Mary RasuraAn animal-loving dog groomer founded the feline-centric shelter.
For 25 years, Adopt A Cat has been saving lives, one whisker at a time. Supporters will mark the milestone with a fundraiser Sunday at The Nest golf course in Palm Beach Gardens.
The organization has been a lifeline for feral cats, prioritizing a no-kill policy and reducing feline overpopulation through trap-neuter-release programs. It also runs a free-roaming shelter, where cats enjoy sprawling space and plenty of cat trees to climb.
- Exceptions are made for cats with medically significant conditions, who get their own quieter, more secluded area.
Adopt A Cat also has a charity thrift store in Juno Beach, where proceeds benefit the foundation. The store even has a resident shop cat, Wally, who loves greeting customers.
“When people come in, they actually look for him,” said Vicki Ciciless, shelter manager. “Sometimes they come in specifically to say hi to Wally and give him treats.”
Adopt A Cat is a true no-kill shelter,” said Debbie Heavey, executive director of the Adopt A Cat Foundation. “We mainly rescue stray cats. So it’s very difficult, because they come in with all kinds of illnesses.”
The reality for stray cats
“There’s predators out there, there’s cars, there’s people that hate cats. There’s just so many things,” Heavey continued. “So when they come in, a lot of times it takes quite some time to get them ready to be adopted, because the vet care is astronomical. Our vet care is our No. 1 expense.”
The mission extends to helping cats often overlooked by other shelters.
“We take cats that most places won’t,” said Ciciless. “They don’t like taking cats that may have a cauliflower ear, or missing an eye, they want perfect cats. We just want cats that we know that we can help and find them loving homes.”
She shared that some places even avoid taking black cats due to superstitions.
“They feel that they’re not adoptable, they’re not photogenic. We have a lot of black cats,” Ciciless said. “We are all about education, we like to dispel the myths about black cats.”
Ciciless said they also work to educate the public about FIV-positive cats. Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a common disease in cats worldwide that weakens the immune system and can make infected cats vulnerable to other infections.
“We know today that all that means is that they have a compromised immune system. Ciciless said. “They’re still highly adoptable.”
Annual vet care costs are over $80,000, a third of the organization’s annual expenses, and 168 cats were adopted last year.
Tater’s journey
One of the shelter’s most heartwarming success stories is Tater, a stray found outside a nursing home in Westlake. “He was dehydrated. He had an abscess on his face, he had entropion of the eyes and a little bit of mange,” said Erica Calder, who adopted Tater. “He was just skin, he was a wreck.”
After months of care and surgery to correct his eye condition, Tater blossomed into a social and affectionate cat.
Calder says she is in awe of his resiliency.
“He has been through so much, being abandoned on the streets, all of his surgeries, and he still is so loving and trusting.”
The shelter has two key challenges:
- Volunteer recruitment: Finding dedicated help remains tough.
- Awareness: Feral cat overpopulation leads to overcrowded shelters and higher euthanasia rates. It also leaves stray cats vulnerable to disease, predators, and harsh living conditions. Despite progress, euthanasia rates remain a concern.
Adopt A Cat was founded by Inga Hanley, who operated a popular dog grooming business. Knowing she was an animal lover, customers turned to her for help with stray cats.
- Hanley died in 2020, but her organization still rescues and rehomes cats, a critical effort in light of troubling statistics.
- The Humane Society estimates that 2.4 million medically treatable animals are euthanized each year, while the ASPCA reports that 1.4 million of those are cats.
If you go: Dinner, music, driving range, cash bar and a silent auction. Tickets are $75 in advance and $100 at the door. More information here.
