This is a short note to say that I have made a £100 donation to the Walsall branch of Cats protection as part of the regular PoC donations. Cats Protection do wonderful work and I am a member. Leah, a regular supporter of PoC, made the suggestion. I have made previous donations to Cats Protection (Chelmsford Branch)
I’m sorry that the payment is late but the amount is exactly as stated based upon what is really a regular amount of comments every month.
Because the number of comments every month is fairly similar and because I’m rather bad at doing administration and much prefer to write articles, at this time, I’m thinking about setting up standing orders totalling £100 per month to four cat charities.
Regular visitors might not know this but in the background I have been making a $25 per month donation to Maine Coon Cat Rescue in the USA. This has been going on for about 5 years.
That donation is in addition to the ones I make regularly based on the number of comments.
Accordingly, I intend to maintain that background donation to Maine Coon Cat Rescue (the name of the charity has changed but but I wish to continue to donate) while adding three more, one of which will be Snow Leopard Trust.
I do want to make a donation to a wild cat charity and my favourite wild cat is the snow leopard. In addition, the Snow Leopard Trust do wonderful work (example).
There remains, therefore, two other cat charities to which I wish to make routine standing order donations, as mentioned.
I would like Kays Hill to be one of those charities in recognition of the unfailing and unstinting support by Ruth and Barbara who both themselves support the charity very closely (recent article).
The fourth charity is yet to be decided and I will write about that later and would welcome anyone’s feedback.
Thank you for being so patient about this late payment.
Well if saying what I think is being unfair or critising you Michael, then I’m sorry, you know I’ve always admired you for your love of cats and your generosity.
But one thing was unfair, promising to help the charities you named, then not keeping that promise without any explanation. Kevin would have understood your finances weren’t as good any more and accepted you couldn’t follow through, if you had told him.
I’m only saying that maybe voluntary writers writing original articles might bring back your old and loyal visitors.
People love to read about each others cats, your stories and photos of Gabriel always go down well. Reporting news stories to be found elsewhere is what I meant about being repetitive.
I don’t deny you deserve praise and a pat on the back for your work.
I’m hurt because I thought we were friends yet you haven’t even asked how Walter is doing. Sorry I didn’t write an article about his illness, but I feel too vulnerable to the people who targeted me viciously not so long ago on here.
I used to enjoy writing for PoC and I wrote voluntarily for at least 5 years but I do agree with what Dee says and therefore had to say so.
Yes you are justified in pausing in making charitable payments but it seemed strange you didn’t say it had ended, you are justified too in paying who you want to pay and not others, after all it’s your web site and I wish you well with it.
When I emailed him he took 4 weeks to respond. I said I would set up a SO but then I got a massive bill from the hosting co. (Hostgator for almost £2,000) and I got tired of shelling out thousands of dollars. I changed my mind. When it comes to gifts the donor can change his mind.
I am more than pleased for anyone to write for PoC but no one wants to except you on declawing and other local issues. This is not new. Way back (6 years ago) it was he same and 99% of the contributions by visitors were not good. People don’t want to write or they can’t do it.
We are friends and I respect you and what you write and say but you don’t really know what I deal with to run this site. I compete with businesses and paid employees. It is highly competitive and expensive and troublesome. Sites like Catster are probably making a loss.
I know what I write is good because I have over 20 million Google + views. No other cat author can hold a candle to that.
What I need is encouragement and ideas etc.. And Dee has insulted me. She’ll have to retract that.
I did not make a binding commitment. There is legal obligation. I expressed a wish – a desire, and through circumstance I was forced to re-evaluate. I want to help cats but I am not rich.
Kevin hasn’t been well for a long time and he shouldn’t be working at all but his life is the animals in his care. Without being with them his life wouldn’t be worth living. His emails pile up until he has the time to spend in the office sorting them, I think that may be why he took so long to respond. Leanne and Dan work flat out too, with 300+ animals they work dawn until almost midnight and for months now we’ve had gale force winds up here and Kays Hill has taken a few batterings causing damage and making extra work for them too.
They have volunteers at times but Kevin, Leanne and Dan take the brunt of all there is to do every day, 7 days a week.
Some might ask well why do it? But where would those animals be if they didn’t? Times are very hard up North but we struggle on and help each other when we can, which is what life is all about really.
Michael, I apologize for being crude.
I was shocked and terribly disappointed.
It’s a matter of integrity, not legality for me.
