CAT TOWN BLOG
Looking Past the Fear
The Oakland shelter takes in thousands of cats each year. Some are confident, and greet you purring, while others hide behind their litter boxes, or hiss at the sound of their cage door rattling open. Before Cat Town, many cats never left the shelter because of how they react to life in a cage.
I wanted Cat Town to focus on these cats at the back of the shelter. The ones who rescue organizations wouldn’t risk taking. I thought, if people could see these cats, there would be others who would want to help them, too. Thankfully, I was right.
Our House is Now a Home with Elsa
When Elsa arrived at Cat Town, she wanted nothing to do with people and even less to do with other cats. She tucked herself into corners and did her best impression of a turtle, retracting her head any time a hand came near. My fellow volunteers and I worked to soften her, but had little success.
A few weeks into her stay, my boyfriend, Elliot and I stopped by. We both agreed that something about Elsa’s lack of interest made her all the more lovable. Elliot reached into the cubby where Elsa was hiding to let her sniff his hand, and for the first time, she did. We didn’t know it then, but our fates were sealed in that tiny moment.
Ember and Nicole Face the Day
When I first met Ember, my two-year-old rescue cat, she was about six months old. I had recently started volunteering at Cat Town, an adoption center-cat café in Oakland, CA. I began volunteering a few months after moving to Oakland under difficult circumstances: my boyfriend, Nathan, who was living in San Francisco at the time, had been in a near-fatal bicycle accident and sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. I had never been involved with any kind of animal rescue before, but, as a lifelong cat lover, I thought it would be a good way to meet new people and get my mind off things.
AS LONG AS IT TAKES
For most rescue organizations, one of the primary factors for helping a cat is “length of stay.” The longer an animal is in your care, the more costly it is to save them. Helping animals quickly is one approach to supporting an overcrowded shelter, but if that’s the only tool in the toolbox, cats like Trevor become a sad statistic. There are many cats like him out there, so we use a different approach.
Be a Hero Adopter This Holiday Season
It can be difficult for some of Cat Town’s older, less outgoing, or higher-need cats to find their perfect match, so we’re turning the spotlight on a few of our feline residents who need an extra special person or family this holiday season. If you’re looking to make a big impact in the life of a vulnerable shelter cat, you could be what we call “a hero adopter”. A hero adopter is someone with an extra-large heart, open to helping a cat still building a positive relationship with humans or facing health challenges.
Meet all our cats looking for hero adopters, and if you are a hero waiting in the wings, we hope you'll take to the stage during this holiday season!
KITTEN WIRE: MEET A SHY CAT NAMED MILTON
OAKLAND — Sometimes a cat's journey from shelter cage to forever home requires a few diversions along the way. That's the case with Milton, one of our newer members of the Forgotten Kitten Project.
Milton is a shy, 7-month-old boy with a black, silky coat and green eyes that are often dilated in fear. Cat Town rescued him from Oakland Animal Services when our staff saw he was too scared in a cage to be viable for adoption in that environment.