Part of enormous rescue, Phoenix cat owners have found purr-pose in adoptions

Just over two years ago, Eric Tollefson was riding his bike to Trader Joe’s at 20th Street and Camelback Road, a typical morning activity for the Phoenix real estate professional. Not so typical were the mobile adoption trucks parked at the nearby PetSmart. “I was just kind of curious, so I stopped.”

He wound up adopting two cats and becoming part of the largest – if not the largest – cat rescue operation in history. Dubbed the “Great Kitty Rescue,” the effort saved nearly 800 cats abandoned in a defunct cat “sanctuary” in the Nevada desert in 2007.

Where are the kitties now? Dozens of them found homes in Phoenix. And from hard-core cat lovers to casual passers-by, the adoptive owners are gratified to have played a part.

For local “GKR” cats that found homes, the road to Phoenix was long in more ways than one. The cats were part of an “institutional hoarding” situation in Pahrump, Nevada. Hundreds of cats had been collected and kept in deplorable conditions by a group called FLOCK (For the Love Of Cats and Kittens).

“You normally think of ‘hoarders’ as people who have too many crystal figurines or stacks of newspapers. In this case, it’s animals. Some animal hoarders start out with good intentions, but they slip over the line,” says Barbara Williamson, media relations manager for Best Friends, the Utah-based animal-welfare group authorities called to rescue the cats.

“We walked in to find cats that were dead and dying,” says Sherry Woodard, Best Friends’ animal-behavior consultant. Out of fear, the cats didn’t meow and most had upper-respiratory illnesses. First responders also found malnutrition, ear mites, tapeworm, maggots, rotten teeth, eye infections and open wounds.

With so many cats – 748 of them, to be exact – living in deplorable conditions, it took months of nutritional and medical care plus thousands of dollars to make the cats adoptable.

That’s where Phoenix comes in.

Acting on its commitment to find homes for the Pahrump cats, Best Friends held several mobile adoption events in which cats were trucked to major cities. Volunteers staffed the events, at which would-be owners met with cats in portable “meet-and-greet” rooms.

It was at the Phoenix event that Tollefson adopted Sky, a sleek, athletic female who shies away from strangers, and Fina, “the fat, pet-me, I-want-to-be-close-to-you cat.” Tollefson, like other Phoenix owners, feels like he played a part in something noble. “It’s not a feeling of, ‘Oh, Eric’s such a great guy.’ I’m just pleased that my cats are not fending for their food or being abused,” he says.

Phoenix resident Kate Benjamin, who drove with her boyfriend Peter Wolf to Pahrump to volunteer in the months-long kitty rescue operation, went simply to clean cages, change food dishes, and teach the cats to trust humans again.

She ended up going to the Phoenix adoption event in search of a challenge. “I knew some of those cats were going to be hard to adopt out, so I told the volunteer, ‘Give me one who’s not going home today.’” The volunteer promptly produced Flora.

“Flora flipped out. She bit the volunteer and clawed me. We’re sitting there bleeding and covered in pee and I told the volunteer, ‘I’ll take this one,’” Benjamin says. Today Flora is free of a dental disease called stomatitis, and while she is no lap cat, she purrs and seems happy to have a comfortable life.

Phoenix attorney Krista Fletcher also volunteered in Pahrump and brought a cat called Fudge into her fold. “I wasn’t going to take a cat. I already do trap, neuter and release. I do have three tame cats,” says Fletcher, known in her neighborhood as the “crazy cat lady.” Still, Fudge found a way into her heart and home.

It’s a story that repeats itself over and over. For some of these cats, “fat and happy” has taken on a whole new meaning. And while non cat-lovers may think they’re crazy, Great Kitty Rescue owners seem much more connected to the larger goal than passing glib remarks.

“People failed these animals,” Wolf says. “For me, this was a means to repair that failure.”