A Special Message

A special message to those who followed feralcatbehavior.com since its infancy:

Due to my recent health issues, coupled with other underlying factors, it saddens me to announce my original blog is now in the wind.

In retrospect, I believe what happened was either the host used an older email address I no longer have access to, or the notice went into my spam folder. When I realized this, I called the host only to find out that they hold the website in stasis for 30 days. After that, they delete the entire website and it is parked until someone wants that domain name. They couldn’t even tell me which email they used. I no longer exist in their records. I had hoped that all it would take would be a phone call to them and I could pay the hosting  fee as well as any late fees then get my website back. I was incorrect in my assumption.

Along with the sorrow which followed learning this, I am left with the gratification of knowing that in its existence, it was instrumental in helping so many people. Not only in the United States, but all over the world regarding issues related to stray and feral cats.

My apology is sincere when I tell you that my blog simply fell through the cracks. There are no words to describe how I feel about the loss of all that content along with all those photos that often-times spoke louder than the words on the pages.

Over its existence, many of you have reached out to thank me for sharing my life and my love for feral cats in such a public way. You shared with me through emails and posts regarding your own experiences with these magnificent animals. You shared that, because of my blogging, you learned how to safely and lovingly interact with these often ostracized, misunderstood animals.

I want you to know that in return, I learned so much from each and everyone of you. I cherish the friendships that were made along the way. The emails, the phone calls, especially late at night asking me to come to the rescue of a cat or kitten in trauma. The joy of meeting some of you face-to-face, up close and personal; even having a few cat lovers in Washington show up one day and clean my home for me when I was unable to. The memories I hold are strong. Some of these friendships are lasting to this day. I am beyond grateful.

To this day, there are still monthly donations of cat food, which not only surprises me, but makes me love you all the more. They always seem to arrive during a time where I’m currently wondering how I’ll able to keep this going. I may have shut down my non-profit - it was a hard decision but necessary - yet still, these remaining rescues remain my top priority.

So many cats, whose lives I wrote about the minute they hit my door... All of them memorable in their own special way. Their stories uniting cat-lovers from all over the world to join together to help bring these cats who had fought insurmountable odds to survive. Hundreds, if not more; too many to list here.

One special memory sticks in my head right now. A little girl in grade school back east giving up her allowance for food at school so that Starlight - the emaciated black-and-white pedigree Persian - could have the support he needed. The girl’s teacher had found my blog and she was reading it out loud to the class. That’s how they learned the story of Starlight. The girl’s mother wrote me and said that her daughter had approached her and told her she wanted to sacrifice her lunch allowance. Instead, mom took over and blessed us with money for the care this cat desperately needed. The offering brought me to tears.

So, thank you all for everything. The support, the love, the community we built over the years. Just like the cats, I hold so dear in my heart the people, the friends; too many to list here online, but all who still live within my heart and my memory.

Going forward in this new space, I hope to hold true to my original intent in creating feralcatbehavior.com which was to share my love, my respect  and my journey with these often misjudged animals who deserved a lot better than what they experienced before arriving at my gate.

God bless you all

Mary Anne