Noelle, Brownsville Miami Community Cat Caregiver

Hello! My name is Noelle and I am a community cat caregiver and sanctuary manager serving the Brownsville community. I am an animal lover by nature, although I grew up with mostly canines as pets. I started caring for community cats when I moved into my new home and was adopted by a stray named Whiskers.

Whiskers was very ill one morning when she plopped herself on the landing outside the sliding glass door that opened into my back patio. I ignored her for hours thinking she'd go away, but when she didn't by lunchtime (and had left a poopy mess right where she lay) I scooped her up and took her to the vet. She was badly malnourished, and had recently given birth. The vet gave her an injection, and asked that I keep her indoors for a few days. However, after we returned home, I fed her, gave her fresh water, and a few hours later, Whiskers adamantly yelled to be let outside. It was the cry of a mother who knew she needed to feed her kittens, despite how badly she felt. Upon hearing it, I knew I had to let her go.

But, as the oft told story goes, the cat came back, the very next day! And in the days to come, she brought her litter--three cute kittens I named Ali (a frisky male always starting boxing matches), Minnie (she reminded me of the mouse), and Hunter (birds and lizards beware!). Before I realized it was my responsibility to get Whiskered spayed, another litter came along! I made sure Whiskers was spayed 6 weeks later, and attempted to have all her kittens adopted when they were 8 weeks old and. I was only able to find a good home for one, so I decided to do my best to feed the others--I have a large backyard and covered patio, so I didn't mind providing the sanctuary to my furry friends. But then, they brought their friends...so, Community Cat Caregivers of Miami was born!

I knew that feeding these cats twice a day, and making sure they could get to the vet when needed for shots, spaying and neutering, would be a huge expense that I could not sustain on my own. But the local shelters were not warmly accepting new stray cats since they were overloaded. I thought about dropping them off into new, unsuspecting neighborhoods, leaving them outside a shelter--you name it, I thought it. But in the days that followed, a funny thing happened. I met more and more community cat caregivers like myself, and realized we could fundraise and share resources to help each other ease the burden of our bleeding hearts. AND, help ease the burden on local shelter operators in the process!

Because of your support, we are able to not only help keep your neighborhood free of starving, ill, begging cats, but we keep the unwanted cat population down by taking stray cats to be spayed and neutered. Thank you for supporting the CCCM Sanctuary and community cat caregivers like me!