The Power of One

"How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world."

                     - William Shakespeare

What is one life worth?

We live in a society where market forces determine the value of everything,including living things. We talk about people in terms of their assets, how much they are worth, what they have to offer, or how they can sell themselves. The market mentality is so pervasive that it has also infected animal welfare to the extent that online rescues trying to find placement for cats and dogs now resemble online dating apps or websites.

Sometimes we forget that there is another more important economy that binds our society together. It is an economy of good will, kindness, and empathy- qualities that cannot be bought or sold like commodities, but must be given.

Home for Life® operates within this second economy, working to amplify its call to action on behalf of the animals and people in our community. Our sanctuary welcomes animals based on their need, not their marketability.

The following story reveals the power of the kindness economy, and the benefits that accrue when people care. It is the story of what happened to a plain, homeless black cat named Jonathan and how the kindness shown him has paid huge dividends!

The Story of Jonathan: A Black Cat Lost in the Crowd

A feral cat colony had been living peacefully for several years at the site of a stalled construction project in Florida. Many of the cats were former pets, abandoned there. They were looked after by a kind woman, a caretaker, who was providing them regular food and water, reducing their numbers through trap-neuter-release, and generally monitoring their well-being. Then one day, the site owner let this woman know that construction at the site was about to start again. The cats had to go, he said, or he would have them sent to animal control. The caretaker scrambled to gather the colony and shepherd them into the rescue system. She managed to convince local rescues to accept all but one of the cats - Jonathan. Nobody would take him.

Why was Jonathan the only cat rejected for placement? From a market perspective, he had several factors working against him: he was an adult, semi-feral, deaf cat. He might have stood a chance if he had unusual or interesting looks, but he was a short-haired all black cat whose only distinguishing mark was a ragged left ear. The situation was more dire for Jonathan than it first appeared, for his caretaker was ill with cancer. Though she was housing Jonathan on her porch in a large dog crate, she knew this set up could only be temporary as her cancer treatments would soon leave her too ill to continue caring for him.

Jonathan's caretaker needed help. Faced with her own health crisis, her last wish was to make sure that Jonathan,the vulnerable, deaf cat would be safe. After being turned away from dozens of adoption organizations, at last she reached out to Home for Life®. She hoped we would look beyond Jonathan's plain wrapping to the treasure within.

Home for Life's® sanctuary exists to form a loving community for the most desperate animals with nowhere else to turn. Our cats and dogs don't need curb appeal to deserve our help and welcome. At our sanctuary they find affirmation whether they are plain or old or disabled or dealing with a chronic health condition. We know that having a place to belong and a home for life changes everything for animals like Jonathan. Sanctuary residents who once faced repeated rejection and uncertainty are now enjoying a stable base and consistent care, the solid ground to flourish and reach new potential.

  Who could imagine the result of one person caring? Who could foresee the potential of one cat, looking for a home and a place to belong? Who can doubt the magic of one sanctuary opening its doors to this cat? This is the power of one—a gift of kindness that grows!

Who could have predicted what the future held for Jonathan—a deaf, black cat who lived for years virtually on his own as a semi-wild feral when his caretaker was desperately searching for help for him? That he would evolve into a beloved therapy cat, with the care he received and the confidence he developed at Home for Life®? How incredible it is that this cat had the opportunity, because of your support of Home for Life to demonstrate how truly special he was, not just another plain black cat, but part of Home for Life's Peace Creatures® programs, which will touch the lives of nearly 7,000 at-risk kids and adults in our community this year!

Now a Crowd Favorite

A Black Cat Crossing Your Path Means that Animal is Going Somewhere 

— Groucho Marx

Despite his disability, Jonathan is a friendly and fearless cat, who even loves the car rides involved to travel to our community partners—the nursing homes, prisons, and mental health facilities we visit. A black cat who's going somewhere, Jonathan reaches out to those who cross his path with friendship and attention, bringing solace and joy to those vulnerable people he meets through our Peace Creatures® programs. Like so many of our residents, Jonathan has blossomed. Once just another plain cat, indistinguishable from so many others in need, he is now who has delighted everyone including his longtime caretaker by becoming part of our therapy animal team working in our Peace Creatures® programs!

Each year Peace Creatures volunteer nearly $900,000 worth of  pet therapy* to non-profit and community partner organizations throughout the Twin Cities metro area that have scant funds for these much needed services. Last year, our therapy teams worked with more than 6,000 vulnerable children and adults in the Twin Cities area—people facing loneliness and despair in battered women's shelters, hospitals, mental health facilities and prisons. Home For Life is reaching out to these people and helping to connect them back into the embrace of community.

