Project Purr News & Events

Hugs and kisses from the kitties to all the wonderful people who donated their special items, all of the people who volunteered to work and also those who came and shopped at our successful June 2007 Fundraising Field Sale! Together we raised over $21,000.00 towards spaying and neutering the feral cats and kittens of Santa Cruz County, thereby ensuring a better chance at long, healthy and happy lives for them!

Thoughtful and caring local businesses included Way of Life, The Buttery, Gayle's Bakery and Rosticeria, Kitty Hill Resort for Cats, Ocean Honda & Chevrolet, Lundberg Studios Art Glass, Palace Art & Stationers, DeLaveaga Golf Lodge, The Bagelry, Outside-In, Pacific Cookie Company, The Garden Company, Well Within, Trader Joe's, Zinnia's, Staff of Life, The Swift Stitch, Meltzer's Mints, and New Leaf donated either to our silent auction or yummy goodies for the hardworking volunteers. Heartfelt Thank-You's to all of them too!

Project Purr's lowcost program at Adobe Animal Hospital has assisted thousands of cats and kittens since 1987. Overwhelming community participation showed enthusiastic support for both Project Purr and Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) the ethical choice for reducing feral cat numbers. TNR is effective, cost-efficient and humane. Managed colonies and TNR teach compassion, nonviolence and tolerance for others.

As an organization, we are committed with integrity and compassion to a high quality standard of care for our ferals, safety for both cats and humans, and a responsibility to the community ! We believe in a feral cat's right to live, free from the stress of uncontrolled breeding. We believe, along with other feral cat spay/neuter organizations throughout the world that healthy feral cats should not be killed simply because they were born without a house address.

Spay/neuter is the single most important thing we all can do to help the animals! There are not enough homes for all the animals in Santa Cruz county...and you can never stem the tide of homeless animals if you ignore the least understood and in the greatest danger...feral cats and kittens!

It is interesting to see how our yard sales have grown over the past 11 years... we surprised even ourselves! From a slow beginning in 1996 and $490.00 raised at our first sale on South Branciforte Avenue to the culmination of this year's field sale on Thurber Lane/Soquel Drive and $21,000.00, we have raised over $196,000.00 selling "stuff" to fund spay/neuter for all of Santa Cruz county's kitties!
Remember.... TNR is feral cat TLC !

