Dear Life With Dogs,
I am contacting you in regard to a very dear friend of mine, Kim Mathews, who currently resides in Michigan. For years, she has worked tirelessly to find forever homes for abandoned, abused, & unwanted dogs. She is a fosterer herself, & has 3 GSD’s, along with 5 beautiful felines, & 1 tortoise.
Sadly, hard times have befallen her. Despite the fact I am on the other side of the Atlantic & reside in the United Kingdom, she has been a dear friend to me for a long time. Her animals are her life, & upon coming across your wonderful site, & having nearly lost all faith in humanity, you’re simply my last resort in helping my dear friend, or at least sending a message out on your site to say; fosterers need homes too.
It is with sadness that I write, with so little time left, that Kim, & her ‘furrbabies’ (as we like to refer to them), have been pushed from pillar to post over the past year in trying to find a ‘forever home’ for herself & her son. She is now registered as disabled due to ongoing knee problems, which she has had numerous surgeries on.
She finally found the courage & scraped every last penny she had for her, her grown son Shawn, & her pets to squeeze into a small RV & drive to Michigan, where a job was waiting for her son.
The RV, with one last ‘poof’, practically collapsed into a heap on their arrival, never to be moved again. Thankfully they reached their destination safely, but it was simply more agonizing pressure & strain emotionally & mentally on Kim, trying to find a ‘forever home’ for her pets. The RV was only meant as a temporary fix, to get them out of the state they were in when living (or sadly not living in) in Illinois.
Days have turned into weeks, and due to unforeseen circumstances, they must be out of the RV (which is unmovable & ready for the scrap heap) by this coming Sunday, the 24th.
Kim is facing the possibility of living in a car with 6 animals. My heart is breaking for her, and for someone living so far away, I feel so incredibly helpless. She has no internet access other than the little she is able to use on her phone – which is very basic – and is unable to use the necessary full search engines to find somewhere to live. Her son is at work all day, getting money together to find them all a suitable forever home, and Kim is unable to leave the animals in the RV during the day to look for necessary places to rent, or use an internet cafe or library.
It saddens me that, over all the years she has helped others and found dogs their forever homes, ‘friends’ have turned their backs on her in her time of desperate need. She is truly struggling to find a place that will allow animals – landlords just keep saying no when they hear that she has pets.
Fosterers need homes too. If anyone out there can help Kim find a place to live with her son & animals, or temporarily look after her animals until she can find a suitable place to live, please, I implore you, reach out and help this true friend to animals.
Thank you dearly for taking the time to read. You’re my last resort. Her last resort.
Yours faithfully,
Laura Williams
