Feline Rescue was founded in 2007 by Mary Braem Foster. Mary moved to northern California from Minnesota with her partner, James Williams, an international business attorney. Prior to Feline Rescue, Mary worked for many years in the areas of human rights and community organizing. "We never dreamed of starting a rescue. However, it seemed the need found us." In almost five years, Feline Rescue has developed into an extremely effective organization, thanks to a very small number of incredibly dedicated and talented volunteers.

In addition to responding to calls for help from throughout Sonoma County and beyond, we support efforts to care for homeless cats in area feeding sites, provided these sites conform to guidelines re permissions, proper feeding practices, trapping, spay/neuter, etc. Truly feral cats are returned to the sites, and adoptable cats and kittens are placed in foster care. We also work diligently to educate the community about the importance of feline spay/neuter and help connect low income residents with affordable resources.


Operating Model

Each adoptable cat or kitten is placed in a loving foster home, a much happier and healthier situation for the cat and far more cost effective than being in a shelter kennel. It helps re-build bonds of trust and affection with humans for the cats and kittens awaiting adoption. We screen adopters carefully to ensure a good fit and provide follow up advice to adopters.

While the majority of our activities are in Sonoma County, we are active in the entire Bay Area with a network of foster homes and adopters in Marin, San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula. We work closely with a special rescue group in the Round Valley, and, when resources allow, we rescue cats and kittens from high kill shelters. However, the vast majority of our cats are "direct rescues." We respond to calls for help about homeless cats and kittens, some ill or injured, some needing rescue from roofs, culverts, crawl spaces, under blackberry thickets or left on the sides of roads or highways.


Finances

Our primary expense is veterinary care (75% of total expenditures). We work hard to keep this expenditure a low as possible, while providing excellent medical care to each rescued animal. We partner with three veterinary hospitals and receive discounts on services. We use a low cost mobile spay/neuter feral cat clinic in Santa Rosa for some spay/neuter surgeries. We purchase many medications and vaccines at a discount and administer them using trained volunteers, in consultation with a supervising veterinarian.

Without the overhead of a physical shelter and with no paid staff, our expenses, including veterinary services, medications, food and litter, average $133 per adopted cat. We believe this is a real measure of efficiency because organizations with either high expenses or low adoption numbers show resulting very high costs per adopted cat. An examination of statistics of shelters in Sonoma, Marin and San Francisco Counties shows approximate average expenditures per adopted cat ranging from $1,800 to $2,700. In some areas, the expenditure is far higher. This is not a criticism of these shelters, which certainly provide a valuable service, nor is it a criticism of their cost structures. Instead, this illustrates the efficiencies gained through Feline Rescue's operating model, trying to meet extraordinary needs with far less funding. Your contribution to Feline Rescue goes directly to save and place cats, rather than to administrative salaries, physical facility overhead and expenses, fundraising costs, etc.


2008 - Our first full year

In 2008, Feline Rescue provided veterinary and other care for 195 cats and kittens. Of these, 50 truly feral cats were returned to the original sites, and 15 cats/kittens died or were euthanized due to illnesses or injuries. (These deaths include, sadly, nine emaciated, dehydrated very young kittens whose mothers had been driven off or had abandoned them. Saving these kittens ("bottle babies") is extremely difficult, often heartbreaking work, and few other rescue groups in this area attempt it.) 126 cats and kittens were adopted, and four were in foster homes awaiting adoption at years end. This number is only slightly lower than the cats placed by the shelter closest to our service area, a shelter with an annual budget of almost $500,000. (Feline Rescue's income in 2008 was $18,000.)


2009 and 2010

In the last three years, we have substantially expanded our efforts to respond to needs outside our core area and to prevent abandonments as the recession drags on. We continue to operate as an all volunteer "shelter without walls" and "animal control with a heart" for northern Sonoma County and to respond to calls from residents of neighboring counties with no other options but high-kill shelters. (We are receiving an increasing number of urgent requests to help cats-injured, ill, special needs, orphaned "bottle babies"-after larger, better funded programs have been unable to help because "they don't have the resources" or "the request doesn't fit the organization's guidelines.")

In 2009, we provided veterinary care (including spay/neuter) for 440 cats and kittens and placed 230 in foster homes, from which 196 were adopted. (156 TNR feral cats were returned to feeding sites or relocated to vineyards or ranches. Twenty cats and kittens died from injuries or advanced disease while under veterinary care (four were euthanized), and 34 were in foster care at the beginning of 2010.

In 2010 , we provided veterinary care for almost 500 cats and kittens (including spay/neuter when appropriate). Approximately 300 of these were first placed in foster care from which ~ 250 were adopted. Approximately 50 remained in foster care at the end of 2010. Approximately 150 cats were returned to feeding sites or placed as "barn cats" on ranches, vineyards or other rural property. 30 were returned to their owners, and ~20 died because of injuries or illnesses that weren't treatable.


2011

As of December 15, 2011, we have provided veterinary care for approximately 500 cats and kittens (including spay/neuter when appropriate). 265 cats and kittens have been adopted (in addition to adoption of cats carried over from previous years). 27 remain in foster care on December 15. We lost 10 kittens (mostly newborn) to illness or failure to thrive, and four cats were euthanized because of untreatable illness or injuries. The remainder were returned to feeding sites or placed as "barn cats" after spay/neuter and vaccinations or returned to owners after receiving veterinary care.