05/29/2026
Literally the life of every rescuer.
People see a “cat person” and assume we have endless space, endless money, endless emotional capacity, and somehow the ability to save every single cat on the planet.
What they don’t see are the messages that come with the guilt trips:
“I hate to ask, but…”
“You’re going to hell if you don’t take this cat.”
“How can you say no?”
“It’ll get eaten by hawks.”
“I’ll just dump it in the country.”
“I’m going to drown them.”
“I’ll have them euthanized.”
And suddenly someone else’s crisis becomes our responsibility to carry.
The truth is, most rescuers are already drowning. We are drowning emotionally, financially, mentally, physically. We say yes until there’s nothing left of us because the alternative haunts us.
Compassion fatigue is real. Rescue burnout is real. But we keep going because there simply aren’t enough people that love cats. They are considered a disposable animal by many….. so we stand together and throw each other a life raft when we feel like we are going under.
