Seeing that animals go without suffering

Roscoe animal shelter takes in abandoned pets

 By Demi Budd and Michelle Adams-Thomas | Manor Ink

Virginia Grant has been housing and caring for stray or abandoned animals for many years. There was even a time when she had seven horses and an ox. In 2011, she had such an accumulation of animals in her home, she decided to form a nonprofit organization to legally raise funds to care for them. This was the formal inception of Rocky’s Refuge.

The refuge is located on 30 acres of hills, woods and meadows in Roscoe. Ms. Grant’s house sits at the end of a long, wooded drive flanked by three light blue buildings used for housing animals.

The primary focus of Rocky’s Refuge is to spay and neuter as many cats as possible, many of them feral. Ms. Grant and her volunteers work to raise money, foster and rehabilitate animals for adoption, and provide medical services.

The refuge shelters a variety of animals in addition to cats, including dogs, chickens and horses – and Ms. Grant wouldn’t say no to another ox. Though the animals are all quite different, she cares for them with the same mission in mind – the prevention and alleviation of their suffering while providing them with a safe living environment.

Virginia cares for the cats and dogs in her home, which is also where she runs her business. There the animals can safely enjoy their lives until she can find homes for them – unless she adopts them herself, as she did with her two dogs, Rocky and Bailey. The feral cats she keeps in one of the other buildings where they recover from spaying or neutering until they can be released.

In the refuge’s barn there are currently two horses, one white and one brown. Nearby is a chicken coop with a playful sign over the door that reads “Chooksville.” That’s where she keeps hens who need homes.

Rescue challenges

A lot of work is required to rescue an animal, and Ms. Grant often is helped by volunteers with the task. She says keeping up with that workload is one of the biggest challenges she faces.

Because trapping an animal makes it feel threatened, it can become aggressive. Virginia once attempted to save a feral kitten and it bit through her finger and into a joint. She was at the doctor for five days with IVs and antibiotics.

“I’ll never wear my opal ring again,” she joked. “But the kitten was fine.”

Setbacks like these don’t deter Ms. Grant as she tries to improve the lives of unfortunate animals. She is always ready to help when someone calls about an animal in need, whether it is to trap feral cats threatened with euthanization by animal control authorities, or to rescue cats that have been abandoned by summer visitors.

When asked how she felt after rescuing an animal, there was a brief silence. When she spoke, her quiet passion was apparent.

“Well, tougher than I used to. I used to get really upset if they didn’t make it. I just feel now that’s one more animal that’s not suffering. Whether it’s because we spay or neuter it, it gets its shots and we find it a home, or, in some cases, we have to euthanize it – either way, it’s an animal that’s not suffering anymore.”

Multiple funding sources

Rocky’s Refuge relies on several other organizations for support. Rocky’s Reusables, a thrift store in Liberty, open every Saturday throughout the warmer months, sells a wide variety of donated items, including tires, home appliances and cars. One hundred percent of the profits go to Rocky’s Refuge, roughly $25,000 annually.

Sidewalk Angels provides an annual $10,000 grant, and the $100 adoption fee, which covers spaying, neutering and shots, brings in nearly $6,000 per year.

Annie Mabee, owner of The Country Cats in Sparrowbush, assists Grant in finding homes here and through her outlet at Petco in Middletown. Dr. Nebzydoski, of Youngsville Veterinary Clinic, discounts the cost of spaying and neutering, and administers shots for free after Virginia purchases the vaccines from the health department at a discounted rate.

Ms. Grant has never encountered a budget shortfall during her years running Rocky’s Refuge. “If I were to experience one, I would probably take it out of my retirement funds, or put an SOS out to my friends on the board,” she said. “I encourage people to contribute just to help stop the epidemic of unwanted cats. These cats live very rough lives and carry diseases such as feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus.”

Ms. Grant dreams of one day upgrading the refuge to a larger facility where she could house more animals and attract more volunteers. She would also like to make the operation more efficient, and would like to have someone to hand the business to in the future. Most of all, Virginia would like people to treat animals humanely.

“It is very important to be a responsible animal owner,”Ms. Grant stressed. “You are taking on a life, and you are responsible for it.” She urged that prospective pet owners find out what an animal needs before adopting. Those things include spay or neutering, immunizing and learning how to properly feed and care for the animal.

“It’s akin to having a child,” she said. “The process of adopting an animal and caring for it afterward should be treated as such.”