Town Cats - Making Donations

Town Cats is a registered nonprofit 501(c)(3), and monetary donations are 100% tax deductible.

See this flyer for Pet Food Express's Sponsor a Foster program! Town Cats will be the recipients of all donations given through both of the San Jose stores. Download and print out this flyer (in MS Word format) to donate directly through the store. And even if you donate in other areas, please shop at Pet Food Express and show your support!

Many thanks to Pet Food Express!

Who says “Age before beauty,” as if they are mutually exclusive? Don’t let the age fool you, these cats have as much spunk, playfulness, and love as those young whipper snappers, and so much more.

Cats can live to be 15 years, 20 years, sometimes more. At a no-kill shelter like Town Cats, we do not believe in ageism. In fact, we think senior cats (8 years or older) make wonderful companions. These mature pets come with stable and developed personalities. With a mature pet, you can see his or her fully-developed personality and find just the right fit for you. In addition, while young animals are adorable, they can be lots of work and require constant attention. Mature cats are less destructive and often love to cuddle and enjoy lap time as well as play.

It is said that shelter animals know they’re being given a second chance when they get adopted and are incredibly grateful, showing their gratitude with love and loyalty. We believe this is especially the case with mature cats who are looking for a loving human companion. If you’re looking for a great companion, consider adopting a kitty with a little silver in his or her fur.

If you aren't able to adopt one of these senior animals, please consider donating to the Senior Shelter Cat Residents Medical Care Fund. Some of these senior residents - if not adopted - will be with us the rest of their lives. As our residents age, they require special attention - physical exams, dentals, blood work and treatments for diabetes, hyperthyroidism, kidney disease etc. that is quite costly. To better care for our senior residents, we are seeking donations to cover the cost of their medical expenses.

Please consider sponsoring a senior resident by sending $25, $50 or $100 to Town Cats every month. You can even donate on line and choose a senior cat to sponsor and send donations on line via paypal (or of course, we will accept a check sent in the mail as well!). Please email us and let us know who you would like to sponsor and for how much, and how your sponsorship will arrive. Please note - you can sponsor a kitty in memory of a beloved pet, and/or you can choose to list your name or make it anonymous. Let us know what you'd prefer!

The survival rate of unweaned kittens separated from their mothers is very low, the younger the kitten is removed from its mother, the lower the chance of survival. Town Cats gets many pleas for help from the public and local municipal shelters to take in and raise unweaned kittens. We always recommend the finder keep the kittens with their mother for as long as possible, but sometimes people will stumble on a lone baby kitten or a litter of kittens who's mother has died or rejects the litter and who will not survive without human intervention.

Municipal shelters in our area contact us to take young kittens that they otherwise would end up killing upon arrival because they are not equipped to provide round the clock care for these babies. Without round the clock care the survival rate of unweaned kittens is very low. This is very costly in terms of the monetary, emotional and physical demands on our volunteers. The rewards of course far outweigh the costs and the volunteers who raise these babies are very special indeed and derive much satisfaction when their charges are adopted into forever homes! We need to support our volunteers who raise these babies and need your help! Every year we successfully raise more than 100 unweaned kittens, the youngest litter we raised and adopted out in 2007 was just 17 hours old when they arrived at our foster home. In 2007, many of the kittens also had to have extensive surgeries for prolapsed rectums and urethra repairs which cost us about $4,000. We are still short $2,300 to cover these surgeries (See Appeal for Donations to the 2007 Unweaned Kittens Fund, below).

For 2008, we need a minimum of $10,000 ($100 for 100 kittens) to get us through this year's kitten season. This is for Formula, Kitten Canned Food, Kitten Dry Food, Litter, Litterboxes, Toys, Bedding, Dewormers, Shampoos, Flea Powder and Flea Products, Vaccines, Spay/Neuter Surgeries and Testing for Leukemia/FIV.

Without your support, these kittens will die. Please donate to help them today! And best yet, tell your friends who are looking for a new pet for their family to contact us as we'll have kittens ready for adoption soon!

Sponsor a Foster Kitten Goal: $10,000
Amount Received (5/8/08): $6,300
Amount Still Needed: $3,700

The survival rate of unweaned kittens separated from their mothers is very low, the younger the kitten is removed from its mother, the lower the chance of suvival. Town Cats gets many pleas for help from the public to assist with caring for unweaned kittens. We always recommend the finder keep the kitten with its mother, but sometimes people will stumble on a lone baby kitten or a litter of kittens who's mother has died or rejects the litter and who will not survive without human intervention.