*Recent Events*	*News*	*News from other places*
For the past 20 years, Craig Evans, DVM, and the entire staff at Adobe Animal Hospital, together with Project Purr, have held a safety net under the feral cats and kittens of Santa Cruz County by offering discounted quality care and a low cost Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program. Through decades of love for our community and dedicated compassionate care for its cats, and believing in a feral cat's unconditional right to life, Adobe Animal Hospital and Project Purr enlightened the public to the plight of feral cats and offered a humane solution. We improved the lives of thousands of free-roaming cats and kittens, busted myths and elevated their status, helped the environment, worked diligently to keep feral cats out of the shelter, reduced the number of all cats coming into the shelter, and by humanely reducing cat overpopulation helped all cats by opening more lifelong loving homes. Project Purr's path now is unclear. This loss of our main stray and feral cat low-cost spay/neuter provider means we will have to regroup, and look for other solutions. We find ourselves at a crossroads... is this the threshold of new beginnings... or the winding down of many years of sharing and caring for the cats of our community? Either way, we have grown to love and appreciate the people in our community and are thankful for your generosity, love and support. Thankfully, at this difficult time, Soquel Creek Animal Hospital (476-1515) has offered Project Purr and Santa Cruz County residents discounted feral cat Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) pricing. To continue in the coming years, Project Purr needs our animal-loving community to step up and assist us in our committed goals. There are so many tasks that need doing. For a long time Project Purr has operated by relying on a small core group of people. Project Purr now finds itself in the position of needing to ask for more people to participate in our day-to-day activities. If you value the work of Project Purr, please consider joining us to help share and shoulder some of the responsibilities it takes to run a Trap-Neuter-Return program. We need a larger group of people with a love for cats to volunteer time, abilities, energy, and enthusiasm to keep our program going and growing. Without this assistance, Project Purr will not be able to continue caring for our community cats. We welcome your ideas/suggestions for fundraising, grant writing, and volunteer time. Please call 423-MEOW... if YOU can help! Through education and action, we hope to eliminate the trapping-surrendering and killing of healthy feral cats, and further enhance human/animal relationships which, we believe, reflects the ethics of our community.	Purrr... and the World Purrs with You! Heart-warming Stretching! Benefit Yoga Class with Donations to Support Project Purr! All levels are welcome. Please join us Saturday March 6th ~ 2-3pm. Kindly offered at eco-friendly "yoga within" in Aptos. Purrrr... and the World Purrs with You! Click here to see their flyer with more information! Peet's and Project Purr -- Successful Match! Peet's Coffee and Tea on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz recognized Project Purr as their 2009 Charity of Choice for our contributions to the community. We exceeded our challenge goal, generously matched by Peet's, and received over $2,265. to help us fulfill our mission! Thank You to all the friendly hardworking Peet's baristas and animal-loving Peetniks for your wonderful support! Nickels for Nonprofits at Whole Foods Market Good News! Project Purr has been selected to participate in the "Nickels for Nonprofits" at Whole Foods Market located at 1710 41st Avenue in Capitola! As a community giving program, each time a customer reuses a grocery bag, five cents will be donated to one of three featured local nonprofits. From January 18 through April 11 don't forget to BYOB ... bring your own bag(s)... and select Project Purr as your nonprofit of choice when shopping at Whole Foods! Thank you Whole Foods Market in Capitola!! Project Purr Fundraising FALL Rummage Sale 2009 Fall 2009 Fundraising Rummage Sale Nets $19,000? and anonymous, last-minute donor takes it over the top to $20,000!! Whew! Another successful fundraiser despite the bleak and stormy economic forecast and predicted thunderstorms, donations poured in, sunny hardworking volunteers appeared, shoppers shopped, the rain stayed away and we breezed through it! One might say, "The Cat Gods were with us!" Many heartfelt thank-you's to our local community volunteers for their efforts setting up and managing the rummage sale, and to local businesses for their thoughtful contributions. Thanks to Kitty Hill Resort for Cats, Ocean Honda, Severino's Grill, Shopper's Corner, Staff of Life, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Shampooches, Aptos Village Rattan, Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria, Paws for a Cause, City of Paris, Fleur, The Purrfect Girl, The Buttery, Live Oak Cafe, Far West Nursery, Darrell Burns Photography, Starbuck's Coffee, and Denise Broadwell Photography. Thanks also to the many individuals that generously give such a wonderful array of useful items and fun and unique treasures for others to discover. And now, thankfully, Project Purr's feral cat Trap-Neuter-Return program at Adobe Animal Hospital in Santa Cruz can continue on! Thank You Everyone!
Donation Boxes Donated Anonymously to Project Purr! Surprise! Surprise! Some wonderfully thoughtful and kind anonymous person purchased and donated clear lucite lock donation boxes to us after all these years. For 19 years, we’ve never had any...and now it’s our turn to find kind “hosts” for them to put them to work. Many local businesses are graciously responding by placing them on their counters in prominent spots to encourage their clients to donate, thereby helping us to provide funding for the only county-wide lowcost feral cat and kitten spay/neuter program. Thank you to our friends at Zachary’s Restaurant on Pacific, Aptos Feed, Pacific Veterinary Specialists, Mollies Country Café in Scotts Valley, Ark Animal Hospital, newly opened Mint in Scotts Valley, Scotts Valley Feed, Capitola Book Café, Hansen’s Feed on Freedom in Watsonville, and Pet Pals. If you would like to “host” one of Project Purr’s NEW donation boxes, please give us a call at 423-MEOW and leave us a message. It’s a wonderful way to give back to our community and take “Compassionate Action!”	