If there is one question that everyone asks, it is “How did Urgent get started?” Believe it or not, the road to Urgent began with some feral cats! How I went from feral cats to death row dogs was a winding road that I now call FATE.
While trying to socialize some kittens, I became friends with a local cat rescuer. I made him a deal that if he would help with the kittens, I would help with his website and FaceBook page. Once word got out that I was willing to work for “free,” others asked for assistance. Before I knew it, I was the admin on 4 sites, one being a dog rescue that I slowly became more involved with.
Now let me say right now, I was UNinformed. I was naïve. I had no idea what the truth was and I was about to get a very rude awakening. I knew there were dogs in the town and city shelters but I never gave it much thought. I assumed that all shelters in NY were basically no kill. How could they not be? I assumed that if a dog was destroyed at a shelter, it must have been very “bad” or sick. Why else would someone kill another living being? I thought that if my beliefs were logical, they must be right. I have never been so wrong in my life.
What started out as a simple discussion one day, changed me forever. While making a routine call to the city shelter for status, I was asked if I saw “the list” last night. I said “what list?” I had it sent it to me, and I think I stared at it for what seemed an eternity, trying to wrap my mind around it. It was a list of 30 dogs, all being killed by NYC. NYC?? I never thought that they killed dogs in NYC, but it was not a mistake and almost every dog on that list was dead. Dead over stupid reasons such as kennel cough (my dog had that once and he lived. Why did they kill them over that??) or rawhide aggression (my dog would eat my arm if I tried to take her rawhide. I still like her, and I never seriously thought of killing her over it). I became mad… I became angry…. These dogs all died and no one knew they existed. No one knew they were on a stupid “list.” No one knew that they needed to care. These dogs died unknown and rejected. The cast aways of society. A society of individuals like me, people that just “did not know.” At that moment, I decided I was going to save as many as possible, and I was going to do it by posting them on every forum I could think of.
Urgent was born that day. I never expected it to take off like it did. What started as a desperate attempt to save some dogs turned into an enormous community of caring people just as outraged as I was. I started calling around, carefully asking a few trusted individuals for help. Before I knew it, people started reaching out when they heard about my postings, offering help and information. Rescues that once thought they were alone started emailing me to post for them. In such a short time, I went from “blissful ignorance” to knowing more than I wanted to, and so much more than my heart ever thought it could take. But I am not alone. There is an army of people just like me, and together we can make a difference. The battle is long and the list of casualties continues to climb but we will not give up… not until there are none.
My name is Kay. I am your average single mom trying to juggle a career and home. I may have founded Urgent but Urgent is not Kay. Not anymore. Urgent is every person that contributes and assists with information on the site. Without them there would be no Urgent, and I love and respect each one of them. Urgent is every person that has the courage to post the dogs without caring about what their friends think. Urgent is every person that offers help, by either fostering, rescuing, adopting, donating, transporting or saying a prayer. Urgent is every animal lover out there that feels it is NOT OK and is willing to stand up and be heard. WE ARE URGENT, and even if I were to ever walk away, Urgent would go on thru the fans and contributors. Urgent is here to stay and I hope that you decide to come along and fight with us for the dogs of NYC.