Emotional Blackmail

At Furry Friends, we see some of the best and worst parts of humanity. Every day, we meet people who love animals deeply and want to do the right thing. We also hear heartbreaking stories, cats abandoned, left behind, or sick and scared with no one else to help. We understand how emotional it is. We feel it too.

But there’s a side of rescue that few talk about: emotional blackmail.

·         It’s when someone says, "If you don’t take this cat, I’ll just let it die.”

·         Or, “You’re supposed to be a rescue—how can you say no?”

·         Or, "I will take it to the vet to have euthanized."

Those words cut deep, especially when they come on a day when we’re already at capacity, short on volunteers, and juggling medical emergencies. Every time we have to say “no,” it hurts us too. We lose sleep over it. We wish we had endless space, endless money, and endless energy...but we don’t.

The truth is, we say no so we can keep saying yes.

If we take in more than we can responsibly care for, we risk the health and safety of the cats already depending on us. That’s not rescue, that’s collapse.

Emotional blackmail doesn’t always come from cruelty. It usually comes from fear, desperation, or heartbreak. We understand that. But when guilt is used as a weapon, even unintentionally, it chips away at the people trying hardest to help. It leads to burnout, compassion fatigue, and the loss of good rescuers who simply can’t carry that emotional weight anymore.

 What we ask instead is trust. Trust that we want to help every cat we possibly can. Trust that when we say we’re full, it’s because we truly are. And trust that the best way to save cats isn’t to guilt a how we rescue, help us by: spay and neuter, foster, donate, volunteer, and share our message.

 Every kind word, every bit of understanding, and every offer of help makes a difference. When we all shoulder the responsibility together, rescue becomes what it’s meant to be a community of compassion, not a burden of guilt.

 We do an incredible amount of work with the resources we have, but just remember, we get no funding from the city, county or state and we have only two paid staff members which put in way more hours than what they are paid for.

To understand more about Furry Friends, please watch our videos or visit our website at FurryFriendsWA.org

2025 A video about the cats that Furry Friends rescues

 A story about two cats rescued from a hoarding situation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8SKxlGzK4