Open House For AWL Cat House Spotlights Those Who Love Felines
June 20, 2023 at 12:00 a.m.
Open House For AWL Cat House Spotlights Those Who Love Felines
By David [email protected]
So many cats, in fact, that there’s still a need for people to foster them in their homes.
Animal Welfare League Executive Director Tonya Blanchard said the cat house was two years in the planning, but it took a while because of Covid-19 and the increase of prices of everything.
The cat house, 1048 CR 325E, Pierceton, is free roaming. There’s suites in the front with mom cats with kittens, moms that are going to have kittens and kittens without moms. To the back is a free roaming room where all the adult cats can move about freely as long as they get along with the other felines.
“It’s a hot mess in there, but it looks like Barbie’s playhouse and they just get to play,” Blanchard said.
As of Saturday’s open house, the AWL had 123 cats at the shelter, with a lot of the intake taking place over the last couple months. Counting the animals that are being taken care of outside the shelter, she estimated they are caring for about 393.
“So we rely on fosters to help out with moms with kittens. It’s a good experience for families. If they don’t really want to make a commitment of taking on a pet, they’ll take on a commitment of” fostering, she said.
When the kittens reach 8 weeks old, the foster family brings them back to the AWL for vaccines, which the AWL pays for. The family then surrenders the kittens back to the shelter, the mom is fixed and goes up for adoption and the kittens go into the Nursery Nanny program so they can go into homes and be adopted early.
“A kitten can sit here until we can make space, and right now we’re into August for spay and neuters. So in the past, they’d have to sit here for that long or I’m putting them into Nursery Nannies. They pay a deposit and the kittens can go home now. They can be in homes, they can be socialized versus being raised inside a kennel,” Blanchard explained. “It works out great when they come in for their spay and neuter appointment. Their deposit is refundable.”
She said the program gets a lot more cats through the circulation and off the street sooner.
Two of AWL’s regular cat foster moms were at Saturday’s open house.
Margie Dobler has been fostering for about five years.
“I adopted my first cats here, and then I started coming in and volunteering. There was a momma cat that had a kitten, just one kitten, and they were worried about her making it, so I said, ‘I’ll take her home.’ So that’s what got me started and I never stopped,” she said.
While she didn’t know how many felines she’s fostered since, she said she primarily does momma cats and babies.
“I’ve probably had 20 moms and their kittens. And then I’ve also done four medical fosters, one of which I’ve foster failed and kept,” Dobler said. “He’s wonderful. I had to keep him. His name is Brunt and he came in missing most of his hair, bloody behind his ears. He had been thrown out of his house and left to die, and he was very skinny. So I took him in, nursed him and fell in love with him.”
Currently, she’s fostering one momma cat with four kittens that are turning 8 weeks old Tuesday, June 20.
Asked if she sees herself fostering cats for a long time, there was no hesitation.
“Most definitely. We just built an outdoor building that the backroom is my cat foster room. We built it for my fostering because I used to have them in the house. I have grandkids and I was like, ‘I need my spare room for the grandkids.’ So we put up a building. It’s air conditioned and heated and it is for my cat fostering - not that people have to go that extreme, but I will do this forever. I, pretty much, when a cat and her kittens get ready to go up for adoption, I bring them in and I immediately take another family home,” Dobler stated.
For anyone interested in being a foster, she recommended starting out easy, with a friendly momma cat and her babies.
“She will totally take care of them for the first three-four weeks she’s nursing them. All you’re doing is feeding the momma, it’s very easy. And then as you get more comfortable doing that, then you can take a little more difficult ones. But start out with the easy ones,” Dobler said.
The shelter is great at matching a foster with a momma cat that will provide a good experience, she said.
“I have cats of my own. I do not mix my cats with my fosters. I keep them very separate,” she said.
Terri Corner has been fostering since 2014. She keeps a very, very long list of her fosters on her cell phone.
“We’re up to almost 400 since 2014,” she said.
As of Saturday, she was fostering about 28 cats, but varies from a dozen to the high 20s. She’s also a medical foster, so she has a lot of different cases from cats with special dietary needs to those with injuries.
Corner also does moms and babies.
“We started out in my living room. I had a momma cat and baby cats. It grew to, I went to the shelter one day and a girl who used to work here said, ‘These 10 kittens need to get out of here.’ And all of a sudden I went from like six to 16. So I had them up in my living room. My husband one night looks at me and goes, ‘You do realize you just walked in front of the TV set about 28 times, right?’” she said.
When her mother-in-law moved in with them, they had to remodel the basement so Corner knew that was her chance to rally for an expanded laundry room downstairs where she could also put the kennels. When her mother-in-law sadly passed away, her apartment became home to the fostering.
“So I am blessed. That’s a very unusual situation to have,” Corner said. “(My husband) loves me very much. He’s learned to love cats.”
If anyone has a desire to be a foster, she recommended coming to the AWL and letting them know.
“We’ll figure something out. It doesn’t take a lot of space,” she said. “And when you’re doing the little bottle babies, they don’t take up a lot of space. ... but they do take up a lot of time.”
