Save a Gato, Inc: Shelter+ Challenge Grant Report

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

The $1,000 received were used to buy food.

As we take care of over 500 cats in the Old San Juan area, one of the biggest challenge is to have enough money to buy all the food that is needed.

How many pets did this grant help?

Around 400

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

Our organization was founded over 10 years ago as a TNR organization to help keep control of the cat colonies that exist in the most touristy area of Puerto Rico: Old San Juan. Today, we not only work with the colonies in the San Juan area, but try to promote adoption of as many of our adoptable cats as possible. When we trap the cats to sterilize or neuter them, we keep them in “Casita,” Spanish for little or small house. The feral cats will go back to their colonies, where we will keep taking care of them, when they are better. The more adoptable ones are kept in “Casita” until they are big enough to be free or hopefully find their forever homes.

With so many cats under our care we spend around $400 a week to feed all of them. The money we received from this grant made that possible over a period of three weeks. We didn’t have to worry and could concentrate on having more cats adopted, which eventually led us to the opportunity to help new ones.