Jonathan didn't seem special or distinctive when he was being rated for his potential in the adoption market. Yet all that he has become was always inside of him, just looking for the space and opportunity to grow. Over the past 20 years, Home for Life® has provided a doorway to a new life for hundreds of cats and dogs, many of whom have participated in our Peace Creatures® programs. They serve as ambassadors for our mission and for our conviction that all life is valuable.

*Based on a Twin Cities, Minnesota non-profit offering pet therapy to schools and other organizations. They charge $4,000 for a ten week session for a group of 10 people, a cost of $400 per person. We have always offered our outreach services free of charge. Last year, we allocated more than 27% of our annual budget to our outreach programs and our volunteers worked with 2200 kids and adults—a value of over $880,000 to the community. In 2019, we will be serving 7,000 people, to more than double the value and impact for our community, effectively and economically. Every dollar Home for Life® raises is leveraged to produce the most good for our animals we care for and for the community who supports us.

Moving toward a Caring Community and an Economy of Kindness.

A sanctuary is not a holding facility or transition chute. Rather, it is a community asset, much like a library or playground, and the sanctuary's living residents are a dynamic resource, building benefit through each interaction. In creating this pioneering new model of animal welfare, Home for Life® is defining a new space in our society where animals and people celebrate and uplift one another. We are demonstrating how a sanctuary can be a huge asset to its community, helping to bind members together in affirming acts of kindness and empathy. Home for Life® has multiplied the initial kindness by Jonathan's caretaker, and we have made it pay huge dividends!

Home for Life® has gained new ground for desperate animals like Jonathan and for Animal Welfare. Our sanctuary is a new model of rescue where homeless dogs and cats are not a problem to be solved, but an overlooked treasure with much to live for and much to give.

THE POWER OF ONE

• One person who cared enough to help a desperate animal
• One organization that welcomed him home without demands or expectations
• One black, deaf gentle cat who is touching the lives of so many vulnerable people in our community
• And One person—YOU—whose support made the difference for Jonathan!

There are so many other cats and dogs just like him for whom Home for Life® can make a life changing difference. These animals just need someone to recognize that they are worth helping. The power of one person can transform the future of a vulnerable animal like Jonathan and create a whole new world for them and those they will go on to help and the light they will shine to show the way.

Home for Life's Black Cats & Dogs Bring Good Luck

Did you see Home for Life's latest mailing? The story of Diego, a black hound mix featured in the piece, could be the tale of any animal at Home for Life who doesn't have a dramatic story of survival or isn't a particular breed, yet who needed our help-and who needs the support of our sponsors- as much as those animals whose backgrounds are more distinctive or unusual. It takes someone special (you?) to look past a "plain" exterior wrapping to see the treasure that lies within these often overlooked dogs and cats.

Diego's story is also the story of any black animal entering the shelter and rescue system. As anyone who volunteers or works in animal rescue will attest, black animals have a much more difficult time finding a home than a lighter colored cat or dog. A couple of great rescue and advocacy groups are leading the way to change the perception of black animals:http://www.blackpearldogs.com/ and http://blackcatrescue.wordpress.com/about/

Read the blog post about Diego

When I think about the animals at Home for Life or any of the animals that have lived with my family, the last thing that ever stands out as a fond recollection is their coat color. The memories that bring tears to your eyes or laughter are their funny and endearing qualities, their often heroic stories, surviving so much before they came to Home for Life, the comfort and understanding they brought in difficult times as friends to us and other animals at the sanctuary.The treasured memories are the quirks of personality and expression that made them unique, and the joy of just having had them be a part of my life. I hardly think about what they looked like at all but what is distilled down like a homeopathic remedy and what you hold on to is the essence of them- in short their spirit.

I have always been partial to black animals since my first pet as a 7 year old was a black cat. On the day when I finally got to have my very own pet, I went with my dad and younger sister to the house of one of the secretary's i n his office. Her cat, a colorful long hair calico, had three kittens who were now ready to find homes of their own. My mom gave my dad strict instructions to get a male kitten. At the secretary's house the mother cat sat on a big overstuffed chair, cradling her three kittens. The woman told us that she wanted to keep the kitten who resembled the mother cat and had striking fluffy tiger and orange coat. So she said we could pick between the other two kittens who both had black fur. My dad decided we should take the fluffier of the two black kittens since he reasoned, the male kitten would have the longer fur. So that's what we did, and I was thrilled to finally have my own pet. We got home, and my sister Maura and I wrapped the kitten in a baby blanket from my new born brother's room, then proudly carried my baby around the neighborhood for all the other kids to meet. My mom was giving the youngest two sisters a bath, so my dad called me and Maura inside to show her the newest member of the family, and was he chagrined when she informed him that the length of a cat's fur had nothing to do with its sex. Shadrack- as my mom named her - was a girl! This was my first lesson that there was more to a cat or a person -than their appearance.
Shadrack grew to be a beautiful cat with luxurious black fur, a heart shaped face and piercing jewel green eyes. She was athletic, climbing trees, hunting mice and other rodentia, could catch birds out of mid air, had a boyfriend named Marshmallow who lived down the block and became a neighborhood legend because she was so independent and untamed in spirit , always attending to important cat business on her many adventures and once even wrestling and prevailing over a giant sewer rat. She had a sense of humor: for example she would steal my youngest sister's beloved blanket and carry it off under the dining room table. Amy, who was about age 3 would try to get it back, and Shadrack would act as if she was going to scratch her-she never did always keeping her claws sheathed, but Amy and any other kid would be too afraid to challenge her for the blanket. Amy would cry to my mom, who would have to rescue the blanket from Shadrack- who of course, knowing the fun was over, let mom take it back without any problem.

