We were lucky to catch up with Lynn Mulhern recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lynn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Community Cat Foundation is a San Diego based nonprofit rescue organization supporting the health and welfare of feral and stray cats in San Diego. Our mission is to be a be an advocate for cats where none existed. We established a sanctuary for those in need and expanded our reach to place others in permanent homes.

We started by fostering cats coming from high kill shelters. The need is great . We saw that our action wasn’t enough to help the enormous number of cats brought into those shelters and euthanized as a result of overpopulation. What to do? Trap, neuter, and release! We found that many cats brought into shelters were feral who belonged with their colonies outdoors. There are sufficient caretakers to ensure that the cats are fed and looked after but the population of those colonies needed to be controlled. Performing trap, neuter, and release – TNR – is part of the solution. Our team works in neighborhoods throughout San Diego and helps keep feral cats from mistakenly being brought into shelters.. As the result of finding litters of kittens outside, we began a program to bring those kittens in, socialize them to indoor living, and move them to permanent homes.

There is much work to be done, but we are a much needed resource for San Diego feral and stray cats.

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

As a nonprofit rescue, we strive to go above and beyond just bringing cats inside. Community Cat Foundation is a resource for the community to prevent hundreds of kittens from being born each year that don’t find permanent homes. People call us when they see cats so we can be involved early and spay and neuter and prevent that overpopulation. We established a hotline that offers advice when we don’t have boots on the ground to go to every location. Our adoption interview process matches cats and people so we send cats home with a best fit adopter so cats can live indoors .

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Rescue is a very difficult industry. We see devastating effects from people who don’t respect or care about cats, and we pick up the pieces when cats are abused, discarded, and not cared for.

It’s hard to watch cats that have been severely abused. Wayne is one of them. A beautiful orange tabby from the Los Angeles area, this young male was shot with a BB gun, attacked by a neighborhood dog, then swung by the tail and left to die. The cat was paralyzed, his body filled with infection, and the finder’s veterinarian recommended euthanasia. She reached out to our Director who evaluated the cat and saw that he had an incredible will to live. Wayne began a protocol of medical and Physical Therapy. We have special people on our team who helped Wayne work through the damage that had been done to his spine and his spirit! Today, Wayne is walking and thriving.

How’d you meet your business partner?

We don’t believe in the old adage “no good deed goes unpunished”. As a result, our Director does good deeds all the time. She assisted a lady who owns a building downtown with some dogs who had been running on the street. The lady knew nothing about dogs and didn’t know how to touch them. Our Director rounded them up, placed them in a safe area in the lady’s building, fed and walked them daily, and found a dog rescue to find them a permanent home. The lady was so grateful she asked if our Director wanted to use her building to rescue cats. The rest is history because she said yes and the Community Cat Foundation and is thriving in a portion of the building currently dedicated for cat Rescue..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.CommunityCatfoundation.org
• Instagram: ccf.the.abbey
• Facebook: Community Cat Foundation
• TikTok: @ccfabbey

Image Credits
Leslie Leinbach Lynn Mulhern