AFTER Labor Day 2008 Fundraising RUMMAGE SALE Our Volunteers Are the BEST! Our amazing volunteers help and dedication to the feral cats and kittens of Santa Cruz County make a difference beyond measure. Project Purr's FALL After Labor Day Fundraising Rummage Sale raised over $23,000. for the cats that belong to no one...yet in reality they are the cats that belong to all of us...the "village cats" or "community cats." Thanks to all the fabulous donations, tireless volunteers and smart and savvy shoppers, Project Purr's spay/neuter program is funded. See you next year...2009...when we hope do it again! Hugs and thanks to everyone!	Compassion often eludes feral cats; groups out to save them. Read the USA Today article, published on May 6, 2008. Print Version. "What's to be done with 150 cats encroaching on county property earmarked for a $68 million data center? Officials and cat feeders have come up with a life-sparing solution." Read the article in the Los Angeles Times, published March 24, 2008. Print version. The Working Cats Program, of Voice for the Animals Foundation, relocates sterilized and vaccinated feral cats who would otherwise have been euthanized at the shelter to places that have problems with rats. The rats are repelled by the cats' odor and leave. Compared to the methods that are most commonly used to control rats, this method proves to be effective, humane and environmentally friendly. It is a win-win-win situation! Read an article entitled LAPD enlists feral cats for rat patrol", published in the LA Times on December 29, 2007. Print version.
Memorial Day, 2008, Rummage Sale a Huge Success! Wowie meowie! What an amazing show of community support...from the overwhelmingly positive response to the call for donations --both from kindhearted individuals and benevolent businesses--to the many seemingly tireless hardworking volunteers, and to the multitudes of smart and savvy shoppers. As dusk fell on Day 3, Project Purr's dedicated and exhausted team had raised over $27,000.00!!! A sincere and heartfelt Thank You to Everyone for all the kindnesses and generosities which created a new and higher benchmark for funding compassionate spay/neuter feral cat and kitten care! Memorial Day 2007 Raised over $21,000.00!! Hugs and kisses from the kitties to all the wonderful people who donated their special items, all of the people who volunteered to work and also those who came and shopped at our successful June 2007 Fundraising Field Sale! Together we raised over $21,000.00 towards spaying and neutering the feral cats and kittens of Santa Cruz County, thereby ensuring a better chance at long, healthy and happy lives for them! Thoughtful and caring local businesses included Way of Life, The Buttery, Gayle's Bakery and Rosticeria, Kitty Hill Resort for Cats, Ocean Honda & Chevrolet, Lundberg Studios Art Glass, Palace Art & Stationers, DeLaveaga Golf Lodge, The Bagelry, Outside-In, Pacific Cookie Company, The Garden Company, Well Within, Trader Joe's, Zinnia's, Staff of Life, The Swift Stitch, Meltzer's Mints, and New Leaf donated either to our silent auction or yummy goodies for the hardworking volunteers. Heartfelt Thank-You's to all of them too! Project Purr's lowcost program at Adobe Animal Hospital has assisted thousands of cats and kittens since 1987. Overwhelming community participation showed enthusiastic support for both Project Purr and Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) the ethical choice for reducing feral cat numbers. TNR is effective, cost-efficient and humane. Managed colonies and TNR teach compassion, nonviolence and tolerance for others. As an organization, we are committed with integrity and compassion to a high quality standard of care for our ferals, safety for both cats and humans, and a responsibility to the community ! We believe in a feral cat's right to live, free from the stress of uncontrolled breeding. We believe, along with other feral cat spay/neuter organizations throughout the world that healthy feral cats should not be killed simply because they were born without a house address. Spay/neuter is the single most important thing we all can do to help the animals! There are not enough homes for all the animals in Santa Cruz county...and you can never stem the tide of homeless animals if you ignore the least understood and in the greatest danger...feral cats and kittens! It is interesting to see how our yard sales have grown over the past 11 years... we surprised even ourselves! From a slow beginning in 1996 and $490.00 raised at our first sale on South Branciforte Avenue to the culmination of this year's field sale on Thurber Lane/Soquel Drive and $21,000.00, we have raised over $196,000.00 selling "stuff" to fund spay/neuter for all of Santa Cruz county's kitties! Remember.... TNR is feral cat TLC !	Important News! Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County Awards Grant to Project Purr. The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County's Board of Directors has approved a grant for Project Purr to support cat rescue and spay/neuter/return programs. The Board members and staff stated that they "are aware of the important services Project Purr provides to the community and are pleased to make these funds available to support this work." This grant is made possible through a contribution from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Project Purr says Thank You for your on-going help and support! Good Times Article on Project Purr The Good Times published an article about Project Purr on May 28, 2008, entitled Cat People: When it comes to rescue, Project Purr continues to impress, by Leslie Patrick. The article has some misstatements in it regarding feral cats and disease, however, there is also some good information in it. Read it online here. Project Purr and Silicon Valley Animal Rescue Team to Save Seacliff Cats State of California - Killing Stopped! When the State of California sought to trap and send defenseless cats to animal control, they realized the public did not take kindly to having the cats killed at the shelter. Silicon Valley Animal Rights has been working with the State of California and Project Purr in Santa Cruz county to address the feral cat concerns at Seacliff Beach. The intelligent and humane method is to work cooperatively with organizations to relocate the cats. After numerous meetings, the State, Project Purr and SVAR reached a working agreement that was favorable to all parties concerned - most importantly the cats! Equally important was SVAR's opportunity to develop new and important relationships in Santa Cruz county. It's up to us and the community to insist on using this ethical and humane method and the Seacliff State Park Rangers have proven that it's a workable solution. Click here to read more.

Purrr... and the World Purrs with You!

Peet's and Project Purr -- Successful Match!

Nickels for Nonprofits at Whole Foods Market

Project Purr Fundraising FALL Rummage Sale 2009

Nickels for Nonprofits
at Whole Foods Market