She did have one litter of kittens(she was spayed after that!) with 5 black kittens and one grey one. She wouldn't give up her adventures so our other family cat, a neutered male Siamese named Charlie, would jump in the cradle with the babies and take care of them while Shadrack was taking care of business. My younger sisters wanted to hold kittens all the time, and Shadrack was nervous about this so she and Charlie took them into the ceiling of the laundry room. One by one, she and Charlie carried them in their mouths jumping up on the top of the freezer, pushing aside a ceiling tile and then going up into the false ceiling so no kid could reach them. My understanding mom who had five kids of her own, let her do it!

She stayed there with them for the day, but that night, she carried them down, again in her mouth, one by one, and brought them each to my bedroom. She jumped right up into my bed, leaving each kitten to my safekeeping while she retrieved the next one, till all 6 were nestled in bed with me, Then she jumped up on the bed herself, and settled down for the night, and that is how my mom found us in the morning. When the time came to find them homes the grey kitten quickly found an adopter, but I had to work hard to find new owners for the 5 little black ones. Foretelling my future, I put up posters at grocery stores, at church, and cornered adult neighbors and friends of my parents til each one had a loving new home.Not bad for a nine year old!


Shadrack lived til age 20. Here's a picture of her,above, taken the last year of her life. When I was away at school and returned for holidays, the first thing I would do is pick her up to hold her But she was peeved that I had been gone so long and sat stiff and grumpy and then leaped away the minute she could. A few hours later, when she was ready be friends again, she would come around to find me and sit on my lap . If she was feeling especially forgiving she might even give me an Eskimo kiss, which she reserved for very special occasions when she was feeling especially loving. She was always fun to hold because she loved to cuddle and had a big purr. When my brother was stressed out from a day at his very intense and competitive high school, he would come home and grab Shadrack to hold her and watch tv to unwind.He was a guy and wouldn't admit he needed some solace but Shadrack's relaxed personality and purring must have comforted and soothed him after a long day.

Shadrack was my cat from the time I was age 7 until I was 27: she lived 20 years and is inextricably tied to all my memories of those years growing up and finishing school. It was so hard to lose her , and her passing just underscored that I was moving on to a new phase of my life. After she died, I looked forward to the time when I would be ready to have a cat of my own again, yet when the time came, I was always half looking for her , drawn to the black long haired cats with green eyes because that's what Shadrack looked like.' One of my sisters .a dog person, declared that she would consider having a cat if she could find one who was "just like Shadrack". She meant a cat with Shadrack's personality and spirit, but since this couldn't be guaranteed she stuck to dog ownership.
Now that I am involved with Home for Life, and have met and cared for many cats over the past 15 years, including many who resembled Shadrack, I realize that there will never be another cat like her. She was unique- as all our cats are no matter what they look like, no matter what their color is. We have many black cats at Home for Life. To help new staff, the black cats wear collars in different colors and designs: for example Edison has a collar that looks like a man's blue striped tie, Jonathan has a blue collar with a bowtie, and Torri has a silver sparkle collar. Some of our black cats like Alabama who has deformed front legs stands out enough that he doesn't need a collar. Once the staff becomes familiar with the the cats, the collars are a nice touch but not necessary anymore because they know them as unique individuals instead of identifying them solely by how they look, by their coat color.
In memory of Shadrack and in honor of Diego and all our unique black animals at Home for Life, and all those in shelters and rescues hoping for a home of their own where they will cherished for the special dog or cat that they are, we are reprinting an article about black animals we ran in one of our newsletters from 2004 . The article was written by Susan Easterly,a freelance writer who is published in many national magazines includingCat Fancy. (click on the image to view)

A Black Dog Finds a Home for Life

Diego, a hound mix,came to Home for Life from a Wisconsin rescue that uses foster homes.They were persistent about us taking Diego even though we put them off and explored and suggested many other options with them for possible placement of the dog. They had been unable to find an adoptive home for him after over a year of effort, and he was facing euthanasia.

