Inside the Comfie Cat Shelter, Barb MacLeod holds Chanel, a sharp-eyed tabby whose growls quickly turn to purrs with each scratch of her ears.
The cat was severely injured when she turned up at the shelter — her tail is completely gone. As MacLeod puts it: “She had about a 40 per cent chance of living.”
Chanel is one of the more than 300 cats who’ve been dropped off at the shelter’s doors or rescued this year alone. They’re all treated, cared for and adopted out through a 100 per cent donation-based system.
But with pandemic restrictions cutting off their primary source of funding, the Comfie Cat Shelter is in grave danger of closing.
“It’s at the point where we have to get some assistance or the shelter will probably close,” MacLeod told OrilliaMatters, sitting next to a team of volunteers who help her run the facility.
Besides spaying and neutering as many cats as they can, felines like Chanel need surgeries and expensive medicine to stay healthy.
That equals thousands of dollars per month, and most years the shelter covers those bills with around $50,000 in donations.
This year, however, with brunches, teas, garage sales and more made impossible, the shelter is around $6,000 “in the red,” said MacLeod.
Despite the dire funding situation, MacLeod and the group of volunteers are clear: it’s work they’re passionate about.
They joke about cats who’ve had spunky personalities, reminisce about a particularly cute trio of brothers who were adopted and tell their own stories of cats who’ve been more like family.
“We all love cats,” Linda May, a longtime volunteer, says to murmurs of agreement, “so it’s easy to come in and look after them, it really is.”
The shelter currently has 24 volunteers, from teens to seniors — but they’re looking for more to join their team.
“We all get along, we all help each other out,” said Candice Demers, a more recent addition to the team.
Brenda Bird agreed: “We never say ‘oh that’s not my job.’”
Besides the regular tasks of caring for animals — MacLeod is there seven days a week — it’s also emotionally draining.
“We’ve had some very seriously injured animals,” MacLeod said. “It hurts.”
Her own cat, who arrived with her when she started the shelter in 2004, died on Tuesday.
“It takes its toll,” she said, her eyes red behind a floral face mask.
Inside each room of the low-slung shelter, just off West Street South, cats sleep on cushions or drape themselves over carpeted towers above spotless tile floors.
Keeping their rooms tidy, and keeping the cats happy and healthy requires a team of committed volunteers and a massive veterinarian budget.
They say they’ve gotten less than $1,000 in funding from the City of Orillia in the 15 years the shelter has been operating.
Luckily, said MacLeod, their dinner and silent auction is still possible with physical distancing protocols in place. So far, they’ve sold more than half their tickets with more than a month to go until the event. It’s key to keeping their doors open, MacLeod said.
“If it doesn’t happen, we’re really in trouble.”
Other local businesses have stepped in to fill funding gaps: MacLeod says Wes Brennan Construction and others have contributed funds, helped with repair costs and vet bills.
Out amongst the cats, financial troubles fade into the background. Volunteers call to cats by name and soon the main floor of the shelter is filled with chatter and behind-a-mask chuckles as cats are picked up, talked to and cleaned.
“The bottom line is,” said MacLeod, “we’re here for the animals, it’s as simple as that.”
To find out more about volunteering at the shelter, adopting a cat or donating, you can visit them online or call (705) 326-1545. Registration for their upcoming fundraising dinner will be open soon.
