Exploring The World of Animal Shelters: An Inside Look At Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats

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An interview with Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats From Black Mountain, North Carolina

Introducing Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats

I am the co-founder and president of Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats. Although I have some volunteer help, I fulfill the majority of the roles in the organization including foster recruiter, adoption coordinator, supply requisitioner, development coordinator, promoter, etc.

How Did The Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats Started? What Are The Challenges Encountered Along The Way?

Although I have had four other careers in my lifetime that did not involve working with animals, over the course of many years I have volunteered with rescue organizations, working exclusively with cats. I have felt a special bond with cats my entire life and wanted to play a part in helping shelter cats find good homes.

Probably thirty years ago, I caught a news story about a cat sanctuary somewhere up north that took in cats whose owners had died. I don’t remember the name of the sanctuary, but it was in the woods and had onsite caregivers. I remember thinking that would be my ideal job! I buried that memory for many years as I went on to work in a few different careers.

In 2017, I started a cat sitting business and had the feeling that it was not to be my final career, but a “resting place” until I figured out what my next move would be. In 2019, I had a vision of starting a cat sanctuary designed for senior cats. The vision was to take in cats whose owners have died or had to move to facilities that would not allow them to bring their animals. The vision was also to pull senior cats out of local shelters as we had the capacity.

I recruited two friends to brainstorm and research if starting a senior cat rescue was “doable” and after interviewing a couple of other shelter founders/directors, we determined it was a crazy idea that would entail a whole lot of work, but we moved forward anyway. In late 2019, we filed for 501(c)(3) status and received it in early 2020, right before the country shut down due to the COVID pandemic.

In 2020, we took in one cat, 18-year-old Cimmy, who died of cancer eight weeks after we took him in. In 2021, we adopted out nine senior cats, placed seven senior cats in sanctuary homes, and pulled six senior cats from the Henderson County Animal Shelter. In 2022, we adopted out thirty-four senior cats, placed an additional seven cats in sanctuary homes, and pulled eleven senior cats from local animal shelters. In the first quarter of 2023, we have adopted out twenty-two senior cats.

In 2021, we contracted with Architect Alice Dodson to work on a preliminary design of our dream sanctuary. In 2022, we were able to purchase 5.5 acres of land in Marion where our future sanctuary will be located. We have not yet launched a capital campaign to raise the funds for the sanctuary. We are looking for a volunteer who has experience in launching and running capital campaigns and working on building our donor base that will be needed to support a physical facility. At present, we remain a foster-based organization.

Tell Us About The Most “Unusual” Animal That Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats Has Ever Taken.

We exclusively take in senior cats. We did have to trap an unseen cat in a mobile home. Please see Cody’s story in the attached 2022 Highlights document

Tell Us About The Most Unique And Creative Fundraising Campaigns Your Rescue Has Done.

We haven’t had a lot of fundraising campaigns in our short existence. We have an annual winter mail campaign, $5 Friday FB campaigns, and we ran a quilt raffle during the 2022 Tailgate Market season.

Tell Us About The Most Rewarding Part of Running An Animal Shelter.

Being able to save cats that otherwise would have been euthanized or died on the streets, and also giving peace of mind to the people who have to surrender their cats due to having to move to a place where they could not take their animals or, in a couple of cases, because the people were dying and making end-of-life arrangements.

What Do You Think Might Be The Greatest Challenge of Running An Animal Rescue?

Not being able to save all the cats we have requests to take in because we don’t have enough homes available. Also, the constant fundraising necessary to provide quality care for senior cats.

Meet The Team of Laps and Naps Home For Senior Cats

Co-Founder and President, Nancy Gavin, is from Baltimore and moved to Black Mountain, NC with her husband, Mike, and four cats in 2015.

