Stray Cat Blues: P.L.A.Y. Pet Beds Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The 2019 P.L.A.Y. Pet Beds grant provided us with 20 beds that are used in the cages and throughout the Whiskers Way Station shelter for a comfortable resting place for the cats and kittens.

See above.

How many pets did this grant help?

Currently about 15 shelter cats, but the shelter will continue to use them on new cats and kittens at the shelter.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

We often get cats who are pulled from Animal Care and Control (ACCT) in Philadelphia hours before being euthanized. These beds offer a comfortable place for these frightened kittens until they are adopted. In March, Stray Cat Blues was contacted by ACCT about several litters of tiny 2-week-old kittens who not only needed round-the-clock bottle feeding, but had badly infected eyes too. (ACCT doesn’t have the staff to bottle-feed overnight or provide long-term care.) It was obvious that some of the kittens had eyes that were beyond saving and that these babies would require lots of care, but one of our awesome fosters stepped right up and brought five of these tiny babies into Stray Cat Blues!

Simultaneously, we rescued two 6-week-old kittens, Bryce and Harper, from ACCT, who also had one badly infected eye each. We brought them into Stray Cat Blues’ Whiskers Way Station after a short stay in a foster home.