Blanchard said the biggest thing is love.
“If you have love, that’s the biggest requirement. Just love them,” she said.
So many cats, in fact, that there’s still a need for people to foster them in their homes.
Animal Welfare League Executive Director Tonya Blanchard said the cat house was two years in the planning, but it took a while because of Covid-19 and the increase of prices of everything.
The cat house, 1048 CR 325E, Pierceton, is free roaming. There’s suites in the front with mom cats with kittens, moms that are going to have kittens and kittens without moms. To the back is a free roaming room where all the adult cats can move about freely as long as they get along with the other felines.
“It’s a hot mess in there, but it looks like Barbie’s playhouse and they just get to play,” Blanchard said.
As of Saturday’s open house, the AWL had 123 cats at the shelter, with a lot of the intake taking place over the last couple months. Counting the animals that are being taken care of outside the shelter, she estimated they are caring for about 393.
“So we rely on fosters to help out with moms with kittens. It’s a good experience for families. If they don’t really want to make a commitment of taking on a pet, they’ll take on a commitment of” fostering, she said.
When the kittens reach 8 weeks old, the foster family brings them back to the AWL for vaccines, which the AWL pays for. The family then surrenders the kittens back to the shelter, the mom is fixed and goes up for adoption and the kittens go into the Nursery Nanny program so they can go into homes and be adopted early.
“A kitten can sit here until we can make space, and right now we’re into August for spay and neuters. So in the past, they’d have to sit here for that long or I’m putting them into Nursery Nannies. They pay a deposit and the kittens can go home now. They can be in homes, they can be socialized versus being raised inside a kennel,” Blanchard explained. “It works out great when they come in for their spay and neuter appointment. Their deposit is refundable.”
She said the program gets a lot more cats through the circulation and off the street sooner.
Two of AWL’s regular cat foster moms were at Saturday’s open house.
Margie Dobler has been fostering for about five years.
“I adopted my first cats here, and then I started coming in and volunteering. There was a momma cat that had a kitten, just one kitten, and they were worried about her making it, so I said, ‘I’ll take her home.’ So that’s what got me started and I never stopped,” she said.
While she didn’t know how many felines she’s fostered since, she said she primarily does momma cats and babies.
“I’ve probably had 20 moms and their kittens. And then I’ve also done four medical fosters, one of which I’ve foster failed and kept,” Dobler said. “He’s wonderful. I had to keep him. His name is Brunt and he came in missing most of his hair, bloody behind his ears. He had been thrown out of his house and left to die, and he was very skinny. So I took him in, nursed him and fell in love with him.”
Currently, she’s fostering one momma cat with four kittens that are turning 8 weeks old Tuesday, June 20.
Asked if she sees herself fostering cats for a long time, there was no hesitation.
“Most definitely. We just built an outdoor building that the backroom is my cat foster room. We built it for my fostering because I used to have them in the house. I have grandkids and I was like, ‘I need my spare room for the grandkids.’ So we put up a building. It’s air conditioned and heated and it is for my cat fostering - not that people have to go that extreme, but I will do this forever. I, pretty much, when a cat and her kittens get ready to go up for adoption, I bring them in and I immediately take another family home,” Dobler stated.
For anyone interested in being a foster, she recommended starting out easy, with a friendly momma cat and her babies.
“She will totally take care of them for the first three-four weeks she’s nursing them. All you’re doing is feeding the momma, it’s very easy. And then as you get more comfortable doing that, then you can take a little more difficult ones. But start out with the easy ones,” Dobler said.
The shelter is great at matching a foster with a momma cat that will provide a good experience, she said.
“I have cats of my own. I do not mix my cats with my fosters. I keep them very separate,” she said.
Terri Corner has been fostering since 2014. She keeps a very, very long list of her fosters on her cell phone.
“We’re up to almost 400 since 2014,” she said.
As of Saturday, she was fostering about 28 cats, but varies from a dozen to the high 20s. She’s also a medical foster, so she has a lot of different cases from cats with special dietary needs to those with injuries.
Corner also does moms and babies.
“We started out in my living room. I had a momma cat and baby cats. It grew to, I went to the shelter one day and a girl who used to work here said, ‘These 10 kittens need to get out of here.’ And all of a sudden I went from like six to 16. So I had them up in my living room. My husband one night looks at me and goes, ‘You do realize you just walked in front of the TV set about 28 times, right?’” she said.
When her mother-in-law moved in with them, they had to remodel the basement so Corner knew that was her chance to rally for an expanded laundry room downstairs where she could also put the kennels. When her mother-in-law sadly passed away, her apartment became home to the fostering.
“So I am blessed. That’s a very unusual situation to have,” Corner said. “(My husband) loves me very much. He’s learned to love cats.”
If anyone has a desire to be a foster, she recommended coming to the AWL and letting them know.
“We’ll figure something out. It doesn’t take a lot of space,” she said. “And when you’re doing the little bottle babies, they don’t take up a lot of space. ... but they do take up a lot of time.”
Blanchard said the biggest thing is love.
“If you have love, that’s the biggest requirement. Just love them,” she said.
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