Cats for Foster: Special Needs Sarge

July 28, 2020 Bernadette

Lovable and affectionate Sarge unexpectedly lost his human unexpectedly and is looking for a foster home. Sarge is special, though—he is FIV/FeLV positive, and because of the FeLV he can’t live with other cats, but dogs and people are fine! He’s in good health, but missing his person.

His person was an artist and poet, gardener and social activist, a friend of Pittsburgh’s art community, LGBTQ community and animal community, and a friend to anyone he met, even on social media. I followed him on Instagram and thought I’d finally be able to meet him at events this summer, but I’ll never have the opportunity to do that. We often place FeLV+ cats who are in good health with someone who will care for them responsibly, and we could see at any time that Sarge was well-loved and cared for. Finding another foster home like the one he had would be impossible, but Sarge will understand and, just like his person, love anyone who loves him. Ashley in our foster group, and the one who took these photos of Sarge, can vouch for that. “ ‘Sarge’ is an incredibly affectionate cat (I’ve cared for him personally) and I’m certain he’s feeling lost without his human.”

Sarge can only be placed in the Pittsburgh area. Just like all Pittsburgh CAT fosters, Sarge is healthy, neutered, up to date on vaccines and microchipped. If you are interested, please let me know or reach out to Pittsburgh C.A.T.’s Facebook page.

Help Pittsburgh C.A.T. with kitten season!

You know that Pittsburgh C.A.T. is the rescue I volunteer with, but even when I’m rescuing cats and kittens for others they still provide support to me in the form of traps and transport, fostering, food, kitten formula, and low-cost clinic and surgery appointments. I couldn’t help anyone without their support. Rescuing adult cats to foster and adopt to a forever home can be expensive depending on their condition, but rescuing kittens is always expensive because they need complete vetting, often they are orphaned and need formula and bottle feeding for weeks, they often develop illnesses or conditions specific to young kittens and they eat A LOT. We don’t adopt kitten out until they are spayed and neutered and have all age-appropriate vaccines, so we make a substantial investment in their future.

Here’s what you can do:

Donate Amazon gift cards to [email protected]. Because our cats are fostered in homes all around the Pittsburgh area, gift cards enable us to send supplies directly to fosters!
You can also buy supplies through our Amazon wishlist
Or donate cash through Paypal ([email protected]) or Venmo (Pittsburghcat).

Can’t adopt? Foster! Can’t foster? Donate or volunteer.

There are so many ways you can help cats who need homes and care. You may not have room to adopt another cat, but can foster a cat or kitten for a few weeks. If not that, you can volunteer at a shelter or with a rescue, or donate. You do this because you love your cat, and by doing so you help all cats. No matter which of these actions you take, you help to save a life, and make life better for all cats.

Adopt one of the cats I’ve posted here, or from any shelter or rescue near you, or from Petfinder, to open up a space for another cat to be rescued and fostered.
Offer to foster cats or kittens for a shelter or rescue near you.
Volunteer at a shelter or rescue.
Find a group of volunteers who work with homeless cats and help them with their efforts.
Donate to a shelter or rescue near you.

If you can foster kittens or adults cats to help prepare them for a forever home, please run to your nearest shelter and find a cat who needs you! Anyone can help with this effort at any level, even if all you do is donate to a shelter or rescue so they can help to pay for the food or medications needed for their foster, or the spay/neuter/veterinary care during a clinic.

Need to know more? Read Fostering for Your Shelter and Fostering Saves Lives

On Mondays I publish articles featuring Adoptable Cats and TNR.

Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork

Great Rescues Day Book:
Portraits, Rescue Stories, Holidays and Events, Essential Feline Information, All in One Book

day book with cat portraits — Great Rescues Day Book

Each month features one of my commissioned portraits of a feline or felines and their rescue story along with a kitty quote on the left page, and on the right page the month name with enough lines for all possible dates, with standard holidays and animal-themed observances and events. Great Rescues also includes a mini cat-care book illustrated with my drawings including information on finding strays or orphaned kittens, adopting for the first time or caring for a geriatric cat, a list of household toxins and toxic plants, or helping stray and feral cats and beginning with TNR.

Each book includes also 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends.

The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.

Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.