With Master’s degree in Education from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and a Master’s in Church Ministries from the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary, Nancy has had a few careers. She worked in desktop publishing in the corporate world and as a Director of Education, Director of Church Ministries and Director of a food pantry in the nonprofit world. Volunteer experience includes garden therapy with the elderly, hospice work and many years working with cats for animal rescues. She is currently sole proprietor of Cat Caterer cat sitting business and finds joy in growing and using medicinal herbs and foraging for wild foods.

Nancy looks forward to helping build Laps and Naps from the initial idea to the wonderful senior cat sanctuary it will become.

Co-Founder and former Secretary, Pamela Havens, is a native of Los Angeles Calif. She retired to Asheville in 2016 after 37 years working as a Motion Picture Costumer. Pam studied fashion at the Otis Parsons Institute in Los Angeles and began her career at Western Costume Company in 1979, later leaving Western to work at Universal Studios. Pam worked as a Costumer primarily on episodic TV at Universal including: Murder She Wrote, Knight Rider, and Simon & Simon. Work elsewhere includes six seasons on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Criminal Minds and finishing up with Modern Family. While at work in the industry, Pam volunteered and supported Actors and Others for Animals throughout her career.

Co-Founder and Board Member At Large, Tina Kannapel, is a retired national program manager and artist who has been fascinated by cats all her life.  She has lived with, and loved, cats for 46+ years.  Tina and her cats (Jackson, Luna, and Cooper) settled in Black Mountain, NC in 2017.  When approached to help establish Laps and Naps for Senior Cats, she agreed as everyone should have the option of a good home for their senior cats when they can no longer care for them.

A North Carolina native, Dr. Laurin Cooke earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University, with majors in Psychology and Biological Anthropology and Anatomy and a Certificate in Primatology. After a fascinating adventure teaching kids about animals in zoological parks, she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian. She graduated from NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine in 1998. Since then, she has become an avid student of truth in medicine, natural therapies, and nutrition. Dr. Laurin is a trained and certified laser therapy practitioner. In addition to her conventional medicine degree, she completed Dr. Richard Pitcairn’s Professional Course in Veterinary Homeopathy in 2008. She holds professional memberships in the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy, and the Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association. She owns a comfort care mobile practice in the Asheville area, is Associate Editor of Innovative Veterinary Care Journal, and serves as a copy editor for the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association.

Tell Us More About The Volunteers in Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats

Pamela Havens is a co-founder and served as our first Board secretary until moving to New Haven, CT. Pam could always be counted on to work tabling events and she would be the first person at an event to scope out our location and direct us to the prime unloading spot. As a former costume supervisor in Hollywood, Pam was also adamant that our table runner needed to be pressed and she took charge of its care. Pam was a former cat sitting client of mine who became a friend and agreed to help launch Laps and Naps. We miss Pam!

Eva Marie Cruz-Schultz serves as our animal care coordinator as she has the time, and she has been especially instrumental in increasing our presence and following on FaceBook and starting the $5 Friday campaigns, which have been a tremendous help. Eva has been involved in animal welfare for a number of years and once had her own rescue.

Lisa Davis is our new Board secretary and she is instrumental in building our presence on Instagram. She had the idea of a quarterly newsletter and will be working with a new volunteer to help that idea come to fruition.

Tell Us More About The Animals In Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats

Most of the cats we receive are owner surrenders. While our main focus is on taking in cats whose owners have died or have gone into care facilities, we receive far too many requests to take in cats because they are no longer “convenient” to the current life circumstances of the owners. It is both a heartbreaking and frustrating reality, but we know the owners have already made up their minds by the time they contact us and we take the cats if we can, but we don’t have the capacity to take them all. We also pull senior cats from area shelters as we have the capacity.

When we hear of cats in need of rehoming or rescue, we try to get the pictures and stories and post them to social media. If someone steps forward with an offer to help, we have them complete a foster application if we don’t have one on file for them, and we check references and do home visits or request video walk-throughs of the home as part of the foster/adopter approval process. Once approved, we have the owner of the cat complete a Surrender Contract and make arrangements to move the cat to the foster home. We try to get the owners to provide medical records and update vaccinations before taking the cats, but if that’s not possible, we take the cats to the vet for updated vaccinations and senior panels. When pulling from local shelters, we sign paperwork the shelter has for transfer of guardianship to Laps and Naps.

