“The impact our team makes every day speaks for itself. I want to make sure everyone at Cat Town has the support they need to keep doing what they do best.”
As we announced yesterday, changes are on the horizon for Cat Town’s leadership. Andrew Dorman will step up from his current leadership position at Cat Town take the helm, as Founder and Executive Director Ann Dunn transitions to a role on the Board of Directors, as well as director of Oakland Animal Services.
Many volunteers at Cat Town already know Andrew, but you might not know how he came to develop a passion for cats. Although he always had a cat growing up, he wasn’t a “cat person” earlier in his life. It all started with a Siamese tortoise-shell point named Minerva that he and partner Katrina adopted from a friend.
The story is oddly prescient, given Cat Town’s mission to help so-called difficult cats find the right environment. “She lived in a home with another cat and two dogs and was really unhappy,” Andrew explained, adding that she was always hiding in a back bedroom.
When he and Katrina decided to adopt a cat, their friend asked if they could take Minerva for a two-week trial period. “Fifteen minutes after we got Minerva home, she had sniffed every corner of our home and plopped down on the couch,” Andrew said. She finally relaxed and showed her true self.
“It parallels the whole reason for Cat Town being,” Andrew said. Cats in a high-stress environment often shut down. Although he didn’t know it at the time, he was mimicking the exact model on which Cat Town was built.
Andrew developed a deep bond with Minerva. “I loved that cat so much,” he said. He and Katrina had her for six years, and during that time, he got the urge to help more animals. A Google search led him to Oakland Animal Services, where he joined the shelter’s “Cat Crew,” a special group of volunteers who work with cats to get them ready for adoption. Most shelter volunteers only work with cats that are already ready to adopt.
Andrew and Minerva
Along the way, Andrew noticed the hardest-to-help cats going to Cat Town, and subsequently became a donor and volunteer, working on special issues like cats with ringworm and various one-off projects. He started to foster cats, too, keeping them separate from Minerva. When she died, he adopted from both Oakland Animal Services and Cat Town, and he and Katrina now have three cats in their home in Oakland — Sinatra, Coraline, and Pepper. They have fostered 50 cats and kittens (and counting).
Meanwhile, Andrew began to search for a way to make a bigger impact in his community and planned to take a six-month sabbatical from his engineering work. In late 2017, Cat Town’s Founder, Ann Dunn, heard about Andrew’s free time and, having seen his commitment to cats in need, she offered him a position with Cat Town. Here, he’s learned that engineering and working with cats have different challenges. “I like to plan things; I like to have a plan,” Andrew laughs. But animals and their needs are unpredictable: “Animal rescue requires a lot of flexibility and the ability to roll with the punches.”
Andrew is excited to build on Cat Town’s accomplishments, drawing on his engineering background to tackle the problems in animal rescue Cat Town is known to face head on. “First off,” says, Andrew, he’ll be “looking at systems we’re using and where we’re spending our time and resources.” He’ll also focus on fundraising, and working with volunteers, staff, and stakeholders to create a five-year strategic plan. “Maybe we’ll tweak a few things,” Andrew said, “but at this point, I’m not imagining any large changes to Cat Town’s programs. The impact our team makes every day speaks for itself. I want to make sure everyone at Cat Town has the support they need to keep doing what they do best.”
Minerva (Photo courtesy of Tonya Perme)