Key takeaways:
- Colette Beals of Wabush supports others in her neighborhood to find furry friends.
- Colette Beals is the operator of Mission Kitty, a non-profit association that saves street cats from Newfoundland and finds them new homes in Labrador.
Six years back, Colette Beals lost her aged cat Jingles and decided to bring a new kitty to help her second cat, Belle, and the kids through the grieving cycle. But for the Labrador woman, discovering a new cat wasn’t easy.
“Finding a kitten in Labrador West was too hard. I wasn’t conscious of that at the time but couldn’t find one to add to our family,” Beals stated.
Beals started looking in Newfoundland and soon learned that while cats are challenging to come by in Labrador West, there is an overpopulation issue on the island.
In praise of Jingles, Beals created an association called Mission Kitty in 2016 to allow the population of feral, left, and stray cats throughout Newfoundland. She states she raised nearly $120,000 in the first four years and $106,000 in 2021, distributed to 30 different saving groups.
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“That made me so pleased to be able to allocate funds to, you know, little Sammy that may require eye removal or Gabe that needed his paw removed,” she stated.
She stated that Mission Kitty operates a Facebook group to auction off new and used goods and demand cash from firms including Avon and Scentsy. Beals said she’s forced to keep building the group because she’s “the crazy cat lady.”
“I want to rescue them all. I could help them all. I hope none of them had to suffer,” Beals expressed. “I simply cannot control, no matter what.”
Beals says the group has set almost 350 saved cats and kittens in new homes in Labrador.
Source – cbc.ca