The cats stay in foster care until we are able to find a permanent home for them, which can take some time for our senior cats.

What Are The Busiest Periods And How Does Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats Cope?

Unlike rescues who take in animals of all ages, we don’t have a “season”. People give up senior cats during every month of the year.

What Animals Does Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats Focus On?

We are exclusively a senior cat rescue. When we started, we said we would take in cats aged 10 and over. Then a couple of 9-year-olds slipped in, an 8-year-old slipped in, and somehow we also received a 7-year-old. Someone needs to a start a rescue for middle-aged cats! We really try to limit our intake to cats aged 9 and over.

We started a senior cat rescue because those are the cats that are passed over in shelters and most likely to be euthanized. It is challenging because the vet expenses are high due to the need for senior wellness panels and roughly a third of our cats are on some type of medication and some are on special diets. People who are interested in adopting a senior cat may come to us first, but they still don’t “move” as quickly as younger cats. Also, we don’t have adoption events that we take our cats out to because we don’t want to stress them out so people don’t see our cats live and in person. We do have posters of our adoptable cats that we display at tabling events.

The rewards come from providing a good life to cats who still have a lot of love to give, even though their time with us may be short. We have had cats who only lived a few weeks or months after taking them in, but they were well-cared for in a safe home during that time, and they made their transition knowing they were loved and valued.

Working With The Local Community

Some of the local rescues and animal shelters will direct people to us if they have senior cats to surrender because we are the senior cat rescue. We also direct people to other rescues who are looking to surrender or adopt younger cats. We will also cross-post cats from shelters and rescues on our social media pages if asked to do so.

Four Seasons Hospice is aware of us and we helped rehome the cat of a dying woman after being contacted by a Four Seasons social worker. The story of Puff is in the 2022 Highlights document which will be attached to the email.

Tell Us More About Your Events

We will have a table at the ACW party at Sweeten Creek Brewing on June 3, a table at the Black Mountain Tailgate Market on June 10, June 17, July 15, July 22, August 12, August 26, September 9, September 23, October 7, October 21. We will have an outdoor tent at a community yard sale on June 24, 5749 Howard’s Gap Road, Flat Rock, NC.

Supporters can like and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If they wish to be added to our mailing list for the upcoming newsletter and mail campaign, they can email their name and address to [email protected].

Programs And Services That Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats Offers.

We have a Sanctuary Home program that is a cross between an adoption and a foster. It is designed for people with limited income who would adopt a senior cat except for the expense of caring for a senior cat. The cats in the Sanctuary Home program are still under the guardianship of Laps and Naps and we cover medical expenses, but the cats are no longer on the adoption list and remain in the same home as long as the cat and the people are all happy with one another. The cats who qualify for sanctuary homes are typically our older and less adoptable cats, and our bonded pairs. We don’t believe in breaking up bonded pairs.

We also have cats with terminal conditions who are receiving palliative care until the end of their natural lives. If we can no longer manage a good QOL, they are euthanized, preferably at home by a mobile vet such as 4 Paws Farewell.

How Was Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats Adapted To The Challenges Presented By The Pandemic?

We received our 501(c)(3) status right before the country shut down so not much happened in 2020, other than placing 18-year-old Cimmy in a sanctuary home where he died of a mass in his lungs eight weeks after placement. We consider 2021 to be our first “real” year in business. As a foster-based organization that doesn’t take our cats out to adoption events, the pandemic didn’t affect us as much as it did other rescues and shelters. When approving fosters and adopters, we abided by safe practices.

Share With Us Some Of The Heartwarming Stories Of Animals Rehabilitated And Rehomed By Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats.

