Sanctuary of City Kitties (Chicago)
We all have dreams. This is what Cuddly’s looks like.
We know! It’s an empty and kind of dirty-looking warehouse. Isn’t it awesome?!
We know that a warehouse might be out of reach. Old churches appeal to us, too! Factories. Empty stores. An apartment building.
If you’re in Chicago and hop on a search engine to look for a cat sanctuary, you might be surprised at what you’ll find: a few people who run small nonprofits out of their relatively small Chicago homes and call them sanctuaries. We are all so thankful for these people and the sanctuary they do offer, but they are small against a huge problem. You’ll also find a few full-scale sanctuaries pretty far OUTSIDE the city. Not a single true sanctuary in the city. We want to create that sanctuary.
You can help us create it by making a specific donation to this project, which is set aside to be used for only this purpose. We’ll even let you name some cats, maybe a room!, maybe create a founders’ wall… to thank you for your donation!
The Dream-Big Details: what we want in our SOCK
- a holding area for cats in traps, pre- and post- surgery, available to every trapper in the city
- home-like spaces dedicated to cats who have a lowered chance of adoption, due to health concerns (ie FIV, FIP), where they can live out their lives, if we are unable to find adopters
- multiple crate-free rooms for visitors to meet adoptables
- space for animals pulled from CACC to be temporarily housed, for use by any rescue, while a foster is sought
- a space for our volunteer staff to work to socialize outdoor cats who are NOT feral but need time to trust people
- teeny tiny offices and a small space so that we can keep someone on site 24/7 in case of emergencies
- a veterinary suite
Not FAQs, cuz no one’s asked yet! Just FACTs…
There are an estimated 70 to 100 MILLION cats living outdoors in the U.S. They are feral, stray, lost or discarded. Monumental efforts are made DAILY – by TNR volunteers and orgs, shelters and rescues, animal controls and vets and a lot of just good people – to bring the population growth to a halt and to get as many cats as possible converted to Indoorism™.
We think those people and those efforts are incredible and we do and will support them in every way.
Cuddly knows that cats who ARE outside and doing well can STAY outside and continue doing well after sterilization surgery. What we don’t 100% agree with is that they all SHOULD stay outside.
Don’t misunderstand – the professionals are right when they say that you should absolutely not try to domesticate a feral cat. But. There is another option and it only needs to be created: Chicago’s SOCK.
Our Executive Director has almost 30 years of experience domesticating outdoor cats. Some of that experience is of the “well, this cat is never going to let a human touch him!” type. Those cats really are happier and better off outdoors. Others – those who WANT a human touch but are scared – need time. We want to give that to them.
That’s the experience that we will bring to Chicago’s SOCK. Not every cat is suited to life indoors. The ones that are, or can be…. we would like to start getting some of them off the streets. Believe us when we say this: we know that one building is only going to make a dent, but we know that every dent helps.
A sanctuary is a home, temporary or permanent. A place to wait out a necessary isolation period. A spot to await a foster. A safe place to live out their lives, if necessary, and have their needs met and be loved, even if they choose to never curl up in a single lap. Most cats will become adoptable, and we will happily see those kitties get their own family, but adoption isn’t the point of a sanctuary. SANCTUARY is the point of a sanctuary.
Why not just leave the cats where they are?
Well, that connects to another Cuddly dream: Urban Wildlife Balance. No honest cat lover will tell you that cats do not kill birds and bunnies and butterflies (among other critters). One might argue “windows kill more birds than cats do” and that is a fair argument to make – but that’s a little like saying “heart disease kills more people than diabetes does, so we shouldn’t worry about diabetes.”
We can worry about all of the outdoor livers. We can TNR, we can colonize cats, we look for new and brilliant ways to protect birds and butterflies and promote beekeeping. We can take steps to make sure that all of them have the best life that we are able to offer them and fight to be sure that no one species wipes out another. What Cuddly can’t do is ignore that every creature that lives outdoors impacts all the others.
