The
"Cat House" was set up in the spring of 1992 in a small playhouse
at the back of my property. Back then, we fostered cats for a humane
society that didn't have a shelter. There were usually only about 10
cats at any given time. As the humane society grew, our little cat house
was bursting at the seams. We were close to 30 cats, and very overcrowded.
My sister Kathy and I decided it was time for a bigger facility. In
the spring of 1996, a group of very dedicated and generous volunteers
began the task of renovating my garage to become the new and greatly
improved home of our homeless cats. The project was completed in October
1996 and the cats happily moved in.
In
the fall of 1999, after long consideration, my sister and I decided
that it was time to separate from the Humane Society and become a private
shelter. This was a difficult and "scary" decision, as it
meant that financially, we were on our own. But we felt that it was
the right thing to do, for the cats and us. Again, with the help of
very dedicated people, we raised the money to "adopt" the
cats from the Humane Society, and continue on independently. It has
been a learning experience, but we have managed to keep things going
and after a lengthy process, have achieved official Canadian charitable
status.
Our
shelter is usually home to about 60 cats. All cats are blood tested
negative for feline leukemia and feline immune deficiency virus, and
are vaccinated and spayed/neutered. All the cats remain in the shelter
until they are adopted. There is no time limit on their stay with us.
On average we find homes for 100 cats per year.
Our
facility currently consists of five rooms. The largest room is our main
adoption area, where the majority of the cats reside. The cats are free
to roam in this area, once they have adjusted to living with the other
feline residents.
The
second room is our Special Diets room. The cats in this room are on
specific diets, either for medical issues or for weight loss purposes.
They are fed measured amounts of their specific diet twice daily and
are supervised for meals to ensure that they all eat the proper food.
The
third room is dedicated to cats that cannot co-exist peacefully with
other cats and must be adopted into single cat households. These cats
are given free roam of the room for a full day, one at a time, on a
rotating basis. Our newest room is our nursery. This room is for nursing
mothers and kittens.
The
last room is our Quarantine area. This is where the new arrivals stay
until they are fully vaccinated, dewormed, spayed &/or neutered
and ready for adoption. The
cats usually stay in this room for 3 weeks, which gives them time to
adjust emotionally to their surroundings, and is an adequate quarantine
period for virus control. Once they have had all their medical needs
met and space in the main room permits, they are moved to a cage in
the main room for a short period and are then permitted loose once they
are ready.
We are always in
need of volunteers for fundraising and at the shelter. We have no paid
staff and all our money comes from donations and our own fundraising.
The more helpers we have, the more cats we can help! Thank you for your
interest in Cats Anonymous.
