A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a fundraiser for our local no-kill Caring For Cats Foundation hosted by the Reading Room bookstore. Of course I was ready with pen in hand to take notes whenever JoAnn had a few spare minutes. She has been saving cats for 20 years and I wanted to know more about her and her mission. I love learning about people who help change their bit of the world for the better. And I love sharing their stories with you.
Along with Sally Grimshaw and Casey Chatman, JoAnn dedicates herself to rescuing, saving, and caring for stray and feral cats in lake communities near Cape Vincent, N.Y.. These villages may be small, but the number of cats needing help is anything but. The foundation receives 5-10 calls a day for Trap Neuter Release and other help and has over 110 animals in their care. Then there are the drop-offs. Most notable was the stellar individual who threw five cats out of a truck before hitting the gas and squealing off. It took a week to find one of the terrified cats.
Thanks to these ladies, over 1000 cats have been rescued and more than 500 were adopted into homes. Since 2004 they have spayed/neutered over 2000 cats. They are currently working to trap 20 cats who were being cared for by a local man who recently passed away. After they are spayed, neutered and vaccinated they will be given a home at the sanctuary.
The sanctuary is currently home to 110 stray and feral cats. This two-story barn was built in the late 1800’s and is complete with couches, love seats, and recliners for lounging and a wood stove for warmth in the winter. The residents are provided with love, food, shelter, spay/neuter, and medical care. Indoor cats live with the rescuers, as do 14 bottle-feeding babies. It takes about two hours each evening to care for the cats on a normal day. That’s after working a full-time day job. 
Due to a shortage of funds, Caring for Cats only does a limited number of Trap Neuter Release. They do provide traps and assistance to people wanting to help feral and stray cats. They also network with other groups. They work closely with Spay Neuter Now, which provides affordable spay/neuter, vaccine and flea treatment package for their incoming cats.
Taking care of 100-plus cats and kittens is a labor of love. And these cats are loved. Another time-intensive labor for this non-profit is fundraising. They depend on donations and fundraising to pay for food, litter, firewood, and medical care. To meet their financial needs, CFC holds bake sales, bottle can drives, a holiday donation drive and occasional restaurant fundraisers where they collect receipts from diners and get a percentage of that evening’s profits.
Thank you JoAnn, Sally and Casey for making the world a better place for cats in need.
Make a donation to Caring for Cats– this fundraiser is for spay/neuter and vaccines for the 20+ incoming cats. Once they get their medical care they can begin their new life at the sanctuary.
Please note: I, Val Silver, am not a member of Caring for Cats. If you need their assistance, find them on facebook. Thanks for caring:)
Visit Caring for Cats on Facebook.
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I’m like you, I love hearing about all the wonderful people dedicating their lives to care for homeless animals. Thanks for sharing your story.
The barn sounds like a great place for the rescued cats. They’ve rescued a lot of cats with limited resources!
These people are heroes in my eyes and love hearing about the different organizations, thank you so much for all you do
Thank you for the appreciation, we obviously don’t do it for the recognition but it’s really amazing to hear how much some people appreciate it.
What a great organization. I can imagine how much love & dedication it takes to care for so many cats ongoing. The barn sounds like a wonderful home! I really admire people with this level of dedication.
Love & biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
Reading about individuals dedicated to making life better for animals just warms our hearts – we will help out and share your wonderful post!
Much appreciated – thank you!
It makes me happy to read about people who are so caring and kind!
What a lovely story about such compassionate people – and Panda is adorable too.
I didn’t know this was around… Thank you so much… I would love to visit…where in Cape vincent are you?❤️❤️❤️
We actually don’t give the address to the sanctuary out because we don’t want people to just dump cats there. If you want to contact us on Facebook, we would be happy to set something up to bring you over sometime!
I’m looking for a kitten. Please get back to me!
Hi Rachel,
Please contact the SPCA. You may have to call for an appointment due to covid.
So many awesome people out there; sadly, so many animals in need.
Really great work! Do they try to work out adoptions for some of these cats?
Yes, absolutely. Over 500 adoptions so far!The little kitty in the photo has a home awaiting as soon as she is ready to go.
What a wonderful organization! I love that they are helping so many cats to get adopted and helping stray and feral cats. They are amazing!
Wow! What an amazing group of people. It sounds like you really had a great time. Great photo too!
We just wanted to say how overwhelmed we are with the level of support everyone has shown us. This is truly a labor of love and takes up a great deal of our lives. We appreciate any donations we receive and are hard at work raising funds to get the kitties taken care of through the winter.
