The Oregon Cat Project

I had thought i had posted a statement rating before and i was unable to find it. So here is another one.
I have seen some of the negative reviews as well as positive. I am one that as far as I’m concerned think Dana is amazing. I have seen her work with the cats and she had help me rehome 30 feral cats. All were nursed back to health chip spayed neutered and she has found homes for. I witnessed multiple of these cats being adopted out. Of course I was not to see all of them being adopted as I did not spend 24 hours a day seven days a week there.
People have mentioned that there was smell and the cats were not taken care of. I did not witness in the six months that I was over at the site any abuse or neglect while she was assisting me in the feral cats. It is true there were times that there was a smell however as far as I’m concerned that was not a dealbreaker because the cats themselves do not all relieve themselves at the specific time do not sleep at the same time so of course it is going to be a constant nonstop and as there is no system for conveyor belts for care the only way to keep up on this is by volunteers snd as they were not constant nor plentiful Dana was taking care of these cats constantly there with no break for her. Keeping in mind these cats were being rescued from possible death where they came from or constant reproduction they were also taken from kill shelters.
As far as her taking those cats for spaying/​neutering she drove them all way up to northern Washington to get them operated on. She had to arrange for appointments to get vets to take as many as 30 and 40 cats at a time to be neutered or spayed. This again fell on Dana to arrange for vets, transportation and care for the animals after the surgery was complete. This was a huge determining factor when cats were able to be sent home.
I never saw any animal treated badly and all I did see was affection for these cats no matter if they were affectionate back or just trying to be socialized to humans or other animals.
Feeding, watering and care for the amount of cats that Dana has rescued as far as I’m concern was a monumental task. So many people that don’t care would rather they just die or are not willing to help. Dana was always there to help me.
Those that have all the negative feedback were not standing in Dana’s shoes and where were they when they said the animals needed help did they help I don’t think so. If you can’t help physically then help financially.
According to the calculations from what I found on the Internet, reproduction for cats concerning the 30 she saved calculated that offspring in a seven year period (19 females) at 420,000 per female 7,980,000 cats had they not been spayed. Keeping in mind the 30 i had brought her were not social to humans or other animals.
I also found that if Dana was unreachable she was driving cats to be spayed/​neutered, picking up food, liter, or helping to trap ferral cats. Oh and cleaning feeding, watering. Now with limited help and finances she falls in the amazing category.
Dana has filled s badly needed task that many are not willing to help as she specialized in feral. She will be missed and one advocate for feral cats will be gone.,

Great news — this shelter is closed.
Dana was evicted and basically dumped cats at various other shelters and several Petco locations. Apparently she also drained a fund for low income spay/​neuter depriving people who wanted kitties and could not afford the necessary alterations. Merely illustrates how «devoted» (cough) she was to the cats. She basically dumped them off at doorsteps and left. She had the kitties best interest at heart — What is NO, Alex!!!
I would like to ask the people who gave this shelter high marks if they showed up in luxury cars, carried designer bags or flashed some cash. She would give those people a «Four Seasons» treatment rather than the regular «Hotel 6» version. I was there for a year and I saw how she played the adopters.
I truly hope she does not try to open another shelter in the United States.

As a cat lover who has adopted multiple cats from this shelter over the last several years, I find the 1-​star reviews here to be highly suspect. This organization is run by a woman who loves cats, holds the highest standards, and — if she could — would donate her kidney to a cat in need.
To Kate H, who says her family bought 4 cats here, and states «BUYER BEWARE» …this facility is not a toy store, and you don’t «buy» cats. It is a no kill shelter giving cats a real chance at finding a loving home. You had to put down two of your four cats because they were so sick a year after you adopted them? My cats get sick too — I love them and take care of them, and provide them with the very best care available. I don’t put them down when the going gets rough, or if a vet bill is going to interfere with vacation plans. If you are looking for a perfect cat that will never get sick, I did see a nice one at Toys R Us. But please don’t complain to them when the batteries run out. Even toy cats require a certain amount of care.
I see another person complaining because a Petco employee didn’t treat them nice, or that this shelter could not provide a medical history of a cat that was entrusted here, rather than being sent to die in a gas chamber somewhere else. Rescued cats do not come with pedigrees or medical histories. They come with love and hope in their hearts that a human will love them back. Find a cat you love, take it home, and take care of it. If you adopt a cat that came through this shelter, you will be richly rewarded.
I also see that one of these reviews, with multiple updates, is from someone who identified themselves as a former volunteer/​employee. My interpretation, from what I’ve seen of how the organization is run, is that this person doesn’t share the high ideals and dedication demonstrated by the founder of this shelter.
I’ve handed out alot of 1-​star reviews myself, and this is not one of those places. This is the rare gem, where the founder is on a mission and doesn’t give a rats ass about what anyone thinks. Its all about the cats, plain and simple.

Having read some scary reviews thought I’d add my experience too. I recently adopted a lovely teenage male cat a few weeks ago. Dana did mention that a lot of cats come in with all kinds of sickness, which makes sense to me with a rescue situation. My kitty has had a sneeze and cough and Dana has been great at guiding me on that as well as how to best introduce him to my current cat. She has been great with helping me and it’s obvious that she is committed to all the many kitties she cares for. The only reason I didn’t give her 5 stars is that she can take a while to respond, but I also try to patient knowing what a difficult job this kind of business is — and I’m not willing to take it on personally, but want to support those who do! thanks so much. I recently took him to the vet and he is a-​ok!

