When I first moved to Utah I adopted a precious little kitty named Taffy through a great rescue organization here called Utah Animal Advocacy Foundation (UAAF).
We adopted her when she was 9 years old and had had her teeth pulled due to a medical condition. Her foster mom was so sure no one would adopt her, that she was about to adopt her herself! Until I came along.
Unfortunately, Taffy developed stage 4 cancer very quickly, and even though we did get surgery to remove a large mass from her lung (before we knew it was cancer), it came back even faster than before and we had to make the very difficult decision to end her suffering before she got any worse. She stopped walking, eating, and generally she looked like she had enough. It was a very difficult time, and throughout her life with us I had been sending her foster mom updates and pictures of Taffy’s life with us, and at the end she donated what she could to our surgery fund (which was incredibly expensive).
Here’s to you, Taffy.
So, needless to say I do have a soft spot for this organization. UAAF specializes in taking in the senior or special needs animals who have a difficult time getting adopted at a shelter, and who might be at risk of being euthanized. But I did used to volunteer a lot at a local cat shelter when I lived in Massachusetts as well, and I missed that community. I wanted to do something to give back to the organization that let me love such a special cat. So I reached out to the coordinator, and volunteered my services as a photographer for their adoptable animals. We made use of what we could, and we had a great time together (especially with the kittens, but I might be biased…)
It had been a long time since any of them had had their photo taken, so I had a lot of clients that day!
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