A tag sale was held at the Westfield Moose Lodge Friday, Saturday and Sunday to benefit the Westfield Homeless Cat Project. The cat project in Westfield has rescued over 4,000 homeless cats and kittens since 2006. Pictured from L-R Pat Mitchell, Sharon Wielgus, Rebecca Swords, Roger Angers, Paula Pagos,and Gail Hass, volunteers, Westfield Cat Homeless Cat Project. (Photo by Don Wielgus)
WESTFIELD – Denise Sinico started the Westfield Homeless Cat Project in 2005 when she brought a family of cats into the MSPCA, hoping to get them help, only to find out they had been euthanized.
It inspired her to create a no-kill shelter for homeless, neglected, or abused cats. The Project gets cats, has them spayed and neutered, and helps get them the appropriate vaccinations. Since 2006, they have helped over 4,000 cats.
The Project focuses mainly on homeless cats in Westfield however they do accept cats from the surrounding towns. Their priority is homeless cats, but people can bring in surrenders, or cats that will become homeless because people are moving or losing their homes. To drop off a cat, people must make an appointment with the shelter and can bring it in then.
The goal of the Westfield Homeless Cat Project is to help every cat find a good home and they have not had a cat that did not find one. Sinico said, “There is a cat for every home and a home for every cat, the cat chooses you.”
Currently the shelter has about 40 cats in its care, 30 actually in the shelter and ten in foster care. At times, there can be anywhere from 60-125 cats, especially during kitten season, which is their busiest season. They have around 20 regular volunteers to help take care of every one.
As a private shelter, The Westfield Homeless Cat Project gets no state or federal funding. They make about $130,000 and runs mainly on donations. They also rely on adoption fees and fundraisers to get the amount of money necessary to help all these cats.
