I'm turning 50 this month and am asking you to celebrate with me by giving to something that I'm endlessly passionate about: helping animals and helping the people who help animals.

In January, I had planned to bring 25 cats back from Ukraine with me after volunteering with the BTC Shelter. Due to a change in paperwork requirements, only four kitties came back on the plane with our group, with the others to follow over the next three months in smaller groups as they are cleared to travel. With an already overextended shelter expense budget, this left an added burden on the shelter to feed, house, and ensure continued medical care for the cats for additional months. The shelter team also now takes on the added cost of driving each group of cats all the way to Bucharest to get them on the flights to the US, flights funded through Homeward Trails. Your donation can help put a dent in these costs for BTC, an organization that has now been in Ukraine for THREE YEARS bringing lifesaving food and supplies to animals all over Ukraine, including evacuations of thousands of animals from active conflict zones. My sweet Sinji and Bobcat are two of those saved from certain death in Eastern Ukraine by BTC.

I've now made five trips to Ukraine to volunteer at the BTC shelter and doing TNR in Western Ukraine. The need for help isn't ending, and the funds have been drying up for groups like BTC to continue their work. Help me to help them lighten at least the financial burden of keeping the cats longer than expected. For every donation, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.