Enterprising Wenatchee Woman Spearheads Cat Adoption Drive

A local woman is raising funds to ease the despair of neglected and unhoused cats.

Sahrada Wellborn, of Wenatchee, is a gumshoe cat detective but not entirely by choice. She was disturbed by anonymous reports on a community Facebook page of ownerless felines who'd self-organized into a living "colony" near Northern Fruit in East Wenatchee. (There are other cat colonies in the area; the scale of the problem locally is more dramatic than one might think.) Wellborn felt it was incumbent on her to do something.

"I went down there and saw it for myself," Wellborn says. "It broke my heart. I reached out to Cami [Life], who runs the kitty rescue here in town; she voiced to me that she was just filled to the brim with other cats waiting to be fixed and adopted."

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With Life paralyzed by overflowing demand, unable to accept incoming cats, Wellborn took up temporary guardianship of two of the kitties (she has since captured two more). Both are mortifyingly young, too young for the rough-and-ready outdoors. One has an eye infection and respiratory ailments.

The goal, Wellborn says, is to get these cats fostered. They also need veterinary attention: "Every one of them that I've caught has a medical issue of some sort. So we have to get them looked at."

Some are slightly manic or unruly or disputatious, but in general the cats are "far from feral - they're very loving. They're scared, but nonetheless they'll let me pet and touch. The likelihood of them being adopted is very high with the temperament they have."

So far Wellborn has raised $3,000 for the vaccination, deworming and rehousing of the cats. Wellborn says this has been cleared through the official channels.

"I've reached out directly to the director of the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society," she says. "I've also spoken to the vet down at the Humane Society. I'll actually be going down there to show my face and give them the rundown."

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