It sounds like they do such great work! Thank you for having such big hearts and helping kitties.
What a beautiful post. I love that you wrote about how intensive the work is. Putting in two hours after having worked all day at a “real” job is not easy to do. I appreciate what the Caring for Cats Foundation does AND that you wrote this article in recognition of their work.
TNR is an amazing initiative. Thank you for introducing us to JoAnn and her efforts.
It sounds like thy are doing some really great work! It’s awesome that they have been able to help so many cats so far.
YEH!! I am so glad they encourage TNR when they can. This is hugely commendable. Thank you for shining a spotlight in Care for Cats, they are PAWsome!!!
Simply love reading about no kill shelters and the work they put in keeping things going. More power to them.
What a great group of people who are helping with csts.
Aw wow, thats great!
Thanks so much for sharing about your experience and about this organization. I enjoyed learning about all they do to help cats in your community.
Hello:
I have always been a cat lover, I have devoted myself for years, covering all the expenses of rescuing cats all by myself, neuter or spay them and find them a forever home. But I am from Venezuela; I understand that maybe this is not of your concern, but, we are going through the worst moment in history. In Venezuela, the situation is worse every day, with an inhuman economic situation, and an inflation rate that will soon reach 2000%. Venezuelans survive in a chaos bearing with food and medicines shortage.
More information here: http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/29/investing/venezuela-worthless-currency/
Currently, I take care of 14 cats in my own house. It is not a lot of space and that is why I can’t help dogs as well. I managed to have 20 or more cats at a time, but at that moment I managed to find them homes after spaying and neutering them.
My dream is to open a shelter, but I don’t have the funds to do it nor the space for it, that is why I’m trying to reach for help outside. I don’t want you to think that I’m only asking for free. I study Modern Languages, about to graduate. Sometimes I manage to find small translation jobs, or teach English particularly. If you offer me a job as a translator, I will be thankful for that.
With the situation my country is going through right now, it is impossible for me to continue on my own. It is really difficult to buy cat food because you can’t find it easily and if you manage to find it the 3kg (7lbs) presentation equates a more than a month on a minimum salary.
Please, watch these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrQjJhDnMow4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnRylczFKXQ
A lot of people have suggested me to give them raw food, but that is not an option because it is extremely expensive. Initially, I tried feeding my cats with dog dry food for puppies (because it is easier to find and quite cheaper), this caused the death of two of my cats due to urinary obstruction, I did not know dog food was damaging for cats, this makes me feel extremely guilty.
A lot of people started abandoning their pets because they can’t continue feeding them. I can’t seek the help of Venezuelan organizations because they are going through the same hardships I am. That is why I am trying to find help outside. Animals are innocent, they do not deserve that and they don’t even understand what is happening. This is why I am trying to seek for help, I’m begging for any kind of help you can offer me. I am not asking for a huge donation, just 1$ is a lot for me and will be of great help to accomplish my goals.
My goal is to help abandoned pets the most I can, mostly cats because I don’t have the space dogs need. The most important thing right now is to get enough food for next year, but medicines, litter, vitamins and other products are also important. This is why I’m in desperate need of help.
Some of the organizations I have written to, suggest me to create a GoFundMe page. This is impossible for me, they don’t work PayPal and I don’t have a bank account in dollars. I can’t create this bank account either because we are in a dictatorship, we can’t have dollars, we can’t have international bank accounts, those that had it from before are lucky; sadly it is not my case.
This is my blog: http://catsinvenezuela.tumblr.com/post/147773482730/help-for-cats-in-venezuela
This is my Facebook page that I will start updating soon: https://www.facebook.com/catsinvenezuela/
Here in my blog I have the PayPal donation button, if, for any reason, this doesn’t work my PayPal e-mail is: ytrejo@correo.unimet.edu.ve
If you help me to spread this information, surely more people will see it and maybe they will be able to help me.
The situation here is getting worse every day, for both humans and animals, but animals are always overlooked in these kinds of circumstances.
I live in Watertown ny and I’ve had this homeless/abandoned cat come around outside for a few months, he’s very loving and he’s started staying in my stairwell but can’t usually have him inside cause I have three cats of my own but 4 days ago l found the outdoor cat Back at the top of my stairs with a broken or bitten back leg all I know is it’s definitely a bit infected and I don’t have the funds to take him in and pay fully for whatever he might need done. I was hoping you and your orginazation might be able to at least point me in a direction to find help for him . I’m an animal lover so this is just hurting my soul. I brought him inside and he’s getting breakfast in bed but I know I have to do something more. I’ve tried calling around and got given your information so Please let me know!!!!