It’s a crisp, calm Saturday morning in the high-desert town of Hurricane, Utah. On these kinds of days, residents sleep in and look forward to hiking the sandstone bluffs in the nearby mountains. But for 62-year-old Susan Barrett, it will be a whirlwind day. She’s already fed her foster cat, arranged to trap kittens at a farm and made plans to drive a carload of animals to a Best Friends Animal Society’s spay/neuter clinic, which is an hour and 15 minutes away. Like a bolt of lightning, she’s out her front door and on her way to Hurricane Animal Shelter to pick up cats and take them to an all-day adoption fair at PETCO.
But this isn’t a typical day for Barrett. No two days are alike for the feline foster parent and animal rescuer. As one of the few dedicated animal advocates in her small country town, Barrett’s days are scheduled by the needs of cats (and sometimes dogs) in her rural community. On some days she fosters kittens and traps free-roaming cats for spay/neuter; on other days she socializes neglected cats that were surrendered to the shelter and finds ranches to relocate abandoned semi-feral felines. Whatever the task, Barrett does it with a passion and intensity that leaves no room for anything but a happy ending for the animals in her care.
**Get the July 2009 issue of CAT FANCY to read the full article.**