We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Bass. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.
Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
The defining moment that led us to start A Kitten Place was when Alicia (fellow AKP co-founder) and I were rescuing with other shelters and rescues before A Kitten Place was established, we were taking turns rescuing an orphaned neonate kitten. This requires around the clock bottle-feeding, stimulating for bowel movements and maintaining a warm and cozy environment for the kitten. “Bean” was a strong neonate! He latched on to the bottle perfectly and thrived. However, Bean had a coupe of quirks – he was polydactyl (meaning he has extra digits on his paws), he had a kinked tail and also seemed to be limping one of his limbs once he started learning to crawl. The local shelter was overseeing his care and one morning while checking up on his limb, they decided the best thing to do was euthanize Bean – because all of those factors together could indicate congenital abnormalities and he would “never live a normal life.” Alicia and I had been caring for Bean for weeks and we knew that this kitten was thriving; we asked the shelter to not euthanize him but rather release him to our care and we would asssume responsibility for him. We took turns caring for him, we used our own funds to have him vetted and neutered and we eventually found a wonderful family to adopt him, Bean is 4 years old now and lives a perfectly normal kitty life and his family adores him.
Alicia and I decided then that we had the tools, the knowledge and the abilities to start a rescue of our own – one that aspires to go to great lengths to save each individual feline life that crosses our path and needs our help.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Michelle Bass –
I am a wife and a mother of two children. I am a devout animal lover and have been since I was very young. While attending the University of South Florida in my late teens/early 20’s, I knew that I wanted to make a career for myself that included my passion for animals, but I wasn’t quite sure yet what that looked like. I was offered an internship at the SPCA in Pinellas County and discovered exactly what I wanted to do! I knew that someday I wanted to also rescue animals and had a long term goal of opening an animal shelter.
I developed a passion for Non-profit work and eventually received my Graduate Certificate in Non-profit Management from USF. I worked for several NPO”S including Southeastern Guide Dogs, American Cancer Society, Arthritis Foundation and the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.
When my children reached an age where they were more independent, I decided it was time to use my skills that I developed while working for NPO’s and my passion for animals, and start a non-profit kitten rescue.
Alicia and I met through our rescue work and were close colleagues that knew we could depend on one another, despite volunteering with different rescues and shelters; we are a good team. We made the decision to start A Kitten Place. Our focus is on neonate kittens, special needs and critical care kittens. We also rescue everything in between in addition to pregnant cats – both feral and friendly, offering them a safe space to have their very last litter of kittens.
Our motto is “No Kitten Left Behind” – while we are a small, all volunteer based rescue, we pride ourselves in going the extra mile for each and every kitten or cat that comes into our rescue and needs our full attention to survive. We have spent thousands of dollars on life-saving procedures such as liver shunt correction surgeries, spinal surgeries, eyelid replacement surgeries and many others. We accept the challenges and we fight until the very end with those we have committed to saving.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
There are several aspects to running an efficient non-profit rescue – you must be good stewards of your donations, you need to build relationships and maintain them with donors, volunteers and adopters, and most importantly you need to follow through on your mission, consistently and effectively. A Kitten Place does all of these things very well which is why we maintain a good reputation in the community of rescue. Relationship building is key and we strive to appreciate all who support our organization – whether they are donors, volunteers or adopters. WE are extremely committed to providing our kittens and cats in our rescue with the very best care and in turn that helps us have successful adoptions.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
We strive to continually thank everyone for their part in the work they do towards our mission – big or small, Everyone needs to feel valued in order to feel needed and called to do the work. AKP is very team oriented and there is no one person or individuals who could carry the burden of our mission, alone. We also try to constantly post on social media our “why’s” of our mission – the heartwarming reminders of success stories that drives the teams motivation.
Contact Info:
- Website: akittenplace.org
- Instagram: @akittenplace
- Facebook: @akittenplace
Image Credits
Aly Estrada