A passionate, grassroots cat sanctuary and rescue is doing all they can to help rescue, treat and adopt cats despite facing financial struggle.
KittyMamas Sanctuary Rescue is a nonprofit, no-kill sanctuary and rescue dedicated to reducing overpopulation of cats, raising awareness on spaying and neutering pets, and rescuing neglected felines.
The nonprofit offers a wide range of services to rescue, rehabilitate and provide a home for cats while working to provide education to the public and control stray populations. They provide short-term and long-term care for all cats ranging from neonatal to senior cats.
KittyMamas also takes in cats with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), an infectious cat disease leaving their immune systems vulnerable to other illnesses.
Candice Lopez, president and founder of KittyMamas, started trapping and rescuing cats after watching videos of people trapping cats at local junkyards in Telford. She noticed people separated kittens from their mothers and left cats trapped in their own urine and feces. Lopez created KittyMamas to humanely spay and neuter feral cats and has grown to offer a number of services homing and rehabilitating cats.
Stray cat populations grow as spayed and unneutered cats are dumped in areas where they breed with other cats. Core Creek Park was overpopulated with a colony of cats from local residents dumping their pets in the park. In 2016, the Bucks County Commissioners and local animal organizations partnered to use a trap-neuter-return (TNR) method to bring the population of 500 cats down to 100.
As part of KittyMamas mission, the sanctuary uses TNR to control colonies around the Bucks and Montgomery County area. Lopez says the growing medical bills have slowed the number of TNRs they conducted in the past year.
As a nonprofit, KittyMamas is funded through donations from private citizens and local businesses supporting the mission. Due to relying on donations while needing expensive medical care for the rescues, KittyMamas is facing a debt of $7,000.
“It takes a toll on us, and it’s something that if we could get that paid down, it would really give us a good starting point for this upcoming kitten season, cat season,” Lopez said.
Lopez says the sanctuary has been hit with caring for numerous cats with feline infectious peritonitis, a viral disease associated with feline coronavirus. The life expectancy for cats with FIP is low and the cost for caring for FIP cats is in the thousands. Despite the cost, Lopez and KittyMamas were able to see success with many of the FIP cats they encountered.
Despite seeing much success with their FIP cats, Lopez feels paying the rest of the debt would help the sanctuary focus on putting funds toward spaying and neutering cats.
Lopez said she would always find a way to help a cat despite it affecting the finances. She said she finds it hard to turn cats away when the sanctuary can’t help. The rescue treats any cat with a good chance at surviving.
“I guess for us, it’s like we at least have to try. We at least, at the very least, have to try,” Lopez said.
At the end of 2020, the rescue’s efforts had rehomed over 100 cats. By the end of 2024, KittyMamas helped over 600 cats. Since the rescue has grown from Lopez’s individual effort, they have built a community of adopters and volunteers to support them.
“You know, we do adopt to people all over, and a lot of those people stay following us thereafter, they donate to us, thereafter.” Lopez said. “We get picture updates, you know, the whole nine.”
The rescue partners with Bucks and Montgomery County ARD program or others who need to complete community service alongside a staff of 20 permanent volunteers to complete the grunt work of caring for neglected cats.
“There will never be enough money, there will never be enough bodies to help us, you know, take in every cat we want to take in,” Lopez said.
Kitten season has not slowed with cats mating even in winter months, so rescues have not had time to regroup and raise funds. Lopez said it can be overwhelming to take on understaffed and while working to rescue as many as they can.
“Sometimes you just feel like you’re never going to win the battle,” Lopez said. “It can be very defeating.”
Lopez and KittyMamas continue their battle to ensure their cats are well cared for from rescue to adoption. The rescue and sanctuary requires an application for every service whether adopting, fostering or volunteering.
KittyMamas’ adoption fee is $145 which includes the initial exam, spaying/neutering, vaccinations, flea and tick preventatives, deworming and microchipping for an additional charge. KittyMamas requires adopters to sign a “no declaw” document, keep pets up to date, and provide evidence of being a good pet owner.
All meetings are appointment only due to KittyMamas not having a brick and mortar location open to the public. KittyMamas finds home for their cats through a partnership with the Petco in Quakertown, fosters, and their sanctuary which is kept private to protect the cats.
Lopez is hoping to have a brick and mortar location in the future to help generate funds. While the sanctuary provides a home for cats, a brick and mortar location would give KittyMamas the space to provide their rescue services.
As KittyMamas grows to accommodate more cats, Lopez says the impact the sanctuary has made can be seen in their numbers. The sanctuary has helped over 1000 cats since its start and KittyMamas is focused on the impact they made on those 1000 cats.
“Rescuing one animal won’t change the world, but it will forever change the world for that one cat,” Lopez said. “That’s kind of like our mindset.”
To support KittyMamas work visit: https://www.kittymamassanctuaryrescue.com/donate
