Before the Trip

In about three weeks I will be leaving to spend nearly a month in England. I will be volunteering at a cat rescue, Bradford Cat Watch Rescue and Sanctuary, and will be working at my normal job for a good portion of the time. The time difference of 5 hours and the ability to work remotely makes this possible. I must pause and thank my supervisor, Leigh Anne, for approving the trip and vacation. While I normally am mostly remote, it is a big chunk of time and I am grateful for her support.  Beyond that I must thank two people for indulging me in this crazy idea of mine. Sara will have the tiresome task of keeping everything going at home. Without her blessing and willingness to go it alone this trip would be merely a dreamy thought in my crazy cat lady brain. The other is Katie Lloyd, who runs the rescue. Of course, without her blessing I would be left in the same place of daydreaming about an impossible idea that would never progress beyond just that. I have assured her I need no coddling and my goal is to help, learn more about the rescue’s day to day work and be able to spend time getting to know its permanent residents, namely one Manisha, Queen of the desert.  More on her later. I owe both Sara and Katie more gratitude than I can convey as I embark on this trip of a lifetime.

My intention is to document my days in Bradford, England here on this blog and if I can continue to make progress with my GoPro, which is a big IF right now, have some videos to post as well. It is also important to me to share how I got here. Why England? Why this rescue? Aren’t there plenty of rescues in the Knoxville area? Yes, there are. And I used to work with one. For many years I was on the Board of Directors of AnimalWorks. I took pictures of the cats at the four adoption locations and uploaded them to the website, Petfinder, etc. I also pulled cats from the county shelter. Walking into a room of fifty plus kennels holding a paper with two to three names and descriptions, hoping they were still there, all while faces whom you cannot help hold eyes upon you is a daunting task. I loved the work. I felt it made a real difference. During this time I rescued over one hundred cats on my meager salary but without the resources of the rescue and the MANY friends I cajoled into fostering, that number would be much smaller.  Fostering absolutely saves lives so if you have a spare room and are willing, trust me there are people who would love to hear from you!

Rescue work is hard. Beyond the obvious time and financial commitment it can really take a mental toll.  Aforementioned faces you were not able to help appear as you try to sleep, abuse you cannot wrap your mind around makes you physically ill, gory injuries, suffering, ignorance, politics; the list goes on and on of the trials. I succumbed to the pressures after about five years and stepped down from my official involvement. Since then, Sara and I have lost count but know we have rescued another fifty plus. Once you have done the work, your eyes are drawn to dumpsters behind restaurants, drop off points on country roads, boxes tossed out car windows and so on. There always seems to be that proverbial blinking neon light at your home –“Stray cats welcome here.” In short, I admire the heck out of those who rescue and at the end of the day, there’s not a better feeling than saving a life and seeing a family’s life enriched with the love a pet can bring.

Bear with me as I begin to put the pieces of this trip together. I also apologize in advance if my layout is boring or if I make a mistake. Learning to use the blog site is a work in progress. Stay tuned for part two!