Ofcourse, you had no legally binding contract.
I have no such contract with most commitments I’ve made, especially with caretaking cats. Maybe, legal binders should be in place with that so people would be forced to be responsible and stop dumping at shelters.
We’re all different.
Having to ungift may not have the same impact for you that it would have for me.
I am disappointed myself but I don’t have a bottomless pit of money and when I have to pay £2k for hosting it changes the situation. I am reluctant to change on donations but I started to feel the pain and no gain. I still pay $25 per month to an America cat rescue and have done for 6 years. I also donate my time for free.
The thing is I don’t have to do any of this. Nothing. It is all a gift. I keep going both for my health (it is good for me) but mainly to help cat welfare and educate and, yes, to make friends and socialise online. But if things get too annoying for me or detrimental to me I would have to stop. Then the site would be effectively dead.
Understand.
No more to say.
Done.
It would help me feel better if you could write something encouraging to Ruth and Babz, considering what they are going through with Walter right now.
I think that the site has become more newsy and much less personal.
Out of curiosity, can you name any cats being cared for by PoCers?
Ruth, Jo, Dw, Ahsan, Darlene, Marc, Geri, Caroline, Michele S., Rudolph, Dan, me…?
There are more news stories because I have covered all the usual topics. I try and avoid news but have no choice sometimes.
OK
It doesn’t matter Dee, don’t worry, you have been a great support to us caring about our cats and even asking if we need help with vets bills. I’ve met some lovely people here on PoC and we care about each others cats. Thankfully as you know Walter is doing well now, like you our cats are what matter to us most and like you we would give our last penny to help one.
Ruth we at kays hill animal sanctuary have over the last three years seen a dramatic. Decline in large one off donations and legacy due to recession and people being scared of the financial climate but we have also seen a growth pattern in people giving little and often as you know we are very greatfull for this support as we do not live in a wealthy area of the UK yet it’s the genuine everyday animal lovers that keep us afloat to carry on our work here a lot of these people are elderly pensioners them selves with very little
Yes it’s true, as I said it’s people with the least money who are the most generous.
Sadly a few of your older supporters in our town have died too over the years.
But as Babz says above, we have a nice little haul here for you to collect, every little helps and it’s lovely that you appreciate it so much and that makes people want to help more.
Thinking about Barbara Mc who always supported our Coffee Mornings for Kays Hill, such a lovely lady, so sad she died.
I’d forgotten about all this, who did you choose for the fourth charity Michael?
It’s wonderful to be able to help so many cats, I know Kevin and Leanne at Kays Hill appreciate every penny anyone donates to them and they make good use of it.
They do such excellent work there and yet disaster often strikes, lately with the gale force winds causing damage again, but they keep on rescuing animals and no healthy animal is ever killed.
I’m going to make Dee blush now, but I have to say what a kind and generous lady she is, not only has she sent donations to Kays Hill even though she has the expense of the care of her own cats and ferals, but she has also offered to help Babz and I pay our recent and ongoing huge vets bills. We wouldn’t take her money of course as we can manage, but no one else has ever thought of being so kind. Thank you Dee x
It’s ironic that those who have little themselves and do the most for others are the most likely to offer help.
I wish we had the money to help more 🙁
I feel bad that we can’t help Kays Hill much at present but the vet bills for Walter at the moment have to be our priority, thankfully we have always saved for the cats health care but it’s not a bottomless pit so we have to try to replace the money as we spend it. Which is why I am so grateful once again to our local community who despite living in a deprived area where joblessness is high still support my appeal at work for cat food and bedding, thanks to them we have several carrier bags of food, blankets and even a cash donation here waiting for Kevin or Dan and Leanne to collect to help them in their vital work, we will never cancel our monthly donation but just now that’s all we can do personally to help them.
We all do what we can, Babz.
Many of us would throw our last penny into the ring for any cat.
But, even with the steeping vet bills piling up on you, you still put it forward.
I so admire.
Oh! Thanks for the reminder about the fourth charity, Ruth.
Who is it Michael? Please tell. I get so excited.
Dee, this is in abeyance. There is a pause on this as I decided I was paying so much and struggling to meet all the costs of the site because the hosting company (Hostgator in America) were charging much more to host the site. The costs are very expensive (thousands of dollars per year overall all inclusive) and the income not as high as it was. Also the comment scheme was not necessarily helping the site so the benefits were not there. I am reassessing the situation. I have given many thousands if dollars over the years to charity (perhaps around $5,000+) and still give $25 monthly to an American rescue – Texas Maine Coon rescue – they have changed their name and forgotten the new one 😉 .
