Spring fundraising :)

Starting with March 1st I am enjoying for the first time the benefits of unemployment...free time :) I needed a break and I needed a change. My job hunting campaign is going rather well, I have to admit I am playing a bit with my new situation, because it's a once in a life time opportunity when I don't have to care about money that much.

I love my free time and I am using it wisely to develop myself and do more for the animals I love so much.

That's why, this week, I attended two fundraising events. One of them was related to the part of the annual income taxes we all pay - or at least we should - the 2% that every employee has the opportunity to donate towards a NGO. Not many people are aware of this possibility, and not many choose to redirect their money for a noble cause. If these money aren't redirected then the state has the right to use them as it wishes...and when you live in a corrupt state like Romania, you don't want that to happen. The state, of course doesn't have any campaigns encouraging people to redirect these 2%, so this is where us, as NGO representatives, step in.

Only recently, big companies stared getting involved in this, and included such employee campaigns in their CSR activity. One of those companies in Romania is Petrom, the largest oil retailer on the market...and as you can imagine their CSR campaigns are pretty generous. For the 2% donation, they basically did a one day round of several NGOs covering different sectors, offering them the opportunity to present their activity and their plans to the company's employees...while encouraging them to responsibly redirect the 2% from last year's income tax.

Another great fundraising event I attended is SSCG, a tradition among animal lovers. The event is a "garage sale" with things donated by people...clothes, accessories, books, shoes...etc. The event takes place every month and even if it was hosted in different locations in the past, now we hold it a very special place...a dog training school and pet hotel :) There's a lot of work in putting everything out for display and the at the end putting them back together, but it's the only time that gives us (people from different animal associations) the opportunity to come together and exchange ideas, cases or experiences we have. It's really nice to interact with people with who you share a passion...

Pitzu for adoption

Adopted - March 2013

Pitzu had me and a lot of people, confused on whether it's a cat or a tomcat. Though at the beginning he was introduced as "Pitzi the cat"...he proved to be a tomcat so his name turned into Pitzu.

His story portraits the life of most stray cats. He was born together with his brother in a basemen, him being the smaller one. For a long time it seams that his brother basically took care of him, because he was very depended. His brother started "communicating" with people a lot faster and so he was adopted pretty fast.

Pitzu is now alone, in foster, looking for his forever owners. He is still scared and I am the only person he trusts....and not entirely. I had him in foster for about a month. In the past weeks I stayed home a lot so he got used to my presence and started even interacting with me more. He is basically the first cat I tamed :)

Pitzu is a special tomcat looking for a home... preferably somebody who already had a cat and is used with a cat's "precious" character. He is very curious and easily intrigued by anything that moves :)

Pitzu is about 4 months old, and has been dewormed and litter box trained...

Taming cat dragons

Jackie and Hyde are my two new foster kittens. I've had them for 5 days already and they are still afraid of me :) Yet, they've made huge progress learning to use the litter box only and being brave enough to play with cat toys.

Their story is a Romanian classic for stray cats. Born in the basement of an apartment building, living in the dark till their mother had to leave them and they had to get around on their own. That probably happened around the age of three months when their personalities already developed. They had to be caught as soon as possible because getting out of the basement could mean trouble for the two survivors. They are still two young to know what the big world has for them, but they clearly have good survival skills, because they don't trust humans easily. That's their only hope in the city jungle, and they know it...but only if humans were their sole enemies...

I had to deal with "wild" kittens before, but they usually started trusting me as soon as they realised that I was a reliable food source :) This doesn't work with Jackie and Hyde. By the way, they looked really good when they were caught. I would say that they didn't lack food in the basement. They were two very healthy kittens, flee-less and well fed.

I would really like them to get adopted together, because they have a delicious way of taking care of one another. They meaow when one is missing calling for protection, and they are willing to risk themselves to make sure that they are together. They eat together, they sleep together and they even use the litter box together...

They are a delight to watch, and as soon as they will start trusting I am sure they will become wonderful company to their lucky future owner.

I wonder when will this ideal world I am still hoping for will become reality...if people could just become a bit more responsible and sensitive towards other creatures.