2021 Highlights

Gabby’s beloved human was in Hospice care and 18-year-old Gabby was being kept in a dog crate by overwhelmed family members due to “litter box issues”. Gabby now has free range of an apartment in her sanctuary home and all the lap time her heart desires! True to her name, she is quite chatty!

Wally, age 15, was surrendered to Laps and Naps when his elderly human could no longer provide proper care for him. He was anemic due to fleas and had an unkempt coat and raggedy ears. Wally has undergone an amazing transformation under the care of his sanctuary home provider who considers him to be “a gift from God”. He even accompanies her as she performs her daily exercises!

Macy, Rissy and Mocha were rescued by Henderson County Animal Services from a home where they and other cats were living in cages without litter boxes. These three girls, 13-years-old, were sharing a cage. Laps and Naps pulled them from the shelter in September 2021 and all three were adopted by the same person. They now have free range of a home and plenty of love and attention!

2022 Highlights

Holli, age 15, was left alone in a house for three months after her person went into a Hospice facility. She was covered in fleas, anemic, what fur she had left was severely matted, she had an ear infection, an injured tail with a necrotic tip, and chronic diarrhea with no sphincter control. She had given up hope and the light had gone out of her eyes. After three months of care by a very loving foster mom, working with the wonderful staff at the Cat Clinic of Asheville, Holli was, and is, a happy, loving, cat who plays like a kitten. She was adopted by a retired veterinarian and his wife!

Buster and Sabu are two special needs kitties who were alone in their house for over four months after their person went on vacation, suffered a stroke, and never came home. They received twice daily visits from pet sitters until a sanctuary home provider was found for them and they came under the guardianship of Laps and Naps.

Flapjack and Pancake are bonded sisters from two different litters (same mama) who were outside and neglected after their people died. They were eventually rescued and kept in a bathroom by a family friend, warm, safe, and fed, until Laps and Naps was able to find an adopter for them. From bathroom to condo!

Cody was alone in a trailer for three months after his beloved person went to the hospital and eventually died. A family member went in to feed Cody once a day, without ever seeing this shy boy who was very good at hiding. was contacted and we managed to find a wonderful foster who was willing to take a chance with this mystery cat. A live trap was set inside the trailer, and after a couple of days, Cody was caught and transported to his foster home. He spent the first few weeks under the elderly mother’s bed, only coming out to rub her legs when she was preparing for bed. His litter box, food and water were all under the bed with him, gradually being moved farther out in the room as he slowly began to gain confidence. After four months, Cody was out during the day, joining the mother and daughter in their daily activities and even hanging out with visitors. Naturally, Cody’s foster mother and grandmother couldn’t part with him and they adopted him just in time to travel to Florida for the winter. Cody is enjoying being a snowkitty!

A Hospice social worker contacted Laps and Naps about Puff as his human mom was making her end-of-life plans. She wasn’t yet ready to part with Puff, but she was having difficulty cleaning his litter box. A L&N volunteer went to her cottage twice a week to take care of Puff’s box, and spent time getting to know Puff and his mom. He was usually on the arm of the chair next to her, but would get down to enjoy the catnip, treats, and toys brought by the L&N volunteer. Finally the day came when his mom needed to move into the main facility to receive more care, and she released Puff to the guardianship of Laps and Naps. Puff went to a foster home in Asheville with a couple who work from home and spend plenty of time with him. He also enjoys watching the local wildlife from numerous windows. The L&N volunteer continued to visit his mom and provide pictures and updates. She died with the peace of mind of knowing that Puff was being well cared for, and Puff was adopted by his foster family!

What Are The Help Needed From The Local Community?

We need fosters, adopters, donors, and volunteers to work tabling events. We also need volunteers experienced in launching/running a capital campaign.

Connect With Laps and Naps Home for Senior Cats:

Phone number: 828-447-1230
Website: https://lapsandnaps.org
FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100080065731020
IG: Instagram.com@laps_napsforseniorcats

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