- August 23, 2024
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Community Cats of Palm Coast — which has been a nonprofit cat rescue and adoption organization since 20013 — could close down by the end of the summer if things don't change, Executive Director Jessica Myers said.
“We should be closing right now. We should have been closed last year,” Myers said. "I've been personally covering it, but I can't keep continuing to do that."
Myers, a retired paralegal who moved to Palm Coast in 2019 and took over Community Cats that fall, works full time running the nonprofit and rescuing cats around the city. The nonprofit traps stray cats — including female cats that just gave birth and their litters — to spay and neuter before trying to adopt them out.
Community Cats is privately funded, and relies on funds raised at monthly sponsored events, donations from locals and what revenue is donated form the Community Cats thrift store.
It isn't enough, Myers said. The problem that a lot of people in the city are not aware of all the work Community Cats contributes to the city's stray cat problem.
“Realistically, if something doesn't change in the next few months ... Community Cats [will close],” Myers said.
Palm Coast is the only municipality to have its own animal control services, but only has three officers to respond to calls, who then have to prioritize higher emergency calls. The rest of the county works with the Flagler Humane Society. While Palm Coast's stray dogs, and some stray cats, do still go to the Flagler Humane Society, Myers said Community Cats takes in at least as many cats as the Flagler Humane Society does.
Rae Andreano — Myers’ assistant and the pseudo assistant director at Community Cats — said she gets around 10 phone calls about stray cats daily, and Myers another 10-15 calls. While most calls don't pan out into a rescued cat, the shelter still takes in at least 15 cats each week, Myers said.
A lot of people will tell her to apply for grants, she said. And she has tried — the issue is that most grants do not cover operational costs, just programs. And to qualify for for program-related grants, she said, the nonprofit often has to prove it can cover a certain percentage of the cost to run it, which Community Cats can't.
The fundraising events sponsored by local businesses help a lot, Myers said. Most recently, the nonprofit had a "Meowy Hour" sponsored by and at Tortugas Kitchen and Bar that raised around $5,000. But that funding immediately went into medical expenses for two cats rescued off the street, Myers said.
If more businesses or residents knew about the work Community Cats does, Myers said, they might reach out and help, allowing Community Cats to stay afloat.
Many times, Myers said, she’s had to pay for things out of her own pocket — from multiple expensive medical care needed by some of the cats to bills to keep the adoption center open.
And then there's the matter of personnel. She and Andreano are the only full time workers at the rescue. Andreano manages the thrift store and, when Myers is out rescuing cats, the adoption center.
The nonprofit has five or six volunteers that help care for the cats in the adoption center and only one of which helps Myers actually trap stray cats and respond to the nonprofit's myriad of calls.
Andreano said people might not notice how bad Palm Coast's stray cat problem is now, but they will if Community Cats closes.
"Palm Coast has a huge stray cats problem," Andreano said. "And it's only going to get worse."