Diego is very young for the typical dog admitted to Home for Life. He had had no takers through the rescue group, where he had been in their foster care for over a year. Though only two years old at the time he was surrendered to Home for Life, Diego had run out of options in the adoption/rescue world, and was actually being advertised by the rescue on Petfinder and Craig's List as "free to good home", an invitation for likely disaster. Diego was brought to Home for Life in the summer of 2009, after the foster home demanded that the rescue remove him. The rescue group had no money to offer Home for Life at the time of Diego's surrender to help support him at our care for life sanctuary,but believing that Diego was a good dog who needed a chance, we agreed to help him.

According to the rescue,Diego had a tough time in his foster home. He was anxious and full of energy. After originally being rescued as an abandonned stray from animal control, Diego had at least one placement in addition to his foster home. He was returned from both placements for the same reason: his high energy and separation anxiety. No one was interested in adopting the black dog of undetermined lineage( hound?lab? whippet?) with demonstrated behavior challenges, even if they could have him for free.

Diego may have seemed undistinguished to potential adopers but we think he is very handsome. As we have noted before, mutts are highly regarded at Home for Life for their distinctive personalities and looks: not one is ever the same. In Diego's case, he has a beautiful and sleek black coat, wonderful soft ears which are nearly as long as that of a basset,a white bib with black polka dots and an original tail that curls and is like a flag. Even in a hole, Diego can be identified by his tail, like no other dog's at HFL or probably anywhere else in the world !

Diego has a remarkable hound bark,and when something captures his attention at the sanctuary he leaps straight in the air while barking, an astonishing feat to witness. Diego is among the most athtletic of our dogs at Home for Life and loves to run and play. He has daily opportunities to do both at Home for Life!

THROUGH THE THIRD DOOR
Diego is happy and content at Home for Life, and as far as he is concerned ( and who else's opinion matters?) the sanctuary is a true and loving home. With us, he is safe, cherished for who he is, has dog friends, couches and soft beds to lay on, abundant outlets for his lively energy,which he can expend without being scolded,great dog food and daily dog treats at Home for Life's evening treat time, and an opportunity to give back. If he wants to bark,run fast or dig,he is allowed to do so without being yelled at or corrected.

Diego was overlooked,as many mixed breed black dogs are, who seem plain or undistinctive,but he has so many wonderful qualities that we hope he will be able to share as a therapy dog in our outreach programs. Besides his good looks and athleticism, Diego is smart and did very well in the Renaissance Program,which he participated in last fall and where he was paired with one of the younger students at Totem Town who, with his fun loving personality and energy, was a perfect match for Diego ( see photo of Diego above with his student trainer from Totem Town). Diego is now looking for the Home for Life volunteer who can work sucessfully with him in providing pet therapy services to at risk people in the community( our volutneers work one on one with a HFL therapy dog to provide therapy services to community in our various programs) . With his sweet and gentle personality, we are just sure that Diego will be a hit as a participant in the Home for Life Pet Peace Corps Programs where our animals give back to the community-as we like to say it's "at risk animals helping at risk people."

Diego's story illustrates how Home for Life's "Third Door" alternative plays a lifesaving role for many animals who are not served by the conventional animal welfare models offered by shelters and rescues.

SPONSOR DIEGO AT HOME FOR LIFE

Diego needs some sponsors who who will hold a special place for him in their hearts. All of our animals receive the same loving and high quality care at Home for Life,whether they are sponsored or not. Sometimes animals who do not have a dramatic story of survival or who are not a breed that attracts people's attention do not garner the support of sponsors as easily as some of our other animals. But these "plain" dogs and cats are just as deserving of support as any of our animals and need those special individuals who can look beyond breed or looks to see the unique qualities within .

The average animal at Home for Life costs us $202/mo to care for . It takes 8 sponsors at $25/mo to full cover the cost of care of an animal at Home for Life. This sum includes food,veterinary care,staff salaries,facilities costs ( heat,light,airconditioning,heat) and grooming. Disabled animals,such as our paraplegics, cost much more. When we taken an animal on at Home for Life ,we guarrantee that the dog or cat will be cared for whether sponsored or not. Sponsorship allows supporters to foster a special bond with an animal that captivates them at the sanctuary, and they have the satisfaction of knowing their support helps all the animals in our care. About 25% of our animals are fully sponsored at Home for Life and 50% of our animals have at least one sponsor. Our sponsors receive regular photos of the animals they sponsor taken by volunteer professional photographers, and can visit their animals at the sanctuary.

We would love for Diego to have a sponsor who would cherish the special qualities we see in him and take a special interest in following his progress at Home for Life.