Hi, I read this article yesterday so I figured I'd pass it along. -Melissa
http://www.centredaily.com:80/news/l...ory/98651.html
By Sara Ganim - [email protected]
HOW TO HELP
If you would like to adopt a cat from Shirley Fonda, contact
her at 238-4758 or [email protected]
Nabil K. Mark
Shirley Fonda feeds "Puff" in one of the bedrooms of her house she has turned into a cat sanctuary. Fonda has dozens of cats in her home she has been rescuing and fostering. She is hoping to have them adopted. CDT/Nabil K. Mark
Our pets blog: View, post photos
After years of being known as Centre County's go-to lady for rescuing cats, Shirley Fonda wants out.
She has shuffled more than 630 cats in and out of her Patton Township home during the past six years. At times, her home has held 100 cats at once. They rule her house, said Fonda, 71. And now she wants her home back.
"Each of my rooms has a little colony of cats," Fonda said. "I just don't know what to do. It's getting to be a desperate situation."
Fonda has most of her belongings packed away. She has boarded up her cabinets and shelves. She can't go on vacation.
She loves the cats, but taking care of them is draining -- physically, emotionally and financially, Fonda said.
It's not good for the cats either. Fonda said she just can't give them all the love they need. She advertises the sale of the cats at Petco each Saturday, but she hasn't been able to adopt the cats fast enough.
"I pet each one as I go in the room. They swarm around me. When I go to leave, I'll look and some will cry for me to pet them more."
"They'd do better in homes," she said.
Fonda was one of the volunteers who rescued more than 100 cats from an abandoned home in Potters Mills in 2005. She has been called upon to rescue cats from various places around the county, including Toftrees, a car dealership, a hotel, Bellefonte and elsewhere. Police are among those who call upon her for cat rescues.
Fonda has been able to find homes for many of the cats, but 67 still remain, taking over every crack and crevice of her home.
Fonda had a room just for things she didn't want the cats to get into -- but now that room has cats, too. Her husband's workplace in the basement has cats. Her bathroom houses the kittens. The garage has two cats as well.
"Everybody says I'm a sucker that I can't say no, but I've got to say no, for my sake, healthwise," Fonda said. "A lot of it's lifting heavy bags of food and litter. We're not getting any younger."
She promised her husband a year ago she'd only take in pregnant mothers and kittens.
"I thought that would cut down, but I didn't know what I was talking about," Fonda said. Instead, she ended up with 87 kittens.
She has been able to cut back on the number of cats in her home, but not enough.
"I just feel I've got to do something more with my life," Fonda said.
Right now, she spends five to six hours of her day just feeding the animals.
"I'm tired of waking up in the morning thinking, 'four hours to go,' " she said.
Fonda said she has spent hundreds of dollars on medical bills and is charging $40 per adoption to help cover that cost.
"We got them all neutered and spayed and vaccinated and everything," Fonda said. "The ones I have, most of them are just really super cats, young cats. All named."
Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.
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