A stop on the way to their permanent home
We like to say that we are the least “shelter-like” shelter around. Our kitty residents are not kept in kennels (besides for quarantine or scent sharing). We have converted the space into many cat rooms that have cat scratchers, trees, ample bedding, climbing shelves, and catios! We have single cat rooms for those who like their space and multi-cat rooms for those who love lots of friends. While we care for the cats we want to ensure they feel at home.
History of the Halfway House:
The house that we purchased was built in 1951, contains 1,664 square feet, and is constructed of cinder blocks. Although the property is zoned as "commercial," the house itself is zoned as "residential." It has taken us four years to upgrade the entire premises to "commercial" and ADA (Americans with Disability Act) code at great expense to us.
We have:
Replaced the roof and torn down the fireplace and chimney,
Completed most of the plumbing and electrical work,
Relocated the front door and walled over the old one for ADA requirements,
Concreted a new entry to the front door,
Renovated the bathroom to accommodate a wheelchair, and widened the door, and
Installed a sidewalk and asphalt parking lot.
The parking lot/sidewalk project took four years to complete. We initially expected the mandatory project to cost about $50,000 but in the end it cost us around $200,000 which is a huge amount for a small cat shelter that survives on donations and the kindness of others.
As you can imagine, we are barely keeping pace with the rising expenses, and are still urgently seeking your support. Our tireless and dedicated volunteers have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in both readying our new Halfway House and restoring the old one to its original condition.
We would like to give a special thanks to Glen Aronson of Iron Gate Storage. He not only has been a sponsor or ours since 2009 but he was the one to encourage us to start a building fund to buy our own shelter. He started us off with $5,000 in the account and It took several more years to come up with the $100,000 we needed for a down payment on our shelter. Other major contributors have been Dr. Virginia Huang, Kathy Angelo Construction, the estate of Carol Williams, the estate of Robert Sandford and one very generous, anonymous donor. Not to mention the countless and deeply appreciated individual contributions that we continue to receive almost daily.
Since our founding in 1999, Furry Friends has moved three times. This move will be our last as we work to expand with our new medical building on the property.
