I am so happy to tell you that we are the proud recipients of a $10,000 grant from the craigslist Charitable Fund!

This grant helps us so much! Every month, despite the generous support of our donors and our extreme frugality, we teeter on the edge of being in the red. Every bird we help requires a tremendous leap of faith because we never have money in the bank… we struggle with financial insecurity as a constant threat to the work that we do.

And we are doing very important work! We are the only rescue in Northern California dedicated to helping domestic pigeons and doves. We may be the only one in the country! The work that we are doing is so unprecedented that we had to create a new word for it- palomacy.

We struggle every day to keep up with all that needs doing. We care for 100 pigeons and doves in our foster homes; we respond to the constant requests to help at-risk birds in shelters and found as strays; we counsel people with birds on how to care for them, keep them, do right by them… We work to promote awareness about homeless birds; to develop and coordinate adoptions; to provide humane education about these most common and yet completely misunderstood birds; to inspire compassion. And, while doing all of that, we have to fundraise too.

I asked Craig for a few words about why he chooses to support Palomacy so generously and he said, “I’d like to say that I love pigeons and doves, they’re plucky survivors, and after all, they’re God’s creatures. Plus, they dance well, and help feed our hawks…. and I need some way to be a little eccentric.”

So a grant like this- our largest ever – is extremely wonderful news! One of our volunteers asked what if any special plans I had for this grant. I said, Yes, I plan to exhale!

You can see more about Craig’s support for our work here.