At first glance, the three-bedroom ranch house seems like a cat’s dream. There are scratching posts galore, lots of shelves for climbing, cushy places to nap and “catios” for sunbathing. The rooms have kitschy names such as Camp Meow-a-lotta, Purrific Ocean and Garden of Kneadin.
But the house built in 1958 is run-down and has some electrical issues — not quite the right place for no-kill cat shelter Furry Friends. The nonprofit group has rented the central Vancouver house for about 2 1/2 years from a former volunteer who moved to Arizona.
“Finding a place that will take 20, 25 cats is not an easy task,” said Jennifer Hart, president of the all-volunteer organization.
Furry Friends has been headquartered in six locations since it was founded in 1999. Before the current one, the cats were housed in a strip mall off of St. Johns Road.
Furry Friends
Donate to Furry Friends online at www.furryfriendswa.org/donate.
Mail donations to Furry Friends, 6715 N.E. 63rd St., Suite 450, Vancouver, WA, 98661.
To volunteer or to donate supplies, such as bleach, tall kitchen bags, paper towels and litter, email information@furryfriendswa.org
Purchase “We Love Our Pets” state license plates online at www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/splovespets.html. Twenty-eight dollars from the fees go to the Washington State Federation of Animal Care and Control Agencies, of which Furry Friends is a part.
Adopt a cat, either by checking out adoptable kitties at www.petfinder.com/pet-search?shelterid=WA12 or visiting a cat show at the Hazel Dell PetSmart, 316 N.E. 78th. The shows are from noon to 3 p.m. the first Saturday of the month, as well as the second and third Sunday.
“Moving is a huge strain physically on the cats, and it costs money to put whatever we’re moving out of back into its original state,” Hart said.
She would like to buy a commercial place in central Vancouver that’s about the same size (a little less than 2,000 square feet), but newer and laid out differently. A laundry room would be nice, along with isolation and medical rooms. The space doesn’t have to have a yard — like the house does — but windows and outdoor catios have greatly improved the cats’ mental health, Hart said.
In the future, Furry Friends would like to provide a boarding service for cats whose owners are in the hospital or homeless, said Linda Rader, longtime volunteer and vice president of the nonprofit.
“It would be really nice if we had a space where we could do that,” Rader said.
About $120,000 has been raised so far for the building fund. The fund was started a couple of years ago by supporter Glen Aronson, who’s donated $20,000 to the project.
Aronson and other volunteers started checking out possible locations. Based on what they’ve viewed so far, it looks like it will cost $250,000 to $300,000 to buy something that’s structurally sound. The building fund would either be used to make a substantial down payment or to buy a space outright, depending on how much is raised.
For now, volunteers run a carefully orchestrated and laid-out space for cats. Certain cats can’t be in the same room as other cats because they’ll fight. Some cats have to be by themselves until a specialist properly socializes them. The cats with feline immunodeficiency virus (the cat version of HIV) are in a separate part of the house. When it’s all added up, the space isn’t being used effectively, Hart said.
“We always have a wait list of cats that need to come in,” she said.
The lease on the house ends in October, at which point the nonprofit plans to rent month to month. The goal is to purchase a new place by the end of 2016. Furry Friends isn’t open to the public, and Hart said she doesn’t plan on the future location being open to the public either. The space has to be discreet enough that people won’t recognize it as a cat shelter and leave boxes of kittens outside. That’s happened twice at the house.
Furry Friends also has gone through leadership changes. Hart took over as president in September after the former president moved to Montana. She’s still looking for a treasurer and somebody to take over organizing the annual dinner auction. And then there’s the ongoing quest to recruit volunteers. Furry Friends has about 60 volunteers; a handful of them are long-term, regular volunteers that dedicate a lot of hours.
It’s hard work and costly caring for all of these cats, especially those with behavioral and medical issues.
“I’ve been doing this since 2001,” Rader said. “I can’t imagine not doing this.”
