Edmonton Cat Rescue Mission | Alberta Skylights Elite Roofing Gives Back
Hey everybody, Ryan with Alberta Skylights Elite Roofing. Today I wanted to do something a little bit different. Rather than talking about roofing, I wanted to introduce my office manager, Kim.
Hello everyone.
Kim’s been with us for what, going on almost 3 years now, huh? Yeah.
So, how did you first come to work with Alberta Skylights?
Well, I was out on the island visiting my uncle and aunt and they had a sun tunnel installed in one of their buildings and I decided that I wanted one in my house.
So when I came home, I started looking and I found you.
How did that lead into you becoming our office manager?
You called me the following spring asking if I wanted to work for you doing office stuff.
And yeah, pretty much.
What was the transition like going from a customer to employee office manager?
Well, I’ve worked remotely before, so I’ve worked in customer service a lot, so it wasn’t too bad other than learning the new programs and whatnot. The transition was pretty good.
Meet Kim From Alberta Skylights Elite Roofing
Nice. So, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but we have a couple of other guests with us here today. Can you tell me a little bit about these two? Why are they here?
Well, I volunteer and I’m an administrator on the team for Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue Society, and we take, well, we’ve taken over 2100 cats into care and found foster homes for 1,700 plus in the last five, six years now.
Oh, wow.
These two are 5 weeks old. They were found by Alberta Beach and their mother had given birth in the engine of a vehicle. And the fellow that thought he knew where she had given birth had checked the vehicle, but unfortunately he had started the vehicle and two of the kittens had passed away and the mother was feral and she disappeared.
So he contacted us and we’ve had them ever since then. They were about 3 days old when we got them. Their eyes weren’t even open.
Oh wow.
Yeah. So I’ve been syringe feeding them now for 5 weeks. Starting to transition them to kitten wet food and kibble, teaching them how to use the litter box and socializing them.
What are their names?
This one is Sparkle and this one is Turbo.
Turbo’s got a lot of energy, huh?
Yes, he does. Both of them are ticklish.
Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue Society
So, can you tell me a little bit more about the Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue? What? Is that what you call it? Yeah, which for short we call it ECWARS.
Yeah, it’s Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue Society. In 2020 there were a few people that had gone to an outdoor cat shelter built because there’s so many stray cats and abandoned cats in Edmonton, the need for and lots of people feed them and try and care for them. So, a few of our administrators had met at this shelter building and it kind of skyrocketed from there where they started taking in cats and finding fosters, getting them vetted and yeah, we’ve grown immensely in the last five, six years.
I think just recently you guys received your charitable status, haven’t we?
Yes. Yes, we’ve finally received our charitable status. I believe it was the end of February just recently. Yeah. Month or 6 weeks.
Nice.
So yeah, that was a long haul to get that done. But now we can actually issue receipts to our donors cuz we get lots of donations, cat food, cat litter, monetary donations, all sorts of stuff. Yeah.
So how has your role at Alberta Skylights assisted you with the rescue?
Well, assisted me or assisted the rescue. Alberta Skylights has actually been donating, helping out.
And this is another way to get the word out about the rescue just to make people more aware of what we do and how many cats we’re getting off the streets.
How many cats do you guys have in care right now?
Oh, anywhere between 50 and 70 I believe was the number I confirmed. Sometimes we’re up over 100. It just all depends on the time of year and how cold it is. Obviously the cold weather means we get more calls when it’s really cold out.
Summer eases off a little bit, but then kitten season comes, so that’s where we get these guys.
Right.
Fostering Rescue Kittens In Edmonton
So, what about the cold weather animal rescue got your heart going? Why is that so important to you?
Well, I found them on Facebook. I don’t know, it was about 4 years ago, and I just started following them and donating to their fundraisers, stuff like this. And then one night, one of the girls from the administrative team contacted me. They had a litter of seven that had no they were trying to capture the mother. They were born in a construction site, and the mother would take off during the day when the workers would all come and the kittens were going to basically starve. So, I agreed to take on seven newborn kittens and feed them every 2 to 3 hours.
And yeah, I was basically a zombie for oh, I don’t know, a month cuz I was up every couple hours.
And how did that go over with your family?
Well, my husband was a little upset at first, but now we have two of them at our house, so it didn’t turn out too bad.
It was a very rewarding experience to watch them grow.
Is it hard not to want to keep every one of them?
Oh, absolutely it is. But realistically, you don’t want to keep every cat you foster. You don’t want to be the crazy cat lady.
Well, I already am, but Well, some.
Adopting Cats Through Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue
So, Kim, what would you say to somebody who’s contemplating a new kitten or a new cat?
Oh, we have our website, Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue. You can go on our website and have a look at all the cats that we have that are available for adoption and pre-adoption. These guys will be up for pre-adoption soon. We don’t adopt any cats out until they’re fully vetted. So, these little ones won’t be adopted until after they’re 12 weeks old. They’ll be spayed, neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, dewormed, and ready to go to their new homes.
And they’ll be socialized. Well, these ones already are cuz I have a dog at home, so they’re pretty much used to everything.
They get all of it. Well, I can say that I ended up with one of those kittens, which led to a second cat coming from them. And I can see the allure of trying to keep them all.
Well, anyways, Kim, thank you for taking the time to bring the kittens with us and introduce our listeners to the Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue. If you guys have any questions at all about the rescue, feel free to reach out to their website or you can just call our office. Kim’s going to be the one who’s going to answer that call. She can answer any of the questions you have there.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks, Ryan.