Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kerri Gerke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kerri , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

We believe that every cat should have a warm place to sleep at night, which is why we started this rescue. We are located in Mount Vernon, Illinois where a major problem has been taking place. There are colonies of cats out on the streets because people have been dumping cats. We want to help find homes for these cats and ensure that these problems don’t occur again. It’s our hope that one day we can control the population enough to where we won’t see strays all over our community.
It started with a dream…
When we first started in 2021, we had nothing but a few pop up tents in our oversized two car garage and a dream. Since then, we’ve been able to buy a building, move into town, and help more cats than what we ever could have imagined was possible. That wouldn’t have happened without our amazing volunteer team and support from people in our community.
Our goal is to set up a low cost spay/neuter to help our community with the overwhelming population of stray cats.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my rescue in 2021 in my oversized two car garage. I had been volunteering at another rescue and had noticed the need in my town. Mt. Vernon is my hometown and I had moved away and my mother had become ill and my family wanted me back home. My mom was in a memory care facility, when I had started noticing all the stray cats. I spent from 2016-2017 visiting a colony behind our local grocery store. There were about 38 cats living in the wooded area. It’s a dark corner where people just dump cats. In our town they do not offer a low cost spay/neuter program and it’s very expensive to get a cat fixed. Usually the public will find a free cat and once it becomes sick or pregnant they find an area to throw the cat out.
I spent an entire year trapping and feeding the colony and get the friendly ones homes. There were only a couple that were truly feral and some were even fixed and declawed. The situation was so sad that I would go three times a week and had names for most of them. I cleared the area except the three I released back with someone to take care of them daily.
This led me to my journey for opening my rescue. I didn’t have money to start it, so I decided when I found a cat/kitten I was going to make them happy and healthy by door-dashing. I would find a cat/kitten and call a local veterinarian and ask how much the bill would be and then head up to our restaurant area and DoorDash.
After I got the car/kitten healthy enough I would reach out to rescues to see if I could send them to them for adoption.
My first year three years in rescue I only was open from March to December. In 2021 I had adopted 117 by myself and have grown to owning a building and wrapping up 2024 with 285 cat/kitten placed in forever homes. I am now trying to open a low/cost vet clinic where we will be doing surgery’s in our building. We are currently working on a corporate campaign to raise 20,000 to buy all the supplies we need. We have a veterinarian who is will to work with us but doesn’t have the equipment to do what we are needing. I know what I have accomplished by starting something from nothing so I have great faith that I will continue providing my community with everything we need to go forward in my mission.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We have 3.2k followers on Facebook with 17 5 star reviews. In our TikTok account we have over 50k followers. My mission is to change the face of rescue. I set my rescue up at the beginning of COVID and had to find a way to adopt our cats/kittens. I made a zoom account and started setting up zoom meetings. This was highly successful and we still do this to this day. We adopt all over the united state and this is a way that adopters can visit with the cat/kittens and we can meet at the airport if needed. The number one thing I hear about other rescues is they don’t follow up until weeks after a voicemail or email. Other than the health care of our cats/kittens follow up is my number one priority. We follow up before to set up an appointment and follow up after the adoption. I always say “if I never adopt another cat/kitten they are all mine and I treat them as so. Our reputation is fantastic because of our communication with everyone from fosters, volunteers to adoptees. If you don’t have strong communication in your business then eventually there will be a breakdown in your reputation and relationships.
I’m not perfect, but i try to always put myself in the other person’s shoes. I have been on all sides as a foster, adopter and owner of a rescue. I would never treat one of my rescues any differently than my personal cats and I would never treat someone differently than a family member. We call Little Paws our family and have compassion for all the animals as well as the people who touch and support our organization.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

In the first 6 months of my rescue I got involved with too many things that I was not educated on enough. I had such a bleeding heart for everything and everyone. Going into my 5th year of owning my rescue I have now realized that I have to stay in my line and I can’t save everything. Rescue is an abyss and you can give your life, your money and your soul to it and no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to save them all. One thing I have learned is to be good at what you know and gain knowledge about it and become even better. I think once I understood that I can’t save everything and won’t make the problem go away I figured out what I was good at and it’s saving kittens. My focus changed to in taking moms and babies and stray kittens. Since I don’t have a tnr department and no funding from state or local government I decided to try to collect all the kittens at least by doing this over the last couple years we have seen a decrease in our colonies. I am only one person and run the rescue with my daughter and a couple volunteers and if helping what I can when I can makes a difference than I’ll keep doing that and stay in my lane until I get to the point that I can help more than I have already helped.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Lpmv.org
• Facebook: Littlepawsofmtvernon
• Yelp: Littlepawsofmtvernon
• Other: TikTok and Rednote Littlepawsofmtvernon

Image Credits

Emily Gerke, Ben Chobanian