Fat Cat Rescue: A haven for feral and forgotten cats

WADSWORTH – Mickey Finn – dubbed the mayor of Fat Cat Rescue – sleeps peacefully on a wicker patio chair on the third floor of the barn on the sanctuary’s property.

Like every other room in the barn, this loft area has been converted into a cat paradise: Cat trees of various heights dot the room, along with plenty of chairs covered, like Mickey’s, with fleece blankets the cats can burrow into. A round wooden table has been bolted to the low ceiling, a perch for cats to sit on and observe the goings-on in the room and beyond, down into the gated yard below, visible through the screened-in patio.

Kaye Larsen-Olloway, founder of Fat Cat Rescue, scratches Mickey Finn behind the ears, but as soon as her hand touches his back, the cat’s head lifts and he issues a loud meow of protest. He doesn’t like being touched on his back, Larsen-Olloway explains, because he used to be dog fight bait. Handlers would hold him by his back and scruff of his neck and use him to taunt dogs to rile them up before a fight.

On closer examination, the evidence of his past life is visible on Mickey Finn’s body. Like a boxer who’s taken too many blows to the face, Mickey Finn’s face is twisted into a permanent scowl and his left eye doesn’t open all the way. His front legs are covered in scars from all the times he tried to protect and defend himself against the dogs’ attacks.

Larsen-Olloway started Fat Cat Rescue in 2012, but she began helping stray and feral cats in Lake County long before that by working with Spay and Stay, a Lake County-based trap-neuter-release program that works to reduce the county’s feral cat population.

While Spay and Stay is able to place younger cats and kittens into foster homes to eventually adopt out, Larsen-Olloway saw a need to provide for the cats that were deemed “too feral” to rehabilitate for adoption and that, without intervention, would spend the rest of their lives on the street. Today, roughly 150 cats call Larsen-Olloway’s property home.

“What I want most for Fat Cat Rescue is for it to be paradise for feral, abandoned, stray and abused cats,” she said. “That’s all I can hope and pray for – and to educate people that cats outside are like homeless people: [If you] give [them] food, shelter and love, they become themselves. It’s beautiful.”

Larsen-Olloway plans to convert part of her new property into a cat cafe where people can come and enjoy a cup of coffee and spend time with her cats and learn more about them in an attempt to shatter some of the stigma surrounding feral cats.

“We want people to come and have a cup of coffee, sit out here and be educated that feral cats are not what you think,” she says. “They’re cats who don’t want to be inside.”

Last winter, she found the 7-acre property in Wadsworth and has spent the past several months transporting her cats to their new haven. She relies on the generosity of volunteers and donors to keep the sanctuary running. Michael Walach is one of those volunteers.

Walach sits in the shade of a patio umbrella in the middle of the gated paddock, surrounded by cats. Some play, darting through the grass in pursuit of a butterfly or another cat. Others sunbathe, eyes slanted shut. Two cats – Johnny Ringo and Miss B(-having) – vie for prime seating on Walach’s lap, tails flicking only when he fails to scratch them in the right spots. Walach comes out three to four days a week to help care for the cats; he says it’s “phenomenal” for these feral cats to have a place like this – somewhere they’re fed and cared for and loved – and given the opportunity to feel safe enough to bond with humans again.

Walking through the paddock, Larsen-Olloway points out several cats, recalling each one’s story: There’s Pinkie Tuscadero, a calico who had feline stomatitis, a condition that attacks a cat’s gums and teeth and can be life-threatening if left untreated.

Pinkie was sick, feral and distrusting of humans when Larsen-Olloway took her in. Now, after proper treatment, Pinkie is happy, healthy and loves rubbing up on any human who will pay attention to her. Tarzana, a short-haired tabby, lets Larsen-Olloway pick her up and snuggle her.

“Tarzana was a house cat that was dumped and lived in a colony because that was the only way she’d get care,” she recalls. “We found her in North Chicago.”

Every single one of her cats, Larsen-Olloway adds, is vetted: Their health is carefully monitored, their shots are updated regularly and, during flea and tick season, they’re given treatments to protect them. Local shelters visit the rescue regularly to select cats and kittens deemed suitable for adoption. Throughout the years, Larsen-Olloway says “500 to 600” of her cats have found their forever homes through local shelters or direct adoptions through Fat Cat.

“There’s probably five rescues that pull from us,” she says. “We don’t get a dime from them being adopted, but they get a home and the money it takes to care for them, we save on that. … What we need is help: donations and volunteers because we can only have so many cats if we don’t have people to care for them.”

Back on his chair in the barn loft, Mickey Finn closes his eyes as Larsen-Olloway goes back to scratching his ears, pressing his head into her palm for more love before going back to sleep. The terror of those dog fights are long behind him and he, like the other cats at Fat Cat Rescue, will live out the remainder of his life in peace at Larsen-Olloway’s sanctuary.

How to get involved

Donate: Visit fatcatrescueinc.org/donate for a link to donate online.

Most needed items: Purina Complete Dry Cat Food, Friskies Wet Cat Food, Tidy Cat Clumping Litter

Volunteer: Volunteers are scheduled in three- to four-hour shifts. Visit fatcatrescueinc.org/volunteer-application to submit an application.

Adopt: Visits with the cats are by appointment only; call 224-303-4328 to request an appointment.