it is expensive to cover the vet needs for the kittens. “Typically, depending on the cat their vet bill alone, not food or anything else, will be about $600 to a $1000 each.”
Clements says, “The rescue will not survive without the café, the café will not survive without the rescue.”
To help the rescue foundation you can visit https://felinecafeottawa.com/pages/support
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Humanist group threatening to sue Vancouver over council prayers
The B.C. Humanist Association has threatened legal action against the City of Vancouver for allowing prayers at council, following a similar warning issued earlier this month to a smaller community on Vancouver Island.
LHSC performs a Canadian first in robot-assisted direct lateral spine surgery
Spine surgery may never be the same for people with chronic back pain and other physical ailments.