Thanks for the kind words Doc. Sounds like you've had experience too.
Well, the rescues. HHMM, Jan has always collected our wayward friends. The cats are real easy to get. We have had neighbors that give them up to us, for one thing. We always take them to the vet and have them checked out before we let them into the gang. Seems once you have a couple of them, the rest show up by themselves. We've got a huge orange tiger
tom, named Jake. He was left on our enclosed side porch by someone as a kitten. A couple have been females that were pregnant when we got them. Let them have the kittens, then had them spayed. The vet lets us post photo at her office, and the kittens go fast. We have the people come to our house to pick them up. They don't know we're checking them out. If any look like bad candidates, they don't get a critter.
We've also live trapped them. Some are so bad off that you have to put them down though. I recued a 5 or 6 week old kitten from the plant that a woman said had bit her. We caught the cat, but no way that cat bit anyone. I still had to take to the shelter to be observed for a week. Needless to say, she's lived with us for a couple years now.
The dogs just come to us also. I've got a 10 year old female Malamute, that I got for $100. She's a beautiful dog. The only rescued dogs we have now are Spike the BorderCollie, and a Shitzu, Ernie that was given up by some not too great people. I actually stole Spike. He was tied up for days at a scumbag crack dealers shack, on a 6' lead tied to the top of a clothes post. Jan was doing home care then, and this was one of her clients. I walked up, untied him, and he just jumped into the truck. Jan called the pukes mother, her client, and told her what I did. She told Jan to go ahead and keep him. Spike had a brother running around the same neighborhood, that we could never find. I don't know what I'd do with 2 dogs like him. Crap, he's smarter than me.