The house smells so bad, you can smell the cats outside the building.
My boy friend and I paid for the kitten over three weeks ago, He was weighed in front of us, 2.5 pounds is what the lady said and that he was big enough and would get fixed that week. So we came back later that week, and she told us he hasn’t been fixed, and the date was pushed to next week and we could take him home July 3^rd. So we stopped by on the 3^rd to pick him up and they were closed.
There is no number to get a hold of this place. So I emailed them, telling them my situation. They said he still hasn’t been fixed, and the appointment was moved to next week, again.
I started to be disappointed and concerned so I confronted them in the email that they pushed his appointment back several times, and whenever Im told to stop by, it’s closed.
The lady seemed very upset with me, told me that I was accusing her, and lying about the situation, and was giving my money back.? All through email. Even though I told her I still really wanted the kitten, that I’ve been visiting, preparing for, and took pictures with, for about a month.

I adopted my little sweetheart from this shelter in December 2011. Immediately when I walked in, I was confronted with the smell, but I thought at the time it was normal due to so many cats in one facility. I was surprised by the high adoption rate at $ 120 and was promised a microchip which I never recieved. While my kitty is now healthy, she was diagnosed with feline herpes and will require eye drops her whole life and wish any health problems wouldve been disclosed to me prior to adopting. I visited the shelter one time after the adoption about ten months later as my school aged son had collected money to donate to the kitties. We were not greeted very kindly when dropping off the money and he was heartbroken that he did not receive positive feedback for his hard work collecting the donation (which he had organized to receive instead of birthday presents). I have since visited other shelters in search of a companion for our sweet kitty and realized just how poor the conditions at Oregon Cat were in comparison, however, we wouldn’t trade our sweet kitty for the world!

Let no good deed go unpunished.
My fiancé and I were in there this last Saturday and spent a good 4 hours selecting our perfect cat and we were helped by a few volunteers as well as the lady who runs the place. Every person we talked to was very helpful and polite!
All questions were answered to the best of their abilities and we were very happy and comfortable adopting a cat from them.
I don’t understand what the person who wanted full medical records and history on the cat they chose to adopts eye condition. This lady gets cats from shelters who are about to euthanize them and gives them a second chance. She only knows what the shelter she receives them from knows.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars and not 5 is yes the place did smell and it was hot in there. I can’t fault them as most cats pee and most pee stinks and a non profit doing what they can to survive and help many cats find a loving home I guess I should expect it to smell.
I started this review with a quote so I guess I will end it with one.
I know you’d like to think your sh@% don’t stink, but…

Yesterday my husband and I went to Petco in Gresham in search of a kitten to be a companion to our much loved, rambunctious 2 year old cat who seemed like he needed a partner in crime.
I had an idea of the type of cat I was looking for and when we arrived, I saw one that fit the bill. Upon requesting to play with him, the woman who was managing the cat area explained that the cat had health issues with his eyes that would require topical medication potentially for the rest of his life. She, and then the manager, came and assured us multiple times that he is completely fine, everything else is normal and not to worry.
We took a look at him and realized that we could potentially be taking on more than we had originally planned if we took this little guy home. Initially that alarmed me a bit, in part because you can’t see any iris to his eyes, only pupil. I inquired about this and was quickly brushed off. They said they didn’t know anything more and again re-​iterated that he’s is totally fine. They said we could contact the director of the project for any more information and they promised to trim his nails since one toe seemed to be malformed and they promised further medication from their partnering vet.
I took a few minutes to consider since, you know, it’s a big one. A cat is a 20ish year commitment. We left a message for our vet, hoping to get some advice. When I went back into the cat area, the woman working there wouldn’t make eye contact with me and was suddenly treating my very cold and annoyed that we didn’t just sweep him up, no questions asked and take him home. I felt completely pressured and shamed into adopting this cat!
In the end, we decided to adopt him and once he was home with us, no matter his problems, they would be our problems now too. We were given some medication for him, but no nail trim. By this time I didn’t want to deal with them anymore, we can take care of whatever he needs ourselves.
In contacting the Oregon Cat Project for further information, we were completely stonewalled and again given the line that this is all they know. There was no discussion of more eye cream, as was promised or offers to connect us to someone for more information about him. There was no friendliness, no semblance of trying to even pretend to assist us, only short answers and hostility.
I love our little kitty, he’s going to be a wonderful boy and I think the program they have set up with Hawaii is great. What I’m really disappointed about is being pressured to take a cat that may or may not be a good fit for my house (we’ve now committed to keeping them both indoors since he can’t go outside with his eye problem). An organization that shames people into adopting sick animals and then offers no continued assistance or information is not one that I would ever want to do business with again. Since we brought him home yesterday, we’ve observed that he may have sight problems and has some wheezing, none of which was disclosed to us yesterday, we only received platitudes and assurances. If someone else had not taken the time to objectively consider his future and decide to accept the responsibilities of his potential problems, none of which The Oregon Cat Project encouraged us to do, who knows what would have become of this little guy. For me, what was supposed to be an exciting adoption experience was pretty much ruined and I now know to trust The Oregon Cat Project as far as my kitty can throw them.