Concrete Field of Dreams

It seems sureal - is it really happening?

After 3+ years of planning, fundraising, planning, fundraising, planning, fundraising the new shelter construction is finally under way!

It actually started back in August with the demolition of our old, decrepit but beloved Cat Trailer. Then the site was prepared, forms built, preliminary plumbing and electrical started. After that it was a long, long waiting game while we worked through the county permitting process. Much paperwork, phone calls, emails, meetings - "i"s to dot, "t"s to cross - entirely too much time wasted in my opinion. Thank goodness for my husband, Preston and Project Manager Leslie Brinskele who both spent countless hours working throught the tedious details of the permit process And a huge thank you to Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt and his team for their support and assistance.

As the permits were issued work began on preparing for the start of the "real" construction. Somehow, it still didn't seem true that we were actually going to be starting the new shelter. I guess my impatience had evolved into a state of skepticism that it was actually going to happen. Sort of like that cliche of "when I win the lottery".

Well, folks, the lottery has hit FieldHaven! Yesterday, the concrete foundation (it is "concrete", not "cement", right Scout?) was poured. It is now reality. The shelter is rising from the fertile ground of FieldHaven, right on the very spot where the Cat Trailer sat for more than 30 years. That old Cat Trailer raised several human families before it became the transitional home for our feline family members. Most of those members moved on to their loving, adoptive homes to live out their lives in feline splendor. Those that were too sick or too old to leave the Cat Trailer spent their last days in the loving arms of the FieldHaven staff and volunteers where we gave them the best possible send off to the Rainbow Bridge. Truly many stories filled with laughter, some with tears but all with a powerful sense of fulfillment, are imbedded in the ground underneath this beautiful pad of concrete.

It is a new beginning and, yes, there will be more bumps along the way. What construction project doesn't have them? But it's all forward from here on out friends! Yes, we have more fundraising to do but what was it that was said in that movie "If we build it, they will come". In this case, we know kitties will come - no doubt about it! But I also believe the funds will come. This seemingly ordinary pad of concrete is FieldHaven's Field of Dreams.

Is this Heaven? No, this is FieldHaven.