Petaluma shelter performs disappearing cat trick

Petaluma Animal Services began its Empty Cat Cage Project on Oct. 18, with 85 cats and kittens in its care: 69 of them adoptable. The challenge: Find homes for all 69 within a month.

On Nov. 18, staffers counted down the minutes until 6 p.m., when they could hang this sign on the door to the community cat rooms: “There are no more cats today. We found them all homes.”

Only one, Cricket, was left, purring and head-butting in her lobby cage.

Of the seven cats who found homes Nov. 18, Ginger had perhaps the most heart-warming story. An estimated 17 or 18 years old, she was brought in as a stray in August. Enter Jenna Heusi, a new vet in Petaluma who left two cats with her parents when she moved from New York.

“My dog and I are lonely,” she said, so she came to the shelter looking for an elderly cat, one other adopters might pass up as too needy or old. Heusi was smiling as she filled out adoption paperwork.

“She’s broken and old, she walks in circles,” she said of Ginger.

Alex Fraser came from Cloverdale and fell for Akira, who had been at the shelter a year. She, too, wanted an older cat and was smiling as she filled out the salmon-colored adoption sheet. “(Akira) is affectionate and mature, and she needs a good home,” Fraser said.

And then there was Tigger. Local chef Cyrelle McDonald came in, not knowing about the Empty Cat Cage Project. She had to put her elderly cat to sleep last year and was ready to adopt.

Tigger had been at the shelter two years. He needed to be an only cat and was choosy about whom he liked, but McDonald said, “I felt like we really bonded. His beautiful green eyes called me, and he kept following me.”

Quiet Shirley found her home with longtime shelter sponsor and volunteer Denise Sperling. “I’d had my eye on her for a while,” Sperling said. “She’s so shy. But she’s come a long way, and I want to give her a good home.”

Kittens Tootie and Carl left the building, Tootie with Amy Denning, who came in with her father. “Look at that, Dad,” Denning said, holding her new gray tortie. “You came in to pay for a dog license and walked out with a cat.”

Spunky little Carl went home with Amy Brayton and her two excited sons. They have a cat at home that had lost her littermate, said Brayton, who read about the Empty Cat Cage Project on Facebook.

And finally, Jefferson, a handsome orange boy, went home with Kim Petersen, who had been wanting a cat for a long time. She saw him on Facebook and was at the shelter early, hoping he was still available.

“Empty cat rooms,” said Animal Control Officer Mark Scott. “It’s a good problem to have, but it’s a weird happiness. It has never happened before, all the cats adopted.”

At closing time, the shelter’s executive director, Jeff Charter, shook his head. “To quote Jeff Foxworthy, it was total pandelirium around here today. Everybody thinks a shelter is depressing, but it’s happy place, the best place in the world.”

And as for Cricket, an alumnus who returned to the shelter when her elderly owner died, shelter fan Heather Kerrigan posted this reprieve on Facebook: “There were 11 days between Oct. 18 and Nov. 18 that you were closed so, technically, Cricket has 11 extra days!”

For information about the shelter and its Empty Cat Cage Program, visit petalumaanimalshelter.org or call 778-7387.