By Laura Tamayo
A year ago this month, Michelle Bass and Alicia Pollock came together to form a volunteer-based organization that offers numerous cats loving, nurturing homes. A Kitten Place helps abandoned and orphaned kittens, as well as pregnant cats, in the Southeast Hillsborough region through rescuing and fostering them until a safe home is secured.
Before deciding to begin the charity, Bass and Pollock both had spent years fostering for multiple shelters and other rescues, which prompted a desire to advance this part of their life into something more.
“We shared the same philosophy on certain aspects of rescue and we knew we could offer a unique approach to helping homeless and abandoned cats and kittens in our community,” explained Bass.
While A Kitten Place does take inspiration from other rescue centers and their values, it has a unique mission that focuses on neonate kittens and pregnant females. Bass communicated that the organization specifically tries to give the pregnant female cats a place to safely have give birth and avoid any physical harm that they may have gone through in an uncontrolled setting.
A Kitten Place takes in cats from anywhere and everywhere, hoping to account for as many cats as possible to maximize reach.
“Rescues come from a variety of locations—people find them in their backyard, at their workplace, at schools. They are abandoned in dumpsters and found in buckets on the side of the road,” stated Bass.
To secure these rescued animals a loving home, A Kitten Place typically had adoption events at local pet stores on the weekends where adopters were pre-approved to adopt or customers could apply on-site.
Because of COVID-19, virtual adoptions are now its main strategy in ensuring rescues a home (with some adoption events with social distancing), in which the adopter is screened first, then messages the foster family of the cat to ensure that it’s a match. If approved, a meeting is scheduled to carefully give the kitten to the new owner.
Despite all the outside chaos, the organization is still constantly receiving new cats to put up for adoption. If you’re looking for a new friend to take your mind off the current world situation, go to akittenplace.org to apply.
If you’d like to become a volunteer, either through fostering or helping with transport and other duties, email akittenplace@gmail.com.
