This week at FFSC: Goodbye to Sherry

August 31, 2012

I’m sure you are all as sad as we are today to say goodbye to Sherry, our Trapping Coordinator. However, I want you to know that she really won’t be completely gone. She has a few trapping spots that she wants to finish up and she has agreed to accept our call for help when we have one of those impossible situations that only Sherry knows how to deal with. As you are all aware, trapping is both physically and mentally exhausting and Sherry has been leading our trapping program for seven years. Prior to that, she was trapping her own colony, so she has actually been doing this longer than just the time at FFSC. During her time here, like everyone, she wasn’t only our Trapping Coordinator. In addition to those responsibilities, Sherry became our lead tech for our spay/neuter clinics and helped with clinic reporting, inventory and ordering supplies. The medical knowledge she gained as our s/n tech spilled over into other areas of FFSC as well. She helped with relocations, volunteer orientations, events, drove the s/n van, performed untold numbers of “rescues” and filled in for me when I was out of the office.

Sherry will be missed by staff, volunteers, Delilah, M&M, Andy, Charlie, Cupcake, Daphne, Penelope and Jelly.

But enough about us, the main message I want to convey is that during Sherry’s seven years of service to FFSC, I couldn’t even begin to guess how many cat lives she has touched in a positive way. The countless number of cats/colonies that were trapped, either directly by her or under her direction, the number of cats/kittens rescued from trash dumpsters, tied to trees, in the blackberry brambles, inside walls, at abandoned homes, underneath porches, and most recently a train. She has climbed over fences, scrambled down ravines, ploughed through weeds and waded through water. She has endured the rain, the heat, and the cold. She has ruined many a pair of pants or come back to the office with a torn top or scratched up legs, arms and even toes because she was wearing her flip flops instead of her tennis shoes when a call came in for help. She has dealt with crazy cat ladies and crazy cat men. She has had confrontational interactions with irate neighbors, business owners, apartment complex managers and tenants. She has dealt with those who didn’t care at all and those who cared too much and thought they were helping when actually they were only in the way. You name it, Sherry has seen it, heard it, and dealt with it directly. But the reason she endured all that was for the cats. There is no denying that her love of cats allowed her to stay on here for as long as she did and even though sometimes it was hard to see past the sad situations, there were more positive happy endings than there were sad. Many a kitty is better in this world because they were touched by our precious Sherry.

A fond, “bye for now” is how I choose to send her off onto the next segment of her life that she has chosen to seek. All the while, still holding on to her coattails for as long as we can.

Thank you Sherry. We love you now and wherever you choose to be in the future.