The Hubble Telescope was launched. The NY Giants beat the Buffalo Bills 20-19 in the Super Bowl and Whitney Houston’s “All the Man that I Need” was the #5 song of the year – AND The Cat Network became an official 501c3. Thirty years. Three Decades – and here we are! We are smaller than we used to be, but we still love helping the abandoned and stray cats and kittens of the St. Louis area find loving fur-ever homes. In the late 1980’s, the founder of The Cat Network, Barbara Mena, was recovering from cancer. Barb said the cancer treatments would make her feel very ill, and her cats would sit by her and she found a lot of comfort in them. She said she vowed that if she survived, she would do something good for cats, and here we are! Barb, along with several of her good friends, created The Cat Network and laid the foundation for the organization’s principles and practices.
The Cat Network was one of the first in the St. Louis area to insist on combo testing for FeLV/FIV to help in the appropriate placing of cats, as well as insisting that each cat that was adopted out have a microchip. The volunteers of The Cat Network rescued, fostered & adopted out cats, as well as helping at local cat shows, and selling volunteer made cat toys, beds and carrier pads at local craft fairs and festivals. Barbara passed away some years ago, but her ideas continue in The Cat Network as we hit the big 3-0! We consider ourselves fortunate to still have volunteers and supporters that love the cats of the St. Louis area as much as we do, and help us continue our mission to find as many loving, fur-ever homes for cats that would not otherwise have a fairy-tale ending! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAT NETWORK!
