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Henry County animal shelter unveils heartwarming cat adoption space
All God’s Creatures celebrates its newly renovated cat adoption space, providing a loving, reduced-stress haven for cats and a positive experience for visitors.
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT — Walking into All God’s Creatures, the only animal shelter in Henry County, guests are usually greeted by a couple of friendly office cats, two barrels containing cat and dog food for those in need, and a staff member like Director Emily Davis.
Whether people visit the shelter in hopes of finding a new cat to add to their family, drop off donations, or volunteer, they are welcome to visit with the cats in the new adoption space made possible by All God’s Creatures capital campaign fundraising, other grants, and large donations from people in the community.
According to Davis, when the animal shelter first moved into their space at 2205 East Washington St. the floors were covered in carpet and glue. So, the over $300,000 in renovations started with tearing up the floor and sealing it.
“The whole building needed renovated,” Davis said.
The renovations also included installing enclosures and adding walls, tall kennel panels, and ceiling tile clips. The tile clips were installed after some clever cats learned how to climb on top of the enclosures, lift the ceiling tiles and adventure through the ceiling. One of the final bits of the renovation included adding a room specifically for new cats.
When entering the cat adoption space, it is common for numerous cats to enthusiastically welcome guests right at the door as they roam in a large space filled with cat beds, trees, toys, and boxes.
“I love it,” All God’s Creatures volunteer and Mt. Pleasant Community School District student Zoey Carlsen said. “They just all come rushing and it is really heartwarming.”
In fact, spending time in this space is exactly what began a potential new adoption story for a fluffy white and gray kitten named Fruit Loop.
According to Davis, Carlsen recently made a presentation for her mother explaining why she should be allowed to bring Fruit Loop home.
As of Friday, Jan. 17 it sounded like it might have worked and Carlsen can’t wait to get her cat home. Until then, she happily visits every day and says she will come back to volunteer even after bringing him home.
The space contains three large enclosures to separate cats as needed, such as after procedures, or when they don’t get along. Davis says all the groups of cats get opportunities to explore the bigger space and play throughout the day.
Just off the main section of the cat adoption space are two rooms. One room was recently completed thanks to a $10,000 grant received from Enhance Henry County Foundation. This room contains enclosures with adaptable sizes for new cats not ready for the adoption floor or needing extra space.
“This gives people the opportunity to see the cats and adopt them even before they’re ready to come out into the actual adoption room,” Davis said.
The other room, which Davis calls the “Sunshine Room” offers a smaller version of the open space and is sometimes used to contain potential sicknesses or separate larger groups of cats. This room holds multiple comfy chairs, large windows, toys, and cat trees.
At the entrance of this room is a vestibule with floor to ceiling kennel panels which Davis says, “allows the cats to still each other and we can still have the sunshine coming in.”
When deciding how to design this space, Davis explained how they couldn’t imagine a traditional animal shelter adoption room filled with cages.
“When we were foster based, we would occasionally have cats in the building, and they would stay here for a few weeks until we could find a new foster home, or whatever the case may be, and we got so used to having the cats loose that it just felt really awful to put them back in cages,” she explained.
“We don’t want to be a sad shelter,” Davis said. “We want our cats to be happy here as they wait for their homes and we want people coming in to not feel that depressing weight of, ‘Oh man, look at this one.’ We want it to be as happy and therapeutic for both pes and people as possible.”
Eleven-year-old LilyAnn Ward said she was expecting the cat space to have a bunch of boxes around the room, but was pleasantly surprised when she walked in.
“This is much better for cats,” Ward said. “They seem much happier.”
She explained that when she walked into the room, she felt a very happy sense of “Cat cuteness overload.”
According to Davis, Ward’s reaction is not far from the norm.
“People are surprised that all the cats are loose,” Davis said. “People love coming in and just sitting down. We have a few volunteers that just come sit and give the cats all their love. So, it’s usually a pretty positive reaction.”
All God’s Creatures can hold approximately 45 cats in the adoption space at any given time.
As much as Davis enjoys walking to a room filled with friendly cats, she really enjoys seeing them meet their new families and go home.
Davis shared a story about Lilo, a male cat that was simply overstimulated in the animal shelter.
“He was having anxiety attacks all the time and we didn’t know if he would need to be more like a barn cat or an indoor/outdoor cat and do his own thing,” she said. “He needed his own space. He needed an adopter that was patient with him, and we just didn’t know if we were going to find that.”
She shared that every time they would set up a cardboard enclosure for another cat to go home in, Lilo would jump in.
Much to Davis’s delight a volunteer that was building dog enclosures, All God’s Creatures hopes to begin accepting dogs this year, told her that he needed a shop cat.
“So Lilo went home with him and he is doing great,” Davis shared. “He gets up on his lap and he has all the freedom in the world to be himself, which is amazing, because he just needed someone who could understand his quirks and kind of love him for who he is. He is very entertaining and gets into a lot and he’s very chaotic.”
While this new cat adoption space offers a nice waiting place for many cats, Davis says they still use their foster program. This program is beneficial for kittens not yet weened or in need of socialization.
As All God’s Creatures continues to seek after ways to best serve the Henry County community by caring for strays and owner surrenders, they also like to reach out by pairing cats with senior citizen outreaches and welcoming volunteers in. Additionally, AGC provides a Trap Neuter Release program in partnership with local veterinarians.
While they do provide TNR, Davis says she is not certain if they will take on the contact with the city and county which will need a new provider beginning March 1.
“We want to be here for the for the city and the county and all the animals, but I I'm not sure where that's going to go because we haven’t connected with them about that yet,” she explained.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities, how to donate, and see the space for yourself, visit All God’s Creatures on Feb. 15 for their grand opening.
To view adoptable animals visit https://agcshelter.org/adopt-1
To become a volunteer check out https://pointapp.org/orgs/5003
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
