Thanks to the unexpected snow fall last Saturday, you have a second opportunity to shop at our Holiday Basket Sale!
Saturday, December 12th 11:00am – 12noon!
SHOP EARLY! FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED!
“We will have a wonderful selection of beautiful baskets with themes such as wine, Italian foods, tea, candles, spa items, cats, hot chocolate, Christmas decorative items, family entertainment, cookie baking, margaritas, and more! We also have a Jim Shore cat statue, and a hand-crocheted afghan!”
Dear Friends,
Despite the major impact of Covid-19, we are continuing to live our mission!
We continue to provide for the feeding, shelter and care of homeless, abandoned and feral cats; to educate the public about the importance of spay/neuter population control, responsible pet ownership and kindness to animals; and to establish an ongoing community network to achieve these goals.
2020 has been a busy year for us! Covid-19 has had a major impact on the shelter, not only affecting the way we have had to do our fundraising but, affecting how we manage our daily care and processing of adoptions, while implementing all PPE precautions to keep our volunteers safe!
We have accepted more than 248 cats/kittens and adopted out over 183 since January 1st, bringing the total adoptions since we opened our shelter in 2011, to more than 2,290! We currently have over 134 cats and kittens in our care, spread out between foster homes and our shelter! Our shelter manager receives requests daily for rescue assistance from people facing eviction, because of related Covid-19 job loss and local animal control agencies.
This increase in intakes has brought financial challenges and our adoption fees do not even begin to cover the cost of the care we provide. We receive no municipal funding from any town and many state programs have been eliminated. Our operating costs in all areas— shelter maintenance, supplies, and veterinary care – continue to increase. With the exception of one paid shelter manager, our shelter is run entirely by dedicated volunteers! We are a non-profit, no-kill, volunteer-driven program.
However, there are many cats that rely on the shelter for a higher level of veterinary care, making it harder to find forever homes, and these cats need your continued support!
We need your help to continue accomplishing our mission!
Thank you in advance for your support, generosity, and compassion!
If you have given to us recently, please accept our heartfelt appreciation!
Sincerely,
Margaret Johnson
Margaret Johnson, President
To Our Fellow Community Members:
While Branford Compassion Club Feline Rescue & Adoption Center began the year making plans for our biggest fundraiser of the year in October, Animal Awareness Day … COVID-19 came along and everyone’s world changed. We do hope you and your family and friends are all staying safe & healthy!
Though we had to cancel other events and fundraisers planned for spring and early summer, we continued to hope that Animal Awareness Day would still happen in the fall. For many years this fun day on the Branford Town Green included live music, children’s activities, food trucks, live animals, live animal educational demonstrations, a huge bake sale, and booths featuring a variety of area animal care and rescue groups, and business vendors.
The highlight of the day was the Blessing of the Animals, the annual nod to the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, large and small. An eclectic array of pets always made their way to the Green to be blessed by local clergy from several denominations.
Unfortunately the Board of Directors only recently made the difficult decision to cancel the event. This was such a heartbreaking thing to do – it is our BIGGEST event of the year and brings together so many people in our community on the Branford Town Green to celebrate the lives of the animals who share our world. We kept hoping we could still have the event but a decision had to be made soon since so much planning has to be done in advance and there is still a great deal of uncertainty about how things will shake down in the fall with the pandemic.
However, we’ve come up with some ideas to have the event virtually with some online fundraisers! The Blessing of the Animals (which is what the day centers around) will be held as a drive-through event at the North Branford Congregational Church on October 4th. The celebration for 2020 has been renamed “Animal Awareness Month” and other things are planned during the month such as an online silent auction, a pet photo contest, a Yankee Candle sale online, to name a few.
To make all this possible, we need the financial assistance of the community. There are varying levels of sponsorship, as noted on the attached form, ranging from $5,000 for presenting sponsor to $100 for bronze sponsor. You can pay by mail, making your check (sorry, no credit cards) payable to Branford Compassion Club, and mailing it to Chris Gagne, c/o Branford Compassion Club, 2037 Foxon Road, North Branford, CT 06471.
• Download a Sponsor Form
• Read more about Animal Awareness Month
The Branford Compassion Club, celebrating its 23rd anniversary this year, is a privately funded nonprofit organization founded in 1997 to raise awareness about the importance of spay-neutering felines, to aid in the adoption of homeless cats and care for those deemed unadoptable in area feral colonies. These feral cats are trapped, neutered and released into the perpetual daily care of BCC volunteers. The shelter, which opened in 2011, has found forever homes for more than 2,400 cats, while BCC has adopted out several thousand more before opening the Feline Rescue & Adoption Center. Though the shelter had to close to the public in March, we are continuing to do our best to rescue, care for, and find homes for the many homeless cats and kittens that pass through our doors. It has been a very challenging year for us and the entire country but we have to believe we will all get through it!
Sincerely,
Christina Gagne, Event Chairperson
Dear Friends of the Branford Compassion Club,
Kitten season is here and we need your help!
Although the kittens are adorable, the large numbers of moms and babies coming into our shelter, places a great financial burden on our already limited resources!
Each Momma Cat and kitten needs to be vaccinated and neutered or spayed, greatly increasing our veterinary bills over the next few months!
We also experience an increased expense, that is supply related – food, litter and cleaning, etc.!
This year, however, brings an additional challenge, one we share with the whole community and country: the COVID-19 virus.
At this time, Branford Compassion Club Feline Rescue & Adoption Center remains closed to the public, but we continue our mission of caring for homeless felines.
We have had to cancel many events and our cats need your help!
How can you help support these adorable babies and their mom’s?
Send a donation via our website (click here) or send a check to:
Branford Compassion Club
P.O. Box 768
Branford, CT 06405
We need your support to make sure we can continue our mission to neuter, vaccinate, test and provide medical intervention for every feline that passes through our doors!
Thank you!
Peg Johnson, President
& the Board of Directors
