2020 Year End Review
What a year 2020 was, and we are sure glad it is over! While this was the year of the COVID 19 Pandemic, it did not stop the mission of The Chris Griffey Memorial Feline Foundation. With your help, we saved twenty eight high risk, medically advanced cases that would have been euthanized without the necessary medical care.
Many of our kittens this year had multiple issues that required more in depth testing and having specialists involved due to the severity of the cases. Some of these cases took months for recovery with eventual adoption, a few became “foster failures” to the homes that took care of these kittens for the majority of time in our program.
As you know, our mission is to give the best chance to the hardest cases and sometimes that means regardless of how hard we try, some do not make it. This year we lost Fiona suddenly to the dry form of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), and Paddle Foot to a severe campylobacter GI infection that we could not get control of despite multiple medications and hospitalizations. We are human, we don’t win every fight.
One of our saddest cases this year ended in a triumph. She was a previous kitten adopted out from us five years ago, Nintendo, formerly Greta as she was known as a kitten. While we do expect returns over time due to multiple reasons, we never give up on our cats. Not only did we have to enlist the help of one behaviorist, but two, to give us guidance on how to work with the severe redirected aggression she developed and conditioned to over several years. She proved to be a welcomed challenge and in the end blossomed into a wonderful clinic cat that we hope can be eventually adopted out to a home that understands her needs while building a healthier relationship with her new family.
Not only did we help 28 kittens in our programs here in Virginia, we were able to help many kittens out of state when those rescues reached out to us for additional help. We assisted in costs for blood transfusions, hospitalization cases and much needed consultations for their veterinary team.
One of our favorites, Eggbert, was finally co-adopted out to his new family who has a few other CGMFF alumni cats. Eggbert will remain a part of the CGMFF family, but he finally was well enough to be placed into a home full time with healthier enrichment.
Please follow the Chris Griffey Memorial Feline Foundation for more updates on our many kittens on FaceBook and @thecatlvt on Instagram where you can see daily photos on our challenging cases.
Have a safe New Year.
Ellen, LVT