POWERGRAMS

2 C ats like Sneezy will never be left out in the cold if Charlie Starr can help it. Starr found Sneezy, an orphaned kitten, in a rural shelter in west Alabama five years ago. Realizing that Sneezy had little hope of finding a home, Starr rescued him and his six siblings, and brought them to his home. That tiny kitten was the inspiration that eventually led Starr to open Kitty Kat Haven and Rescue in Hoover. "Sneezy was solid black, and black cats don't last long in shelters," said Starr, substation physical designer, Corporate Headquarters. "A lot of people are superstitious and believe black cats are unlucky or evil, or have some other weird idea about them. But they are actually some of the sweetest cats to own. The simple fact that he was a black cat, an underdog so to speak, not wanted, and on 'death row' in a horrible shelter made me want to try to rescue cats and give them a better life." Starr soon began rescuing more cats from that shelter and, at his own expense, having them spayed and neutered, then boarding them until he could find people to adopt the cats. While working with the shelter, he met Rita Bowman, another volunteer who shared his passion for saving cats. In October 2016, the two joined forces to found Kitty Kat Haven, a cage-free, no-kill rescue facility. "Shelters often don't have the funding to keep cats until they can be adopted, so they put them down," said Starr. "It was Rita's dream to have a rescue shelter for cats, and I had pretty much filled up all the boarding space at my vet's office, so we decided to start Kitty Kat Haven." Starr said word about the new facility spread quickly. Kitty Kat Haven now receives more than 10 calls a day from people asking the group to pick up homeless cats. Starr, Bowman and other Kitty Kat Haven volunteers have rescued cats from shelters, picked them up off the streets and brought in colonies of them that have been living around apartment complexes. The group has also rescued cats from situations where people have been hoarding them and not caring for them properly. "People don't realize how quickly cats breed," Starr said. "You may have four or five cats, and the next thing you know, you have 20 cats. Our mission is to reduce the cat population by encouraging people to get their animals spayed and neutered." No kitty is turned away. If the shelter is filled to capacity, Starr and Bowman try to find foster homes for cats until they can be adopted. The rescue house even opens its doors to cats with special needs. Starr and Bowman have found homes for cats that are blind or deaf, have lost a leg or suffer from other ongoing conditions. RESCUE SHELTER HAS SAVED THOUSANDS OF FELINES SINCE 2016 The The Cat's Cat's Meow Meow Kitty Kat Haven and Rescue in Hoover has helped find homes for more than 2,000 cats.

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