Spicy homeless cats on the central Kenai Peninsula can thank Clear Creek Cat Rescue for at least one of their nine lives. The organization got a $12,500 grant to work with the Kenai Animal Shelter to save cats that would otherwise be challenging to adopt out.
Kelleigh Orthmann is the grant writer for Clear Creek Cat Rescue. The volunteer organization began around 2009 in the Talkeetna area and has since expanded across Southcentral, with as many as 50 volunteers at any one time fostering cats looking for adoption. Orthmann says they save over 500 cats a year.
The grant came from the Best Friends Animal Society. It’s a Rachael Ray Foundation No Kill Excellence grant meant to help Clear Creek’s barn cat program, which finds placements for cats that might not be a good fit for family homes.
“So we take in cats that are kind of behaviorally challenged, maybe a lot of community cats that have been out in the wild for a while that are not going to be able to be socialized, and we find them good barn homes,” Orthmann said. “And it's a free-of-charge program. So we give people a pair of cats to help keep the rodents down. But that's why we need the grant, because it helps cover the costs of getting them fixed, microchipped, ready to go out the door.”
The funding is specifically to take in and find placements for socially challenged cats that would otherwise end up at the Kenai Animal Shelter, which doesn’t have the capacity to care for and hold animals indefinitely. The grant program had 320 applicants nationwide. Clear Creek was one of 53 applicants selected. The funding is meant to lighten the burden on the Kenai Animal Shelter, but cats can be placed anywhere from Homer to Houston.
“Trying to help them move more towards being a no-kill shelter,” Orthmann said. “Typically, what will happen is we'll get a call from the shelter. They're like, ‘Hey, we got a couple of wildlings.’ And we’ll come get them, bring them into foster homes, see if they're socializable. If not, we'll find them a barn home.”
Barn placements don’t have to be plush. A heated structure is optimal but not required. That can be a garage, barn, shed or some other outbuilding. If it’s not heated, Clear Creek can provide heated water bowls and heated homes for the cats, and all the supplies needed to get the cats started in their new digs. They are placed in pairs and come fixed and microchipped.
“We like to try to keep them, you know, contained for two to three weeks so they get to know their home, and then we kind of let them be cats,” Orthmann said. “And they can roam around the barn. They might roam around out into, you know, the areas where the horses are, or the cows or whatever, and chickens, and they take care of, you know, the rodents that are getting into feed and things like that.”
Orthmann says it generally costs about $250 to rescue and place one barn cat. She estimates the grant should save 45 cats and kittens. For more information about Clear Creek Cat Rescue, including how to get involved as a foster or how to adopt your very own barn cats, check out clearcreekcatrescue.org.
