Shelter Focus: The Cat House On The Kings

07/17/2017

The Cat House on the Kings, which is located along the Kings River in Parlier California and sits on a 12 acre piece of land, serves as both a cat sanctuary and adoption center. The center’s main mission is to provide safe, healthy and loving permanent homes for cats and kittens that have been rescued. What makes this sanctuary unique is that pets aren’t confined in cages.

Sanctuary of 700 from Elizabeth Nelson on Vimeo.

The Cat House on the Kings was founded by Lynea Lattanzio in 1990. It all started with her bringing home 15 abandoned cats to her then six acre home. At the moment, the sanctuary has over 700 cats and kittens, a dozen dogs and a number of goats. Throughout its two decades of operation, The Cat on the Kings has rescued more than 24,000 cats and 7,000 dogs. In addition, over 40,000 animals have been spayed and neutered.

Generally, The Cat House on the Kings aims towards:

Providing a no kill and no cage sanctuary for cats and kittens. Though the sanctuary is designed to serve the Central Valley area, at times, it services extend to the entire state of California.
Offering advice and educating the public on ways through which they can take part in helping improve the quality of animal welfare and how to responsibly take care of their pets.
Facilitating the entire adoption process of pets (mainly cats) into safe, healthy, loving and permanent homes.
Offering affordable spay and neuter surgery referrals.

THE ADOPTION PROCESS

Through the year, you’ll find hundreds of cats and kittens, and at times dogs, available for adoption from The Cat House. Before adopting, you can request for a free tour at the facility so as to see the adoptable animals beforehand. All tours are done between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m., all through the week. But remember, one is required to make an appointment. Alternatively, you may visit the sanctuary’s website and go through a list of animals that are available for adoption before choosing one that you intend to adopt. If not, you can fill in an adoption form and wait for an adoption coordinator to help you in finding the animal that you’re looking for.

SURRENDERING YOUR CAT

In case you want to surrender your cat, you’ll be expected to pay $5,000 which goes towards getting the cat the appropriate care and support that it needs. All new cats that enter the sanctuary are first given the required medical care before getting vaccinated and neutered. Then, once they have assimilated into their new surroundings, they are let to roam within the sanctuary grounds; which are 100% safe.

MAKING A DONATION

Being a non-profit corporation, The Cat House on the Hills relies on public donations and volunteers. For instance, it’s through these donations that in 2004, the adoption center was able to increase its area from six to 12 acres of land. You can choose to make a cash donation, sponsor an animal, donate an item from The Cat House’ Amazon wish list, donate food or, volunteer your time at the sanctuary.