05/28/2026
♥️ I don't think I have the words to convey how hard these souls work to trust again, but I'm going to try.
Papa was found to be living under a shed, protecting a mama & her 4 kittens. When the trapper went out to secure mama & kittens, she shared that Papa had been wandering the neighbourhood for months, unclaimed, no family, visiting multiple yards & homes for food & water. He wouldn't allow touching, he wouldn't go near a humans. When the trapper messaged & asked if they should get him too, we said of course.
When we say yes, we don't require that they behave properly, we don't require that they are touchable or handleable or even healthy, RBAR is about the souls that won't have another place to land. These ones will be TNR'd & released if they land anywhere else because the time, energy & space required to socialize ferals, fearfuls & restore & rehabilitate medical cases is long, arduous, costly & painstaking - But we don't care, that's exactly who we're here for, the souls that won't get a shot elsewhere & truly the place that intakes from other rescues when they won't behave in a way that allows adoption fast enough. Can I tell you what an honour that is? How grateful we are to be seen as the safe space for "unadoptables".
Why does this matter in Papa's case? It's like a mirror to Spirit's... Arrived airplane eared, lunging, spitting, saucer eyed. We would get lunged at sliced, attacked for trying to clean litter & provide clean food, water, toys, wands, tube treat, etc. Anything we do with these types of intakes is a threat to them. But we do it daily & we do it lovingly & we do it patiently, through many tears & much exhaustion.
Papa & I had forged such a trusting & loving bond over these months, he had flourished with the love & care of the RBAR volunteers & we were just patiently awaiting his forever family... And BAM, FIP... 10 Months in care, the exact amount of months Spirit was in care before he fell very ill as well... It's such an oddity that these completely fearful souls finally release, decompress & trust & are hit with devastating illness but again, they're in the right place, CONT'D...