Every shelter in Santa Clara county will kill unweaned kittens immediately upon arrival. The reason is that they are not equipped to provide round the clock care for these babies and the survival is very low. Many times the municipal shelters will contact rescue groups to take the unweaned kittens and raise them. This is very costly however not to mention the emotional, physical and monetary drain on our volunteers and our budget. However this year we successfully raised many unweaned kittens, the youngest litter was just 17 hours old. However we did have to do a lot of expensive surgeries on these babies this year. We had to do urethra surgeries on 4 or the male kittens, two of these even required the surgery was done twice to repair them adequately. We also did a prolapsed rectum repair surgery on Java a darling girl kitten too. And we spent lots of time and money working on treating Gretchen's rectal problems too. We're happy to report they've all recovered and are available for adoption and some have been adopted already. We even had a kitten named Dino now named Hermes who was born with both male and female genitalia and we're very happy to report he's been adopted and is fine and thriving.

We are seeking donations to help pay for our medical costs which total $4,000 for all these unexpected surgeries we encountered in 2007. Here's a list with pictures of our baby kittens who cost us lots of money this past year!

GOAL of the 2007 Unweaned Kittens Fund: $4,000
Donated as of 11/8/2007: $1,700
Amount still needed: $2,300
If Paypal doesn't allow you to indicate which fund you are donating to, please send us an email and let us know!

Check out pictures of Faith, our first pre-wean of 2008 (as of February 28, 2008)!

In late 2006/early 2007, Town Cats worked on a project involving 70+ cats at an elderly couple's home in Los Gatos. The cats have been rescued and are ready for adoption, they need permanent loving homes. Many of the cats are seniors and will probably live out their lives with Town Cats. Town Cats took in 22 of the cats and other groups took in 32 cats.

Town Cats received a phone call early November 2006 from a city of San Jose animal control officer (the city of SJ also contracts with city of Los Gatos to provide their animal control services) requesting we help an elderly couple in Los Gatos who are in failing health (sadly, the husband passed away early March) to find homes for the cats they had taken in over the years. Needless to say, the cat population in the home had gotten way out of control, initially we thought there were 42 cats, but actually they had more then 70. We knew there were way too many cats for us to deal with alone, so we contacted Best Friends in Utah to put out an alert to all the rescue groups and no kill shelters to help with this project to save the cats. Luckily other local rescue groups and groups far away responded and helped.

They are mostly calicos or Siamese mixes, lots of blue eyes. They needed medical attention immediately for upper respiratory and dental work then the basic physical exam, testing, vaccinations, spay/neuter, deworm, deflea which Town Cats will do prior to sending any of the cats to foster homes.

Five of the kitties who are STILL looking for homes (we have others, email and ask about the "Los Gatos Cats":

Angel - this girl was found outside of the shelter with a shattered leg. Hit by a car? Abused and abandoned? We'll never know. Her leg had to be removed, and it cost $800. (Angel's adoption profile) We have now received all $800 - thank you! We are raising the goal for $5,000 on behalf of her and others who have gone through similar medical issues. We are constantly getting cats in who are going through some sort of rehabilitative surgery (tail removal, eye removal, etc.). And - Angel has now been adopted!!

Angel's GOAL: $5,000
Donated as of 2/18/2008: $2,250
Amount still needed: $2,750

Big Boy's Memorial Fund - Big Boy was taken by us from a request from New Orleans shelters. Upon arrival he became ill with fatty liver syndrome. The costs to treat him cost upwards of $1,500. Unfortunately, Big Boy did not make it; cats survive fatty liver syndrome about 60% of the time. We are seeking donations to cover his bills, and other medical bills for similar situations as the one Big Boy went through. (Big Boy's memorial)

Big Boy's Memorial Fund GOAL: $1,500
Donated as of 7/17/2007: $1,500
Amount still needed: $0

Luigi's Fund! - A teacher found a very nice black and white kitty lying there at a school in San Jose, apparently hit by a car and she called around to all the rescue groups and got hold of us so we had her rush him to our vet. They were able to perform surgery to repair his leg, they gave us a reduced rate of just $1,300 total including all tests, etc. They said it normally would have cost about $3,000 for same work. Luigi is a very nice, friendly boy and is recovering quickly and will be up for adoption. He will have full use of his leg. Thank you for your help by sending donations, or we aren't able to continue helping cats like Luigi.

Luigi's Fund GOAL: $1,300
Donated as of 5/28/2007: $1,300
Amount still needed: $0

Note: Luigi's fund is now paid up AND this lovely boy found a home! He is a wonderful success story, and an example of why we make these special requests...

Town Cats is participating in a renewed national effort to re-home cats and dogs still left homeless in New Orleans after Katrina! Click here for the original details (.pdf).... Five of the cats are up on the website (and four have now been adopted already!). One, sadly, didn't survive the relocation (see Big Boy's story, above, under Special Donations Appeal):

The Every Nine Seconds Campaign - "The Every Nine Seconds Campaign aims to save lives and reduce that number in 2005. We are donating copies of our award-winning book, One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter, to 1,000 animal shelters to help them educate their communities and create change for these innocent animals." From the Every Nine Seconds website, you may "adopt a shelter" in honor of a beloved animal - for free - and send a copy of their book. If you wish to honor Town Cats in this way, the information is at the top of the page, and we thank you!!

