OUR MISSION
Cat’s Cradle’s mission is to ensure and maintain a safe, compassionate community for cats in the Shenandoah Valley.
We do this by facilitating and promoting spay/neuter and Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR), conducting foster-based rescue and adoption from local shelters, and providing pet retention and rehoming programs. Our intent is to steadily decrease the intake of cats and kittens at local shelters and to ultimately end the euthanasia of healthy adoptable pets in the communities we serve.
OUR PROGRAMS
Our service area includes the following three counties in Virginia: Augusta, Page, and Rockingham.
We provide the following services for cats and kittens:
- Spay/Neuter assistance for low-income citizens
- TNR (Trap, Neuter Return) assistance for feral cat colony care-takers
- Intake from partnering shelters for foster and adoption
- Pet retention and rehoming assistance
SCOPE & TRANSPARENCY
We invite you to learn more about us as we continue our mission. Our EIN is 20-3269224 and we are listed in Guidestar, where you can view our IRS Tax Filings (Form990) from the past several years. Our Financial Statements are always available upon request. Our most recent IRS tax filing is available here.
You can view the intake and outcome statistics for Cat’s Cradle for the past few years on our website. You can also search intake and outcome statistics for Cat’s Cradle for other years and compare animal intake and outcome of various agencies across Virginia at the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). This agency posts information from animal shelters and rescues all across the state by year. You may search for an individual agency and a particular year here.
CAT’S CRADLE’S HISTORY
Our History
Cat’s Cradle was founded in 1998 by Pat Rossi, who was determined to create no-kill solutions for stray cats. Working with local veterinarians, she offered low-cost sterilization and vaccines to anyone willing to care for a stray cat.
As the organization grew, so did its impact. While we had great success with fostering and adoption, the number of cats being euthanized in shelters — especially feral or unadoptable cats — continued to rise. Colonies of free-roaming cats were often trapped and euthanized in bulk at the request of business owners or concerned citizens.
In 2001, our board recognized that spay/neuter and TNR were the most effective strategies to address the root of the problem: overpopulation. No other local organization was focused on this need at the time. Since helping establish the area’s first low-cost spay/neuter clinic in 2005, we’ve focused aggressively on high-impact, targeted sterilization efforts. We know that we cannot "adopt our way out" of shelter overpopulation — we must reduce intake at the source.
Our Programs & Impact
Incorporated and granted 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in 2005, Cat’s Cradle has grown significantly thanks to the tireless work of our volunteers, dedicated staff of nine (four full-time, five part-time). In 2022, we hired our first full-time Executive Director, made possible by a generous restricted endowment gift received in 2021.
Annual Impact Highlights:
- 3,925 cats sterilized through our spay/neuter and TNR programs (1,430 were TNR).
- 10,000+ assistance calls fielded per year.
- 127 families assisted through our pet retention program, which provided $19,560 in medical and behavioral support to prevent surrender.
- Hundreds of adoptions annually through our foster network, with support from PetSmart Charities and in-store adoption events.
- Rehoming support for cat owners or finders who, despite their best efforts, cannot keep a cat — preventing shelter surrenders.
Our Commitment
As we celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2023, our mission remains the same: to humanely reduce the cat population, prevent shelter intake and euthanasia, and support our community through education, outreach, and compassionate care. We believe every cat deserves a chance — and every family deserves the support to do what’s right for their pets.