New home for Furry Friends is the cat’s meow

After 17 years of operation, Furry Friends has a home of its own.

The nonprofit purchased its first home on Aug. 5 and officially moved 19 cats in on Sept. 24. The new halfway house for cats seeking adoption is in the West Minnehaha neighborhood. It is 1,662 square feet and sits on more than half an acre of property.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’re never moving again,” said Diane Stevens, the marketing and publicity director of Furry Friends. “Once we get this paid down, we’re going to figure out how to add in another wing, or maybe build a feral cat colony. We have all this room. It’s just a matter of money.”

The journey to get the house started more than two years ago, but because the shelter is run by volunteers and is funded by donations, it took a while and a few big donations to get enough money for a down payment on a home.

Furry Friends officials ended up putting down $100,000 on the house, which sold for $240,000. Since purchasing the home, Furry Friends has put around $70,000 worth of upgrades into the house, including a new roof, updated plumbing and electrical and renovations to bring everything up to commercial code and Americans with Disability Act standards. There is still more work to do, including painting, hanging curtains and adding a bench to the main hallway of the house.

“We want this to be warm, comfortable and inviting,” Stevens said. “We want it to feel like people are walking into their own home.”

Stevens said Furry Friends doesn’t give out the address for the shelter, because if it was public, people might stop by while volunteers aren’t around or drop off pets they don’t want anymore. Interested adopters can set up an appointment to stop by the house through www.furryfriendswa.org.

To get the new house ready for the kittens, Furry Friends had the building gutted. They then installed fencing throughout different parts of the property, so the kittens now have near free rein. Most rooms in the house are connected by kitten doors and fenced off, so the kittens can move around the house as they please. All of the rooms are filled with beds, scratching posts, toys, water, food and windows. The cats even have an outdoor “catio” — an enclosed outdoor space.

“All the kitties are liking this place more than the other,” Stevens said. “There’s a lot of windows, and there’s always stuff going on, so they’re never bored.”

There are some isolated areas, as well. Cats that don’t play well with others or get picked on too much are brought to private cells, which also have a bed and toys. There’s also a medical room, which is five or six times larger than the medical room at the previous halfway house. Incoming cats have to spend time in the medical room until they are cleared to interact with the larger population. There are also some cages in the other rooms, which are used to slowly integrate cats into the house.

Stevens said she hopes to build more catio spaces near windows, giving the kittens even more outdoor room. There, they can watch the birds and other animals in the backyard.

“They love the squirrels,” Stevens said. “It’s like cat TV.”

Furry Friends has 138 volunteers, Stevens said. There are scheduled shifts every day for people to stop by to feed the kittens and clean out the litter. Of those 138, half volunteer one to four hours a week, usually stopping by to play with the kittens.

Stevens said the rest of the volunteers fall into three other groups: 10 percent are foster parents, 30 percent help seasonally with events or other tasks and 10 percent spend 500 to 1,500 hours a year volunteering.

“The 10 percent carrying the main load are overworked,” Stevens said. “We are in desperate need of skilled, reliable people to take on or assist with key jobs, such as vet techs, a treasurer, someone to take on the annual auction event, fundraising, assistant to the adoption coordinator and more.”

One of the volunteers carrying the main load is Sandi Long, a member of the nonprofit’s executive committee. She has done a lot of the renovating on the new house and said she’s used “gallons and gallons” painting the home. The house has been her project for a few months, as she also has worked on making sure Furry Friends gets all the needed permits to bring everything up to code.

Along with the volunteer effort, the nonprofit also is in need of donations, whether monetary or otherwise. Steven said last year was a “miracle year” in terms of donations, which helped the nonprofit raise enough money for the down payment. Last year, Furry Friends raised $116,000 and expenses were $90,500, according to Stevens. Furry Friends spent 35 percent of that budget on medical expenses, 17 percent for rent, insurance, house maintenance and utilities and 11 percent for cat food and litter.

Furry Friends received five major donations last year to the new house fund, Stevens said, with $35,000 coming from an anonymous donor, $30,000 from Kathy Angelo of Kathy Angelo Construction, $26,000 from the estate of Carol Williams, $11,825 from Dr. Virginia Huang of Salmon Creek Plastic Surgery and $10,000 from Glen Aronson of Iron Gate Storage.

Stevens also said Huang and Aronson have donated regularly to the fund over the last few years, and Aronson gave the initial $5,000 donation to start the building fund a few years ago.