IMPORTANT LETTER FROM SIGLINDA

Posted September 03, 2014

Dear Goathouse Refuge Supporters,

Well, I am here again to talk with you about the Goathouse:

As you know we have more than 200 cats, some are feral and old, some feral but not too old (we call them “The Sopranos”), and some that are just non-adoptable, but very sweet, and they all deserve a place to call home – even if this is in a community like our Refuge. This is a group of about 70 cats. They all get along and love each other, and some have been here for at least 6 years. We also have some kitties that are shy – these are mostly kitties that came from horrifying hell holes that call themselves “shelters” but that are really not much different from Concentration Camps. And they are so traumatized by that experience that still, even after a few months with us, they are not totally free of nightmares. The rest and the majority of the Goathouse population consist of kitties that are highly adoptable, healthy, friendly, and adorable.

However, since the whole problem with the Shooting Range started, with their constant and frightening noise, a few of our cats have started to show typical stress-behaviors such as over-grooming and even biting their paws to blood, which they had never done before…

As you know, the Goathouse and the other neighbors have started a petition against the shooting range; I have been calling the sheriff’s office every time there is shooting, and my neighbors and I have filed several complaints, resulting in a temporary injunction on the shooting range for violating the noise ordinance.

More frighteningly, this has also led to the shooting range people blasting us on a very right-wing radio station, saying that we were against the second amendment, portraying us as crazies who care more about cats than our country. Twice now, people have broken in at night to the refuge, turning on lights, opening doors letting the cats out, and clearly trying to intimidate me. Others started posting on Craigslist that they were going to drive more than one hour to come here and use our cats for target practice. One night there was some shooting here at the refuge, so I ran from my house to refuge, carrying my shot gun, determined to defend our cats. Fortunately, nothing terrible happened, but I saw people walking our fence line, upsetting our dogs and me. It is a terrible way to live, especially if you think of how peaceful and wonderful our Refuge was and is when those people stay away from us and there is no sound of gun shots in the air.

I’m writing all this to say that I am really scared for the cats at the refuge… Before some nut-head shows up and do something really terrible, I want to move as many of the cats as possible into adoptive, loving, families. And here is why I am writing to all of you again. Would you be able to give a loving home to one or more of our kitties? Do you know of anybody who could? Could you, please, post this appeal to your Facebook? Tell it to your friends? Post it at work? We need to get, as many of the adoptable kitties, away from here as possible, until this dispute is over and we have our peace again.

Thank you, as always, for your support, moral and financial and for spreading the word about us and our troubles…Looking forward to being able to talk with you all about great successes and joyful things!