OMG! I’m so shocked and disappointed.
I guess I didn’t realize the costs of running the site. Actually, I thought that the comments had increased.
You are right to consider cost containment and to not even pay for articles anymore also, not even one per month, by anyone.
Please don’t make me spell it out.
The cost is high. I run the site as a charity anyway. I don’t make any money for myself anymore. The site makes money but it all goes on running costs.
You know how I am…
And, you betcha’ I’m mad…
I have NO kind of understanding as to why you would not honour your commitment to these charities. Were you drunk?
If it’s a cost containment issue, perhaps you should stop paying Jo and Elisa for articles that you could google yourself. Is it laziness? I give you many articles for free and will supply more if you will give your donation to Kays Hill. They need it much more than any PoCer here.
They have upkeep, supplies, and food needs that far exceed mine or any other Pocer here. Perhaps, you could just donate the paid recipients payment to them.
I have to agree with Dee, why pay some writers at the expense of charities? I have nothing personally against the writers who are being paid, but is it fair to pay some and not all?
I didn’t even know Kays Hill hadn’t got the DD to them set up as promised, Kevin must have been disappointed but he didn’t say anything.
I can well imagine the expense of running a web site and if the comments have lessened, the reason may be that some articles are repetitive, not original any more. As Dee says, anyone can google and find the same stories, just written in a different way.
A lot of support came from anti declaw people when we had more articles about declawing, PoC was well known for saving claws. Our members of The International Coalition Against Declawing followed our links to PoC and shared them. They admired that every comment generated a 5 cents donation for cat charities.
Another reason some visitors may have stopped coming (I know of at least 2) is because of the horrible stories about cat abuse which upset them deeply and made them feel helpless and again the same stories were all over the internet.
Then there’s Woody and his ranting, which puts some people off from commenting incase they are targeted by his spite and disgusting language.
I’ve come to PoC for at least 6 years now and although I know all things change, it doesn’t seem to be the same happy atmosphere it was.
I think it needs original articles, written voluntarily and any money to spare to go to cat charities as it used to.
Firstly Ruth, I am hurt by the fact that you say that some articles are repetitive and unoriginal because compared to all other sites this site is the most original in what it says and I make a big effort to make it like that. I don’t know of any other site which is as original and some of the other sites simply repeat exactly what they find on Facebook.
Secondly when 10,000 articles have been written on cats it is virtually impossible to find something original to say and I think you need to recognise that simple fact.
Thirdly, I consistently ban Woody and only when he pops up under an alias I have to re-ban him so I can’t stop that. As for declawing this website has more articles on declawing than any other on the Internet by far. There are over 200 perhaps 300 and more pages on declawing which is a website in itself and there’s nothing more to say about it so when you talk about repetition I think that would apply to discussing declawing in a new article.
As for articles on abuse, there are some but there are not that many compared to the whole and a sizeable percentage of news stories regarding cat are about cat abuse so once again this website has far fewer articles about cat abuse compared to the whole compared to other websites. Websites which totally ignore the subject of abuse are wrong in my opinion because they only present a rosy world which is misleading.
I think you’re wrong to say that it needs original articles because you are almost asking the impossible and I don’t see any original articles coming from anybody else. Even today I wrote an original article about why cats curl up. Nobody has said what I have said in that article. I think you’re being unfair to be honest and I don’t think you’re being realistic.
As to charitable donations no one person has given more to charity through a cat website than me, in fact none of the other sites give to charity and I’ve given away well over $5000 of my own money to charity. In addition, and it is not recognised, I give my time freely. If I was paid at the minimum wage I’d be earning £80 per day. Multiply that by 8 years (non-stop 24/7) and you can work out what that means in terms of money equivalent in respect of charitable donations (£233,000 – a huge amount) because the website is about educating people which indirectly is a form of charity.
I cannot please everybody all the time and I cannot write articles for individual people.
The website still gets lots of visits and the numbers are stable (4-5,000 pageviews per day). That is bloody good for a website that competes with commercial cat websites and which has been around for 8 years. Some experts say the lifespan of a site run by an individual is 4 years. Yes I may have lost some regulars but what does that mean? It means that I have lost two people when there are over 3,000 individual people visiting the site every day.
