When the Whatcom Feline Alliance (WFA) released an emergency post on their Facebook page Aug. 17, the no-kill cat fostering program said it could use 50 foster homes.
“The rate of adult cats being returned, surrendered, in need of care, combined with kitten season has now reached staggering crisis levels,” the post read.
After a week of searching for potential homes for the hundreds of feral, abandoned and surrendered cats in WFA’s system, and nearly 30 inquiries from potential foster parents, they have received five completed applications.
“We’ll ask for more, knowing we’re going to get less,” WFA founder and director Chelsea Mathews said. “Honestly, the need is there. I could have 50 foster homes to work with. We could do that.”
The Whatcom Feline Alliance, which operates out of a tiny corner of the PetSmart on Guide Meridian in Bellingham, has been helping to get the county’s exploding cat population under control and in the hands of loving families for nearly eight years. Mathews has been running the show from the PetSmart charity adoption center since the WFA’s inception and has cultivated a network of foster homes around the county to take in unwanted cats.
Mathews calls WFA a virtual shelter because while they operate seven days a week out of PetSmart, the space can only hold a few cats at a time. The rest is done through the organization’s Petfinder.com page, which lists all the cats that are being fostered by members of the Whatcom County community.
“It’s a shelter built with heart, not walls,” Mathews said.
Mathews said that while her work has always been busy, the popularity of adoptions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has whiplashed into a huge uptick in surrendered and abandoned cats.
“When the pandemic first started, everyone wanted a pandemic pal,” Mathews said. “Now people are needing more help, more flea treatment, more need. And then people are surrendering cats, not able to keep cats and returning cats. And it seems like people are adopting a little less.”
When Liz Foster moved into her home in Ferndale in 2020, she knew she wanted to use her space to foster cats after seeing a post from WFA asking desperately for foster parents. After being given a mother cat and her two malnourished kittens to foster, Foster was told by a veterinarian that the kittens required bottle feeding. Luckily, WFA came to the rescue.
“I had an experienced bottle feeder come to my house and assist and show me the do’s and don’ts,” Foster said. “I was raising a human teenager, two neonatal babies, a malnourished mom, earning the trust of a kitty that was let down by humans, and all this while working a full-time job.”
While Foster admits that she was “probably losing my mind,” she doesn’t regret it for a moment. After starting her foster journey in 2020, Foster puts the number of felines she has saved at 81 cats, kittens and neonatal babies.
Gretchen Freudenheim, an administrative assistant, adoption specialist, and foster parent to a running total of 34 cats and kittens for WFA, started volunteering during the height of the pandemic in May 2020. Freudenheim had prior experience operating foster facilities in her hometown of Buffalo, New York, but said that amount of experience isn’t required for new foster parents, especially with the support provided by WFA.
“Just do it. [WFA] will help you out. You can have kids, you can have other pets,” Freudenheim said. “If you have a reasonably sized bathroom, a large walk-in closet or a whole spare room — you have space to foster.”
While treading water in a sea of cats without a permanent home, WFA is also constantly trying to educate the public about the necessity of spaying and neutering cats. Mathews said consistently spaying and neutering the cat population is the only way to give cats a healthy life.
WFA works closely with Rescue Pet Vet, a Whatcom-based nonprofit that provides veterinary care to animal welfare organizations like WFA. The organization also runs a Trap/Neuter/Return program for Whatcom’s massive, but often unseen, feral cat population.
“Feral cats are everywhere,” Mathews said. “Whether you like cats or you don’t, Trap/Neuter/Return is the answer. Nothing works better than that.”
Mathews said cats are suffering through not only a shortage of viable foster parents and adoptions, but a shortage of nearly everything it takes to be supported by a no-kill shelter, virtual or otherwise.
“It’s an everything shortage,” Mathews said. “We could always use more foster homes, we could always use more volunteers down here and we could always use more people adopting.”
Whatcom Feline Alliance is in need of donations, volunteers, foster parents and adoptions, Mathews said. Those who would like to help in any capacity can email WFA at whatcomfelinealliance@gmail.com, or call 360-223-5117.
