Editor’s note: Welcome to our first “Unsung Heroes” column. This one was submitted by Robin Buckalew who works with out first “Unsung Hero,” Mary Huffman of Buena Vista. If you would like to submit a story and photo for an “unsung hero” that you know, please send it to editor@thenews- gazette.com.
I volunteer at Furever Friends Lodge, a cat rescue in Buena Vista created by Mary and Phil Huffman. I have witnessed the unflagging dedication Mary shows in managing the Lodge, saving and finding homes for countless cats and kittens in Rockbridge County. She is busy at the Lodge well before I get there at my assigned time at 8 am on Tuesdays – as she is every day, and again in the afternoon, sometimes not getting home until 9 p.m.
Mary selflessly provides for a neverending barrage of kittens and cats. In some cases, they arrive at the Lodge weak or sick so she cleans, doctors, feeds and comforts them until her charges can stand on their own.
Her daily schedule is constant and varied as she arranges for veterinary care, seeks out funding for the mountain of resources needed to maintain the cats awaiting adoption, keeps the community informed through social media, and manages a crew of volunteers that help locate, trap, and care for the Lodge’s occupants 365 days a year.
She organized a spay and neuter program, now in its third year, helping people afford the procedure that keeps unwanted kittens from being born. Last year 712 people took advantage of the assistance program and this year the number could reach 1,000.
For me, a hero is a person with vision. Not all of us can see a problem - and its solution - with such clarity, with such resolution, and without counting the personal cost. Many of us might confront the same dilemma and think “what’s the big deal?”
But Mary, like a hero that jumps into the water to save someone from drowning, opens her heart to the suffering of animals in difficult circumstances and doesn’t look away.
Mary saw the need and organized the community to meet that need, and she should be recognized for her incredible generosity, but we should respond and make every resource needed available in support of her efforts, especially toward the spay and neuter assistance program.
