On Sunday, June 14th, we walked into the Tally Cat Cafe to discover a ceiling tile was down in the cat room. Confused and concerned, we did a quick head count on our resident cats and discovered one of our new residents, Sesame, was missing.
We called the Tallahassee Fire Department, who generously came out and helped us search the ceiling for her. They even used heat detecting equipment, and said there was no way she could be up there. We also reached out to our vet partners, who also agreed it was too hot in the ceiling for her to survive for any real amount of time, so based on her cleverness and survival skills, we assumed she escaped and was out in the world, lost.
We asked our followers to keep an eye out, made a lost animal report, gave every feral colony keeper our number, and had several live traps set up around the Cafe. All we caught were a couple raccoons.
Just as we had given up hope, about a WEEK after Sesame went missing, we heard pitter-patter footsteps above our heads. We thought maybe it was just wishful thinking, or hallucinations from exhaustion, but we borrowed a Nest infrared camera from some lovely friends and put it in the ceiling - just in case.
Within an hour, we saw her brazenly wandering through the ceiling, and we rushed there to get her out, believing that she had to be suffering from dehydration, malnutrition, and irritation from the insulation in the ceiling.
Within an hour of trying to locate her in the ceiling, during a short moment where we had one of our Co-Owners, Josh, on a ladder without a spotter, we heard a crash.
Josh fell and shattered his elbow, and cleanly broke his hip. An ambulance had to be called to bring him to the hospital, while his wife and other co-owner Courtney had to wait for updates in the parking lot due to COVID-19.
We just reopened from our initial closing due to COVID a couple weeks ago. We haven't been able to afford having our employees back. The only people operating and working in the cafe have been the three Co-Owners. Now, with Josh in the hospital, hopefully going home in the coming days, and Courtney, who has recently been let in to visit and support him, we will only have the third owner Katie in the cafe to run adoptions and serve customers.
Not only are Josh and Courtney facing medical bills, but the cafe will suffer as well. Our main focus is providing for Josh's medical funds, but anything raised beyond that will go toward staffing the cafe while he is out, and repairs for the damage done during the Search for Sesame, who was captured last night, 6/23 at 2 am. She is fine and healthy, no issues at all.
We've been taken for a ride by a clever cat, and now we need your help to continue helping cats through our business.
Thank you every one for your kind words so far, we were encouraged to make this gofundme, and we hate to ask, but we know deep down we will need the help in the coming weeks, and we are deeply appreciative of your support.
You can view the full saga on our facebook, if you're interested:www.facebook.com/tallycatcafe
We called the Tallahassee Fire Department, who generously came out and helped us search the ceiling for her. They even used heat detecting equipment, and said there was no way she could be up there. We also reached out to our vet partners, who also agreed it was too hot in the ceiling for her to survive for any real amount of time, so based on her cleverness and survival skills, we assumed she escaped and was out in the world, lost.
We asked our followers to keep an eye out, made a lost animal report, gave every feral colony keeper our number, and had several live traps set up around the Cafe. All we caught were a couple raccoons.
Just as we had given up hope, about a WEEK after Sesame went missing, we heard pitter-patter footsteps above our heads. We thought maybe it was just wishful thinking, or hallucinations from exhaustion, but we borrowed a Nest infrared camera from some lovely friends and put it in the ceiling - just in case.
Within an hour, we saw her brazenly wandering through the ceiling, and we rushed there to get her out, believing that she had to be suffering from dehydration, malnutrition, and irritation from the insulation in the ceiling.
Within an hour of trying to locate her in the ceiling, during a short moment where we had one of our Co-Owners, Josh, on a ladder without a spotter, we heard a crash.
Josh fell and shattered his elbow, and cleanly broke his hip. An ambulance had to be called to bring him to the hospital, while his wife and other co-owner Courtney had to wait for updates in the parking lot due to COVID-19.
We just reopened from our initial closing due to COVID a couple weeks ago. We haven't been able to afford having our employees back. The only people operating and working in the cafe have been the three Co-Owners. Now, with Josh in the hospital, hopefully going home in the coming days, and Courtney, who has recently been let in to visit and support him, we will only have the third owner Katie in the cafe to run adoptions and serve customers.
Not only are Josh and Courtney facing medical bills, but the cafe will suffer as well. Our main focus is providing for Josh's medical funds, but anything raised beyond that will go toward staffing the cafe while he is out, and repairs for the damage done during the Search for Sesame, who was captured last night, 6/23 at 2 am. She is fine and healthy, no issues at all.
We've been taken for a ride by a clever cat, and now we need your help to continue helping cats through our business.
Thank you every one for your kind words so far, we were encouraged to make this gofundme, and we hate to ask, but we know deep down we will need the help in the coming weeks, and we are deeply appreciative of your support.
You can view the full saga on our facebook, if you're interested:www.facebook.com/tallycatcafe
Organizer and beneficiary
Joshua Kendrick
Beneficiary