Rescue group and local animal services form model partnership to save senior cats

Any shelter or rescue will tell you that it’s always more difficult to place older and special needs cats. Kitten season, which is now upon us, makes the situation even more challenging for shelters with space constraints to hold all the cats needing homes.

In Contra Costa County, a suburban area east of San Francisco, a new program is giving older shelter cats a second chance. Called Kitty Corner, it’s the brainchild of the Contra Costa Humane Society (CCHS), a nonprofit animal welfare organization founded in 1992.

CCHS approached the local Contra Costa Animal Services with a proposition the County Department couldn’t refuse. The nonprofit offered take some of the older cats from the shelter when space was filling up and keep them in a special ‘adoption center” managed by CCHS staff and volunteers.

CCHS executive director David Stegman, who has worked with many leading animal rescue and welfare organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area for years, and Chrissy Wilberg, adoption program director for CCHS, developed the idea for the adoption center in September 2009 knowing the problem older cats have to find homes. In October, when the landlord of the small shopping center where CCHS has its offices offered a six-month free lease in one of the vacant properties, things started coming together.

Wilberg and volunteers with CCHS spent several months getting the facility ready. It opened in March 2010. The center houses many spacious enclosures for the cats to sleep in at night and a common area with cat trees, couches and windows where they can enjoy the outside views while free-roaming during the day.
 

Contra Costa Animal Services handles the spay/neuter, shots and micro chipping of the cats before they arrive at Kitty Corner. The County Department also handles any ongoing or subsequent medical problems.

The Kitty Corner cats are featured for adoption on Animals Services Website, as well as on CCHS’s and many other well-viewed sites, such as Petfinder.com and AdoptAPet.com. Potential adopters contact CCHS to make an appointment to come by and see the cats.

The foster facility can handle about 20 cats at a time. So far, three of the eight residents since the program started have been adopted, while the others have found shelter at other rescue sites.

CCHS and the County view the program as a model for other rescues working with shelters to save the lives of cats that just need more time.