From our grantees at Pets Uniting People Society: Kitten Season Presents New Message with “Send Me No Flowers” As Director of PUPS, oftentimes, I think we could write a book about all the happenings that goes on within our organization, especially stories told by Dottie Smiddy, our volunteer foster care director. Every spring, she receives phone call after phone call about kittens in distress that are without their momma cat. She takes on what she feels she can handle, which, believe me, is quite a few! Although her latest contact was from a lady who had two stray momma cats that she rescued along with sixteen other homeless cats from a neighborhood that was demolished in order to build our new hospital. She found homes for the others. She named one momma cat Flowers and the other Ms. Whiskers. Flowers had six kittens and Ms. Whiskers had five. She liked them well enough to keep, but she couldn’t care and keep their kittens…this is when Dottie enters the scene. Did I say a book? It’s more like a remake of the Doris Day film, “Send Me No Flowers!” In the midst of kitten season, the message was staged: “Send Me No Flowers!” No one would help. No one! No one, but Dottie. Dottie came to the rescue, again! She agreed to take them all until the kittens were well enough and old enough to be adopted. Then, Momma Flowers and Momma Whiskers would be spayed…this is when the Doris Day Animal Foundation (DDAF) enters the picture. There was an important role for everyone. The Doris Day Animal Foundation was the producer that helped with the funding, P.U.P.S. directed the scenes played over and over again, and Dottie, the casting director, was the one who affectionately named and cared for the kittens. During the convalescent time, Dottie found that Flowers’ little garden needed the most attention. While caring for the kittens she gave them these names: Sweet William, Chrysanthemum (Chrys), Poppy, Laurel, Lark, and Rosebud. Even with the wonderful, round-the-clock care that Dottie gave, little Rosebud didn’t make it. Flowers rejected her right from the start…usually momma cats know when something isn’t right. Dottie (bless her heart) said, “If Rosebud makes it, I’m going to rename her ‘Blossom’. Well, folks, this is when I lost it and broke down in tears (In private, I am sure Dottie does this many times, but, with me, she always plays the strong one. She knows how weak and emotional I am.) So thank you, Doris Day Animal Foundation for this new and important production of “Send Me No Flowers”! P.U.P.S. is dedicating many pages in their organization’s scrapbook with titles of movies that Doris Day starred in, i.e. “Pillow Talk” – kittens in slumber and play; “The Thrill of It All” – neuter/spaying free-roaming cats in two zip code areas of Clark County, Ohio; “With Six You Get Egg roll” – a blended family of pets; “It’s a Great Feeling” – helping hundreds of free-roaming cats in the small community of Clark County, OH…thanks to the generosity of The Doris Day Animal Foundation! Pictures are worth a thousand words and we will have plenty of pictures to support these themes. Please visit this site pupsunite.org) from time-to-time to see the development of our presentation scrapbook. Thanks to everyone who plays a role in the continuous production of “Pets Uniting People Society” (P.U.P.S.).
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 15:43:16 +0000