Town Cats - Star Fish Story

A Nonprofit, No-Kill Feline Adoption Center/Shelter and Feral Cat Advocacy Organization serving Santa Clara County, California.


P.O. Box 1828 Morgan Hill, CA 95038-1828 Phone: (408) 779-5761 towncats@garlic.com

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Read Gramp's Story

The Starfish

While walking along a beach, a man saw in the distance what looked like a boy dancing.
He was encouraged by the outward expression of someone dancing to the new day on the beach, and he approached the young man. As he got closer, he realized that the young man was actually running, leaning down, picking something up and then gently throwing it far into the ocean.

As he came closer, he saw thousands of starfish the tide had thrown onto the beach. Unable to return to the ocean during low tide, the starfish were dying. He observed the young man picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back.

After watching the seemingly futile effort, the observer said to the young man, "There must be thousands of starfish on this beach. It would be impossible for you to get to all of them. There are simply too many. You can't possibly save enough to make a difference."

The young man smiled as he continued to pick up another starfish and toss it back into the ocean.

"It made a difference to that one," he replied.

The older man shook his head at the impossible optimism of the young man, and then turned away and walked home. That night, he sat for a long time thinking of the young man, and determined that the young man was really affecting the world and taking action to make a difference. Something that the older man would like to do. That night he slept fitfully. In the morning, he awoke, went down to the beach and found the young man again. Then together, they went along the beach shore tossing starfish back into the ocean.

--Author Unknown

This sweet story wonderfully conveys the feelings we have at Town Cats when we are faced with the fact that we are unable to save all of the 8-10 million pets that are still exterminated in this country EVERY year, which includes thousands of adoptable pets from the Bay Area. No shelter or rescue group can save them all at this time, however we do save as many as possible from our area. We continue to educate the public about the benefits of spay/neuter and good pet guardianship so that hopefully, pets will stay in their homes for their entire lifespan and someday there will not be too many looking for homes year after year.

The tragedy of pet overpopulation seems insurmountable when looking at this large number of adoptable pets killed each year in the United States. We remain positive and know that the solution to this pet overpopulation problem will be achieved in the future through coalitions of rescue groups, members of the public and government animal agencies--the entire community must work together to make Silicon Valley a "no-kill" area. We will continue working towards the day when all of our local pets are in loving homes and feral cats have a respected place in our community, free to live their lives safely but without reproducing. Until that time, our dedicated volunteers continue to save and find homes for as many rescued cats & kittens as we can, each and every day of the year, one animal at a time.

We remember that with the help of adopters and donors, we make a huge difference to the life of every feline we save.