Ben Madilynn
ANDERSON, Calif. — Stillwater Cat Haven in Anderson is out of money. It’s now subsisting solely on donations and the elderly owners’ social security payments. Without help, they say there’s little more they can do to keep the doors open, and the animals fed.
“They’re flat broke,” says Christine Stromer. “Like we don’t even know how we’re gonna feed all these cats in two weeks.”
Stromer heads the staff that helps Don and Joan Neptune with the over one hundred cats on the property, along with helping them with the work they do to trap, neuter, and release cats through the community.
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“We’ve trapped in downtown Anderson,” says Don Neptune. “We’ve trapped, you know, behind Rite Aid in Anderson, we’ve been in Redding. We did a hundred cat colony.“
Don and his wife Joan Neptune are 83 years old. They started the rescue using their personal savings, and have had to dip into it a lot over the last two decades to keep it running. Now after helping thousands of cats get neutered and find homes, the Neptunes have used everything they had.
“We’re down to the limitations, we’re left with social security income, period,” says Don. “And there’s not much that we have that we can go after for, for additional funding.“
He says the vast majority of funding goes to vet bills, food, and litter. Sharing that they handle the majority of TNR efforts in the community, claiming almost every day they’ve run into someone who was turned away by an overburdened Haven Humane. Neptune says they have a hard time saying no to helping someone, or some cat in need. Yet the cost of spays is skyrocketing. Going from an annual cost of about $140,000 to almost $400,000.
I’m ready to donate an organ to somebody who’s got money that’s willing to support Stillwater
Don laughs, with tears in his eyes. At 83, he is unsure of where his life is going next.
What is certain is that with the last of their surplus funds gone their TNR program is over. Which they say will be a problem for the community as the local colonies they were managing explode at an even faster rate. A woman who identifies herself as Carol McAlwaysright has been doing the majority of trapping for the rescue. She says it will be devastating, especially for areas like Anderson River Park, where she does most of her work.
“In the last four months I have taken out of that park eighty cats and kittens,” she says. “Abandoned cats and kittens. I caught someone abandoning them. Abandoning a box of six kittens with a mama cat.“
Don says to survive they need a large influx of cash, and he’s been crossing his fingers a benevolent business will toss them a good chunk of money for a tax write-off. Besides that, they say all they can do is make sure the cats are fed. Stromer says even that’s a stretch.
“I worry that if something were to happen to Don and Joan that [the cats] would all just be put down,” she says. “That, that’s the realization we’re coming to, that if we don’t place them they could be in real trouble.“
You can donate directly to the Stillwater Cat Haven through their GoFundMe, and follow along their journey to see future ways you can support on their social media.