-- AUGUST 26, 2005: Town Cats is conducting a special Fundraising drive to provide microchipping to each and every cat adopted out! Each microchip costs $4.75 for Town Cats to acquire. We would like to start off with the goal of raising money for enough chips for 500 cats, about half of what we can adopt out in a year.

To make donations specifically for this goal, please mark your donation "Microchipping Fundraising." The kitties thank you for your help!

-- In addition to these requests, Town Cats has many emergency medical procedures it has had to perform on various cats recently, and will continue to do so when needed.

For example:

Town Cats pulled Nelson, a very sweet cat, out of the Los Banos shelter and he was adopted immediately due to his wonderful personality. His adopter noticed he was limping and we had X-Rays done and he needed $1,200 worth of surgery to correct his problem. Since his adopter hadn't bargained for this (although neither had we), Town Cats paid the medical bill. We are seeking donations to help cover the cost of his surgery now.

In July 2005, a Gilroy Petsmart employee found a group of teenaged boys with a knife, holding a bloody screaming kitten. She managed to rescue the kitten, and contacted Town Cats to see if we could assist with the medical bills. The kitten's tail needed to be amputated, and ended up costing over $800. He is doing fine, is still a happy friendly loving kitten, was renamed Hancock and adopted out. We sought donations to assist in covering these medical bills. Thanks to your help, we raised the entire amount by the end of December, 2005!

Other procedures we have had to perform recently:

Patty - Fatty Liver Syndrome - $1,500
Ginger - Eye Surgery - $800

Other Procedures that Often Need to be Performed:

Limb & Tail Removals - $1,500 (in emergencies, of course)
Dentals - $400 (we do MANY dentals on the kitties)

To make a specific donation to the Town Cats medical fund, or to go towards any of the procedures mentioned above, please specify "General Medical Fund" on your check or in your donation, or specify the procedure type for your donation to go to. None of the costs listed above will end up being charged to the adopters, so we need to be able to count on donations to help our cats be healthy!

- We at Town Cats were overwhelmed with surprise when we received an email from the family who just adopted Paris from us (they also adopted Snoopy from us a few months ago as well)...They saw on our website that we need a microscope to do our own fecal analysis which will save immensely on our vet bills; so were we even more shocked when the microscope showed up at TC! Thank you so much!

Town Cats is very happy to work with Pet Smart Charities who donated monies for our spay neuter fund for strays, ferals and pet cats of low income people. We wouldn't be able to accomplish the hundreds of spay neuters we do each year without their help. Thank you!

Petco Los Gatos, Petco Santa Clara and Petco Sunnyvale raise funds for Town Cats raise funds for Town Cats all year long - we are so grateful! A big thank you to all who help! Petco's Spring 2005 'Spring A Pet' Campaign article.

A big paws up to Girl Scout Troop 490

- Town Cats is very pleased to be the grateful recipients of food and supplies received from Girl Scout Troop 490! These generous girls visited our adoption fair and socialized with the cats and thoroughly surprised us all with 60 cans of cat food, 10 bags or boxes of dry cat food, catnip, cat treats, cat toys, cat grooming supplies, 8 bags of cat litter, 2 cat self feeders amongst other items such as blankets too! Thank you so much!

HOW TO MAKE A DONATION

Monetary donations are always accepted and go directly toward our bills for food, water, litter, supplies, and vet bills. Veterinary bills account for nearly 80% of our operating costs, and many of the cats we treat, such as ferals, prewean bottle fed babies, older adults, and injured cats, will never receive as much money in adoption fees as they require in vet care. Since all funds go into one large pool from which all cats are treated, your donations help offset the costs of these disadvantaged kitties, and enable us to provide care to a greater number of cats.

Town Cats is a registered nonprofit 501(c)(3), and monetary donations are 100% tax deductible. Donations by check can be mailed to Town Cats at:

And donations by major credit cards can be made online by using the PayPal link below:

Thank you for supporting Town Cats during the last several years. Summer is always an especially challenging time due to seasonal epidemics of panleukopenia, also known as feline distemper. Our incoming kittens, many feral, are often especially hard hit. Quite a few kittens who receive costly "life support" treatment -- IV, catheter, constant monitoring at the vet's office -- are able to survive the virus and can grow up to become healthy and vaccinated.

So that you can get a better idea of what monetary donations can accomplish, we've outlined some common charges here. Any amount is very much appreciated, and making a donation of an amount that covers one of these items can give you an even greater sense of having made a difference in these animals' lives.

We also have a wish list for donated items. Any of these items may be dropped off at the donation bins in the Pet Food Express stores in San Jose, Santa Clara and Los Gatos, or you may call (408) 779-5761 to arrange to drop off larger items. All the volunteers at Town Cats, and all the cats that we help, thank you.