Lisa Thomas

🎂 3,081 REASONS... TO CELEBRATE ONE WOMAN ❤️🐾 October 28th is Priya's birthday🥳 3,081 little souls have been helped over 21 years because this heart was born. If we could gather them all together, what a birthday celebration it would be. There would be magnificent chaos. But imagine, for just a moment, if every one of those lives could tell her what she meant to them... "I was so hungry, and you fed me." "I had forgotten what kindness felt like until you touched me." "When I was hurting, you made the pain stop." "I thought my life was nearly over. You thought it was still worth living." "I have the best family and the most profound love because you saved me, tamed me and found me a home". "You made my life on the streets a little safer, and you cared enough to make sure there wouldn't be more babies born into the same hardship." And the ones who are no longer here? Oh, I think their voices would be the most tender of all. "You couldn't make me stay forever, Mummy. But you made the time I had beautiful. I knew I was loved. And when it was time to go, I didn't have to go alone." Imagine hearing all of that. Imagine being able to see, all at once, the enormous tapestry of lives woven together by one woman's compassion. And if she’d never come along, where they would be today? It began with a little girl, just eight years old, who found a woeful street cat and named him Fat Harry. A beautiful tabby, she called him her "sweet smelly boy". It was her first experience with an FIV cat. She learned these are the dangers of life on the street. She couldn't have imagined what that one small act of kindness would become. She couldn't possibly have known it then, but something began that day. A life had secretly found its calling.💫 There were other plans. Possibilities. All the things we imagine a young life might become. And then came the twists and turns that make up a lifetime. Looking backward from here, it feels as though fate kept quietly leaving cats in Priya's path. One became another. And another. Eventually, a little girl who couldn't walk past one homeless cat became a woman who couldn't walk past any of them. And now, 21 years of rescuing have given us 3,081 reasons to be grateful that she answered it.😽 There have been extraordinary victories and heartbreaking losses. Sleepless nights, impossible decisions, frightening veterinary emergencies, physical maladies that set in when the stress was too much and more tears than anyone should ever have to cry. There have been days when the financial burden of rescue seemed insurmountable, when the exhaustion of 8 hour work days + 8 hour rescue duty making every day 16 hours of laboring stole the joy from another hard won victory, and when the suffering still waiting beyond the rescue's doors seemed endless. Yet somehow, through it all, and I believe by grace, she has continued to answer the same quiet plea. "Please help me". Again and again. So what do you give a woman whose life has been devoted to giving others a chance at life? This birthday, we have a beautiful opportunity to give her something that would mean more to her than any gift wrapped in ribbons. The means to keep saying YES. A bit of relief from the pressure of worry, financial struggle and a moment to fully,deeply breathe. If just for a moment. 🎁 A $2,000 BIRTHDAY CASH MATCH FOR PRIYA! A generous friend has offered to match every birthday donation, dollar for dollar, up to $2,000, through November 18th.. If we can raise the full match, together we'll provide $4,000 to help Gandolf's Legacy @gandolf_s continue caring for the precious lives entrusted to Priya. Food for hungry bellies. Medicine for the sick. Veterinary care.. Prescription diets for fragile seniors. Warm beds, clean litter and the security of knowing that someone will be there tomorrow. Every gift is an expression of gratitude for a woman who has asked nothing for herself and given so much to others. Priya deserves our help. She does what many others can’t or wouldn’t do by saving the lives of 1000’s of abandoned street cats and kittens. And every dollar, large or small, becomes twice as meaningful while this match is open. If Priya has ever touched your heart, if you've followed the stories of her rescues, celebrated their happy endings or wept with her when love simply wasn't enough to keep someone here, please consider making a birthday gift in her honor. And if giving isn't possible, please consider a message of appreciation & a share of this birthday wish. Help us find more hearts willing to stand beside her. Because there is something I would dearly love for Priya to understand on her birthday. Those 3,081 lives are not simply a record of what she has accomplished. They are 3,081 reasons why her life has mattered...why the world is kinder because she is in it. 3,081 reasons to celebrate the day she was born. And if somehow we could gather them all beneath one enormous birthday sky, I imagine the ones who found their forever homes would come from every corner of the country. The sanctuary cats would gather at her feet. Fat Harry would have a place of honor! And somewhere beyond our sight, all of the others who have gone ahead would be shining like little stars. Then, for one impossible, glorious moment, perhaps every voice would join together. Not merely to sing Happy Birthday. But to say... "Thank you for my life, Mummy." Happy Birthday, Priya. ❤️ May all the love you have poured into the world for so many years find its way home to you. And may this birthday remind you that the beautiful work of your life is still being written, one precious little soul at a time. Love Lives Here. Because you do. 🐾❤️🫂 *The ways to contribute are in the reply below. **Please let me know the amount of your gift or DM me if you wish it to remain private, so I can keep track of running total.😽 Thank you for staying to read.🙏 Here is a birthday tribute video. It was impossible to choose from so, so many faces and stories. It would have to be a full length movie to tell them all...💫