Don’t let the name mislead you – The Goathouse Refuge located in Chatham County, North Carolina, is all about cats and lots of them, although you probably will find a goat and some other farm animals, too. It’s a no-kill shelter founded by Siglinda Scarpa, who relocated from her native Northern Italy to the United States in 1985 to work on film editing for a New York-based company. Scarpa, who today is a nationally recognized potter, has had a passion for cats since she was a little girl.
As Scarpa tells the story on the sanctuary website, one night when she was a little girl her father came home with a little gray tabby cat wet and cold and put him under the blankets in her bed. She warmed him up and kept him on her heart until he started purring, which he continued to do throughout the night. Sadly the kitty, who she called Munci, became sick about a year and a half later and passed on, probably from distemper. To console herself, Scarpa began bringing home other cats and caring for them. The Goathouse Refuge, which she established in 1998 after relocating from New York to North Carolina, fulfills a lifelong dream of establishing a sanctuary for cats.
At The Goathouse Refuge, cats scheduled for euthanasia at public shelters, get a second chance. Today the 3.5 acre sanctuary, which officially became a nonprofit in 2007, can accommodate up to 160 cats.
Cats roam free
From the start, Scarpa wanted something different for her sanctuary, a place where cats could not only live in safety but for maximum comfort roam free. As such, The Goathouse Refuge provides cats with a cage-free environment, unique by any sanctuary’s standards.
The sanctuary includes an intake house where new arrivals are checked out, vaccinated and micro chipped. There also is a vet office for sick cats with three vet technicians on staff. Most of the cats are adoptable and The Goathouse Refuge has a highly successful adoption rate – since the beginning of August the sanctuary has found homes for 60 cats, some far as way as New York and Virginia. Still some 40 or so cats, who are not sociable enough for adoption, will live out their lives at The Goathouse Refuge. Under a new program, “Seniors for Seniors.” Scarpa hopes to start placing older kitties with retirees.
Donations from a growing base of supporters across the country and the sales of Scarpa pottery sales – she sells her work all across the US and Europe – provide funds to maintain the steady stream of cats who need a safe haven.
Dream of running a sanctuary?
In the meantime, while her dedication to the sanctuary continues unabated, Scarpa knows a time will come when she will need to hand over the reins to someone else. She says she has begun the process of looking for a successor. The person or persons must naturally love cats and have strong management skills. When she finds that person, she hopes to move into a cabin she plans to build, along with her personal cats, and spend her days working on her pottery.
If that sounds like your dream job, write Scarpa a letter and tell her about yourself. You can find the address on sanctuary website. In the meantime, you are welcome to visit The Goathouse Refuge and if you spot a cat that you want to take home -- all the better.
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