Hey there, an awful lot is happening, and there is so much need.

Here is another project: feral kittens, many of whom are gravely ill and who desperately need help.

People should only help if they can, and if it is comfortable, even small donations will help. You can donate anywhere from $5 to $100 or higher.

As you know I’ve been working with Salem Community Cats, a rescue organization that specializes in feral cats and kittens, of whom there are believed to be 70 million in America.

They are the forgotten animals of the animal rescue world, and they may be the neediest.

A month ago, we helped the group sell out an Amazon Wish List that enabled them to function comfortably until this onslaught of kittens.

We can’t help all of the feral cats, that’s why I agreed to help this one group. As with all the works of the Army Of Good, we focus on one thing and help when we can.

What we do is small acts of great kindness. This is in our wheelhouse.

Darlene Phillips, the leader of Salem  Cats, sent me this SOS yesterday. She’s looking for $700.

“The group is overwhelmed right now, they took in 21 kittens over the weekend and are seeking $700 so that they can feed, treat, and spay them. Some can be adopted out, all are in foster care.

“The last time I contacted you, our Salem’s Community Cats fosters were loaded with stray adult cats and we were struggling to provide for them. Your Army for Good bought out our Amazon wish list in no time, restocking us with much-needed supplies. Those cats have since (thankfully) moved on to permanent homes.

Now we are loaded with kittens. We have twenty-one as of today and calls keep coming in. Members of our group trapped four yesterday, and their new foster, Jess (who took them in without question and with no notice!) wrote this Facebook post last evening:

“Before you take that free kitten; they grow up, males spray and females reproduce. Today another ASAP came in, maybe they will be named the Three Musketeers; holy toes!

Today I have 10 cats because an unspayed free kitten can become pregnant and dropped when it becomes a “problem”. I have ten cats because someone didn’t realize how much it cost to neuter a male that was free.

The farmer pays enough to keep us fed, the population quickly becomes out of hand.

If you wonder why you should adopt; adopted kittens are spayed or neutered, they don’t become a family problem, a farmer’s headache, or a community burden.

They don’t end up being rescued.”

Jess speaks for all of us at Salem’s Community Cats. Six fosters are housing 21 kittens and we are struggling, both to recruit more fosters and to pay the medical expenses for these sweet little innocents.

Most of these kittens come in with runny eyes and noses, loaded with fleas and full of worms. Many have other issues on top of all this. Foster Tina took one of her litter of 7 to the emergency clinic Thursday night at 10 PM for severe intestinal distress.

Thomas O’Malley (the orange kitten in the pic above) came to us with a terrible eye ulcer. His eye was actually bulging out of the socket before we took him in. This past Thursday, Thomas tested positive for feline leukemia. He is a playful, happy kitten. What are we to do?  Further testing is required to ascertain the severity of his condition.  Each day seems to bring more challenges with these kittens.

So I am writing to you today for two reasons: to ask you once again to shine a light on our cats in hopes of raising much-needed funds for their care, and to ask you to use your platform to educate people on the plight of feral cats.”

I’m not good at giving lectures, I’ll leave that to Salem Cats. And I think most of you blog readers understand the issue.

But this is a worthy group and a worthy cause and I will send a donation and I hope some of you can also. But no pressure.

I appreciate the chance to help this group. We have helped a ton of people, why not some of the neediest animals?

Thanks for thinking about it. You can donate here. Any amount will help. You can visit their blog here for additional information. You can contact Darlene Phillips at [email protected].