Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle was founded in 1998 by Pat Rossi, a woman determined to provide no-kill alternatives for stray cats. Her idea was simple, but powerful. She worked with a few generous local veterinarians to provide a certificate for a reduced price for sterilization and vaccines available to anyone who had found a stray and was willing to keep the cat.

Word of a no-kill organization spread quickly. People began flocking to Cat's Cradle when they had cats they had to give up, or had batches of unwanted kittens. While rescue and adoption were not the main focus, the organization responded to the need. Cat's Cradle volunteers became adept at rescuing neglected and abandoned cats and kittens, getting them the veterinary care they needed, and finding homes for them through outlets like PetCo and PETsMART, as well as through the Internet.

It was always apparent to the organization that we could not adopt our way out of the overpopulation problem in Shenandoah Valley. Rescuing cats was not stemming the tide of homeless cats. Despite Cat's Cradle's considerable contribution in foster and adoption, just as many cats had to be put down in local shelters for lack of homes. Furthermore, colonies of free-roaming cats, most of which are feral and unadoptable, were being put down en masse when merchants or citizens called Animal Control with complaints. Intake at our local shelters was increasing each year.

In 2001, Cat's Cradle board members devoted two days to defining our vision for the Shenandoah Valley. We realized we needed to focus on spay/neuter and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). It was the most effective way to address overpopulation, and no one else in the community was doing this. The need was tremendous.

Cat's Cradle began an intensive spay/neuter program to assist citizens to get their cats sterilized. This quickly led to helping people who were caring for colonies of free-roaming cats. These cats had to be trapped in order to be sterilized and vaccinated. Cat's Cradle volunteers began trapping colonies of cats, working with cat colony caretakers, and caring for some colonies on an on-going basis themselves. In order to meet the need, Cat's Cradle realized our community needed a low cost, high volume spay/neuter clinic.

While continuing to help the public directly, Cat's Cradle was a major force behind the opening of a free-standing Spay/Neuter Clinic in Harrisonburg, VA, raising over $30,000 toward equipment for the clinic.

Cat's Cradle has grown considerably since 1998. Still an almost all-volunteer organization, Cat's Cradle has been able to hire an adoption coordinator, a part-time spay/neuter transport coordinator, and a Director of Development. Since 1998, Cat's Cradle has fostered and adopted out over 600 cats, and sterilized over 5,500. It has been instrumental in educating the Shenandoah Valley community about the importance of spay/neuter of both owned and free-roaming cats in order to control severe cat overpopulation in the area.

Note: PO Boxes will not show correctly on the map below.