Stay-A-While Cat Shelter

Updated: The stay-​a-​while staff have been great over the last 3 years. I have come several times for claw trimmings and they are always happy to hear from me. Haley is 3 years old now, but unfortunately, her brother Hugo passed away this March from a heart condition that was unnoticed. He had always been a healthy cat until the end. Stay A While offered support to me through my hard time. I chose to adopt a new kitty, Scrappy, from them shortly after Hugo’s passing. Scrappy is a very sweet 6 year old boy that one of the volunteers guided me to. She thought he’d be a perfect fit for Haley and I: and he is! Im so grateful for this shelter and actually hope to become a volunteer there myself. I still love this place and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a catpanion :)

It would take a lot of unpleasantness for me to give something as charitable as an animal shelter a bad review, but unpleasantness is exactly what I got from this place.
What makes this place unique is that the cats are held and provided for in a large house, and none of them are in cages. When you walk into the house, there are literally cats EVERYWHERE.
I came here looking to adopt a cat a few months ago. I stayed for a bit, got to know a bunch of the cats, and talked to the lady working there at the time. I fell in love with one cat in particular and I told the lady that I might come back soon for him. A few days later, I came back to get the cat, but was only then told that the cat I wanted wasn’t up for adoption. I was told that a woman who could no longer care for him gave him to the shelter, but they weren’t sure if she was willing to let him be adopted by… you know, someone who COULD actually care for him. Beyond that, the staff that was there gave me no advice or information on how I could determine for sure if the cat was adoptable or not, telling me that the woman in charge is really busy and hard to reach.
I asked to be called back and made some calls myself in the weeks to come, and instead of having my question answered, I was called by some girl I had never met before who told me I wasn’t allowed to adopt ANY cats. She said that one of the other volunteer/​staff women had told her that I said I’d declaw a cat past the age of safe-​declawing, which is a complete, incredible lie. I had actually told the staff who questioned me about it that I was well aware of the declawing rules, because I had thoroughly researched their website. The girl who called me basically said «I don’t know what to tell you, that’s just what I heard.»
Absolutely incredible. Apparently they are willing to help out people who are irresponsible and unable to care for their animals, while completely rude and unhelpful to those of us who are responsible and actually looking to GIVE THEM MONEY. Their staff needs to get it together.