I spend a lot of time working out how to keep the website alive and thriving with respect to everybody not just regular visitors and I have to do that otherwise the site becomes a site to 10 people which is unviable.
As to paying people to write the odd article and I mean the odd article because nowadays I’m only paying for about 2 or 3 articles per week maximum, I need this support to add a bit of variety to the website and to take a bit of the burden off my shoulders.
It is very hard to keep going after 8 years and therefore I need some assistance. If I become demotivated then the site will die but I need to do all I can to keep myself motivated which includes paying for some assistance from time to time.
I think I am justified in pausing in making charitable payments. I feel I have earned the right to do that and I feel very hurt to be criticised for it. In fact, it is ridiculous to criticise me when I should be heartily praised for what I’ve done.
Also the running costs have increased by 10X to around $5,000 per year inclusive. The internet is much more competitive. It has expanded by 20X. PoC competes with commercial sites (run by companies) like lifewithcats.tv and gets similar viewing numbers.
I feel you are being very unfair. I don’t like it.
One last point. Your comment is the sort that does demotivate me. I need someone to motivate me – the opposite. Have you ever worked 7 days a week for 8 years, 8 – 10 hours per day and more? No breaks.
Dee, I have responded to Ruth:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/100-poc-donation-to-walsall-cats-protection.html#comment-453077
I am not going to get into an argument about this. I deserve praise and a pat on the back for giving away many thousands of dollars over the years.
There is no recognition of that. And running the site costs me about $5,000 annually all included.
You ladies have no idea what it is like to run this site. Be careful about criticising. You are being unfair.
I ask you to retract your insult about being drunk. It was uncalled for. I won’t tolerate it.
on behalf of everyone here at kays hill animal sanctuary we would like to thank Dee as once again she has chose to support us here and send a donation towards the work we do with so many unwanted cats I’ve put it on here as I don’t know how to personally thank her hope she sees how much we appreciate her generosity thanks
Kevin, if you have my email address, could you send me your bank details so I can set up a standing order?
OMG, Kevin!
I just now saw your comment.
No thanks necessary.
For many years, I have set aside a token to give to animal charities because I am so grateful for all that I have ever received. You are top billing with me these days. I didn’t send in December, because I know Michael has set you up with a continuous monthly donation now. But, keep in touch and let me know…
Kayshill are always thank full for the support of all our animal friends as I often say kays hill is your sanctuary as with our your continued support and input we have nothing no one person can do this alone on the scale we do so thanks again and deep your a special person too
Kevin, I love the work that you do. I am, especially, grateful for how you caretake all cats, even though it is the ferals that are imbedded in my heart.
As I wrote, I have always set aside just a pittance every month for animal charities. My December donation went to another worthwhile cat rescue. But, subsequent monthly donations will go to Kays Hill for as long as I can. I promise.
Thank you for all that you do.
No doubt that Michael is a star, and he is a true cat lover. <3 <3 <3 Thank you Michael, my compliments 🙂
It is easier to be a cat lover in England than Pakistan so you deserve more praise.
I agree, it must be very hard for Ahsan and I admire him very much too.
It is tough to imagine how it must be like. When I used cooked prawns to tease Gabriel out from hiding Ahsan remarked that I was lucky to to be able to buy them.
Ahsan is exceptional! To care about cats when there is such deprivation where he lives is amazing, he is a very special man.
Michael, thank you so much for making these valuable donations as these hardworking charities appreciate all the help they can get.
We read so many horror stories of cruelty, neglect and apathy towards animal welfare, that we forget that there are (hopefully) many more people doing good work to help animals everywhere. They should be celebrated, so thank you for doing just that.
I could not agree more. There are some really fine people – a lot of them women – doing very valuable work rescuing and fostering cats. They deserve praise and a little bit of help from time to time.
Dee and Ahsan are our two ‘feral angels’ and I think both deserve help and praise for all they do for numerous cats. Having been Feral Officer in the past for Cats Protection I know what a hard heart breaking task it is. It’s very touching emotionally too doing TNR, seeing how frightened of people those cats are, knowing that they would have to be handled by strangers while being neutered at the vets. I could feel their distress. Worrying after they’d been returned, would they be OK after the trauma of the neutering. Worrying about them living rough and possibly in danger. Feral Officer was one of the hardest things I ever did when volunteering. I also admire fosterers very much and now Michael you are one of them on top of the work you do here educating about cat welfare and helping charities. So many people here do so much good for cats, it’s just home from home for cat lovers.