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 What’s happening around Smokey Acres?

April 2023

State of the Sanctuary

Phew!  Its been a minute since I last provided an update on our progress.  I am chronically challenged to balance my career and personal life with the Smokey Acres’ operations.  You’ll have to forgive me for being a bit tardy on this post. 😊

As most of you know, we are a tiny 100% volunteer-managed IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Over the past few years, we’ve continued to accept new residents as space and resources permit.  We lose cats regularly as is the nature of feline leukemia.  I find peace in knowing that the death of one resident means that a new cat gets the opportunity to join us.  I am forever fueled by passion for our felines.

Support

We continue to receive great support from our community of donors.  Our overhead is very small allowing the bulk of donations to directly fund care for the felines.  We are grateful that our donors support us in providing a quality life for our residents.  Some may only stay with us for a short-time but we do our very best to ensure that time is spent in a nurturing and loving environment. 

I’d like to thank our annual donors for consistently supporting us:

  • The Paul and Susan Bloom Family Fund
  • Foren Family Foundation
  • Nancy Frye
  • Maki Watanabe-Colombo
  • Kathleen Mooradian and Thomas Berry
  • Elizabeth Viane
  • Rosanne and Brendan O’Hara

We are always grateful for our regular monthly donors:

  • Mary Ellen Warner
  • Charmaine Gibb (Stella’s sponsor)
  • Rose O’Hara
  • Celia Simba
  • Lynda Stanecki

We also receive the occasional surprise donation from a new one-time supporter.  This is always exciting!

In 2022, we were awarded $1,000 from Community Financial “Summer of Sharing” program.

Flower Bar continues to allow us a place for our cash donation box.  Check them out on Facebook!   

We receive quarterly donations through Kroger Community Rewards and Amazon Smile (Amazon Smile will discontinue operations this year.)  Also, we’ve been fortunate to receive funds through Thrivent.  

Our friend, Katie Schick, donates her time to help us to maintain regular feline weigh-ins, dental inspections and monthly preventives.  Katie is also preparing to manage a soon-to-be announced funding program.

I feel a strong emotional connection to our supporters.  We love our cats and I know that we could not do this work without our community of donors.  

Our Facility

As most of you know, we have received a grant from the Paul and Susan Bloom Family Fund to build a facility specifically designed to service our Smokey Acres residents.  We’d been preparing to build in Northfield Township; however, some things have changed and we are reconsidering our options.

We’ll keep you updated as we make new decisions.

The Felines

As of April 2023, we’ve served over 50 residents.  Keeping our numbers reasonable is key to our success.  By remaining small, we ensure adequate care for our residents in a low stress hygienic atmosphere with regular veterinary care.  

Approximately 50% of our population are Feline Immunodeficiency Virus positive (FIV+) or simply special-needs cats.  This group includes Jackpot, Theodore, Mr. Clean, Casey, Finnegan, Fred and Bernard.  This group of kitties remains healthy and happy with no end in sight.  

The other 50% of our population is positive for Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV.)  We have a few residents who’ve lived much longer than expected and this is rather amazing.  This group of cats includes Isabelle, Creamsicle, and Noodles.  Most of our FeLV+ cats only stay with us for a year or two before we choose euthanasia as the peaceful ending.  

To keep our sanctuary open and available for FeLV+ cats, we’ve discontinued accepting new FIV+ residents.  FIV cats typically live very normal lives and some can successfully live amongst non-FIV+ cats with little risk for transmission. The most senior of our FIV+ cats is Theodore.  Ted has been with us for nearly 15 years, even before Smokey Acres was formally founded.  Theodore is the perfect example of an FIV+ cat living a long and productive life.  His long life-span is exactly why we’d prefer to see FIV+ felines adopted into family homes to preserve space at Smokey Acres for our FeLV+ kitties.

Euthanasia is a critical component to our services.  With the assistance of our veterinarians, we carefully consider quality of life when making final decisions.  We strongly believe that euthanasia is the responsibility of love.  We take that responsibility seriously and endeavor to keep suffering to a minimum.

Volunteers

We look forward to a future wherein volunteers can assist us with hands-on work.  Once our facility is completed, we’ll be able to invite cat-lovers to help us with daily care.

We are currently seeking volunteers with professional-level experience to offer.  Our best volunteers are those that possess strong initiative, capable of working independently with modest guidance.

We are in the process of locating and interviewing construction project managers to assist us with land selection and zoning issues related to our future  facility.  We’ll rely heavily on the experience of our project manager to bring in additional volunteers as necessary.  If you believe you could successfully manage our facility project, please contact me at info@smokeyacres.org.

We are also looking for a website designer and manager to give us a fresh look and help us keep our content current.

Lastly, we welcome any volunteers who can build and independently lead fundraising events.  Integrity is critical for this role.  

Final Words

I am forever grateful for my feline companion, Smokey, who served as the inspiration for our sanctuary.  I am thankful for the kind people whom I’ve met through this work.  I am consistently in awe of those rescue-warriors out in inclement weather and dangerous conditions to reduce stray populations and end suffering.  

Regards and well wishes for the remainder of 2023!

Marcianne White (She/Her)

Smokey Acres Founder and President 

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