(KRON) – There seems to be a never-ending number of dogs and cats that are unwanted, and rescuing these animals is an ongoing challenge.
On top of that, there’s a special group of them who are even harder to save – those with injuries or illnesses that make their very survival questionable.
KRON4’s Ken Wayne took Flying Tails to a familiar place on another rescue run: Fresno. Wayne served as co-pilot as long-time animal rescue volunteer Kim Purcell handled the controls in her V-tail bonanza.
On the ground, there was a buzz of activity. The crew ran into Dan Sauvageau – a pilot who was loading up several large puppies into his Cessna to fly them to new homes in the Reno area.
The Flying Tails crew picked up eleven crates of cats to head back to the Bay Area. There were too many animals there for the shelter, and without Flying Tails’ rescue, they’d be put down.
Purcell and Wayne got back into the bonanza, heading to Napa to drop off most of the cats. Margot from Whiskers Tails and Ferals met them to take the cats to her shelter.
A short flight over Sonoma Mountain brought Wayne and Purcell to Petaluma.
A little kitten with birth defects that left two paws deformed is going to its new home at SNAP Cat in Santa Rosa. “SNAP” stands for Special Needs Are Precious.
“They’re usually the last ones to get adopted, so shelters that are always full look at what they have, and the special needs are always the ones to be euthanized,” said Darryl Roberts, founder of SNAP Cats.
Roberts founded SNAP Cats in 2013 to save the cats no one ever wanted. There, one can find dozens of cats with a host of ailments: twisted or missing limbs, blind, deaf, and diabetic.
At first glance, it might seem to be a depressing place. But Roberts says the cats don’t seem to be bothered.
“One of the things people don’t understand is that animals cannot rationalize,” Roberts said. “So they can’t look at another cat and say, ‘Why do I have three legs and they have four?’ They are who they are. They don’t feel sorry for themselves, so we shouldn’t feel sorry for them.”
There are cats from across California and as far away as the Middle East. SNAP Cats is a one-of-a-kind rescue known around the world.
Wayne and Purcell opened the crate to let out the little kitten. It took a while before she seemed to gather the courage to venture out.
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“We ended up naming her ‘Sugar’ and she’s missing a right front paw and a right back paw. From what I understand, she was just wandering… alone. She wasn’t being cared for. She was probably a stray. The mom probably left her because of… they know better than to try to spend their energy on cats that might not survive. Someone found her, took care of her, contacted the local shelter,” Roberts said.
Sugar seems to have fit right in at SNAP Cat but unlike some of the others who have been there for years, Sugar was gone soon.
She has been adopted by a woman in New Mexico and will be joined by her new SNAP Cat companion – another kitten named Ana.
