Over the River and Through The Woods to FCAR's Cathouse We Go!
Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life sits Fayette County’s only no-kill animal shelter. Fayette County Animal Rescue, founded in 1998, serves the entirety of the county from Gallaway to Grand Junction taking in abused and abandoned cats and dogs. Through fundraising, fostering, and adoption, these animals find homes almost as soon as they are brought in. During the pre-adoption process, the cats and dogs of FCAR are treated to a humane life never experienced in their previous abusive and neglected homes. At the shelter, the dogs are placed in either isolation units to be trained and to treat diseases or outside runs to allow them to get plenty of sunshine and exercise. The cats, however, have recently experienced a major renovation to their home.
Nicknamed the Cathouse, a small building outside the main shelter provides a home for the abandoned, abused, and stray cats of Fayette County. Built in 2004, this much needed building allowed Fayette County to care for adoptable cats and to spay and neuter feral cats not fit for adoption. The spay and neuter (SNAP) program is currently free for all cats and dogs in the Fayette County area, including ones not adopted from FCAR. This program is vitally important to cats in particular, as there are over 70 million stray cats in the United States alone. In recent years the home began to experience problems, and order to continue this valuable effort to control the cat population, a new house had to be built.
Because the shelter runs completely on donations, the new Cathouse was completely built by volunteers. While the red paint and bright white door highlight the quality of construction, the upgrades inside the Cathouse are the true advantages of the new building. Free from mold, a major issue with the previous Cathouse, the home is clean and well-ventilated. The Cathouse is also three times the size of the previous home. Because of this newfound spaciousness, FCAR can now help up to twelve cats at a time.
People often consider rescue dogs when the phrase “adopt, don’t shop”, but rescue cats offer the same love and support of a rescue dog. If you are interested in helping the four cats currently at the animal rescue, visit http://www.fayettefcar.com/ for more information. Through monetary donations and volunteer work, as well as many other opportunities to help, FCAR and its cats in their stylish redesigned Cathouse will benefit greatly.