Rescue group finds foster homes for hundreds of cats and dogs
Not counting the cat statues and cat paintings in her Grove City home, or the cat necklace around her neck, eight felines live with Lisa Oliver.
There’s Whiskey, found on a night in December when the temperature dropped to 4 degrees and Oliver and her husband,
Eric, took a shot of the liquor to stay warm.
Daisy and Bunny — white and black, respectively — are opposite sides of the color spectrum.
Tulip, Gabby and Cole are there, too, along with Mickey and Baby, the two cats belonging to Lisa's sister, Linda Strantz, who lives with her.
All of them, short-haired and long-haired, friendly and reclusive, are rescues.
Oliver, a lifelong animal lover who often brought strays home as a child, co-founded Columbus Pet Rescue just over five years ago. The nonprofit group places abandoned animals in foster homes, with hope for eventual adoption.
The group bloomed out of Oliver’s personal rescue,
Stray Cat Squad, which spayed, neutered and fed up to 400 feral cats every year. It was with the Squad that she met Diane Keegan, also involved in rescue work, and the two decided to expand their ability to care for sick and hurting creatures.
Now, Columbus Pet Rescue cares for that many cats each month.
They have since added dogs to the rescue list, not to mention the 85 animals they feed each month for senior citizens or those with disabilities who may be unable to afford to care for their beloved pets.
“I think everyone in our group has never met an animal they didn’t like,” Oliver, 50, said.
She fields dozens of requests and tips to take pets — she had 193 new emails and 39 texts on a recent Thursday alone — and deploys a cadre of loyal volunteers to pick up animals, take them to the vet and temporarily house them.
Oliver said she has been screamed at and threatened while rescuing animals off the street, and she has multiple protection orders out on those who have claimed rescue animals are their own without showing evidence.
Columbus Pet Rescue volunteers, who number around 100, have crawled under front porches, climbed through the woods and screeched to a halt on the side of highways to capture shivering cats, dogs, and once, a potbellied pig named Mr. Pickles.
When a call comes in, the rescued animal is immediately taken to receive medical care, including vaccinations, spaying, neutering, deworming and flea medication, in addition to any specific medical issues the pet might have.
Vet bills for cats cost between $100 and $150, with dogs reaching $200 to $250. The group spends more than $2,000 on medical care each week, Keegan said.
To raise the funds, Columbus Pet Rescue volunteers serve hot dogs and drinks during Columbus Crew games and events at the Schottenstein Center and Nationwide Arena; all earnings go to the nonprofit. Oliver also makes jewelry — including her own cat necklace — and sells it online and at craft fairs to raise money.
The group holds weekly adoption events at the Far West Side and Grove City Petsmart stores — Columbus Pet Rescue is an official Petsmart charity — where volunteers bring their foster animals to meet potential adoptive families.
Jeanne Tranter, 63, leads many of the adoption events for Columbus Pet Rescue: coordinating fosters, preparing cages for animals and spreading the word through Facebook. (For more information, or to contact the group, visit its website, www.columbuspetrescue. com.)
Currently fostering 11 cats, who live on the third floor of her Schumacher Place home near German Village. Tranter teared up while describing Petsmart adoptions.
“You care about them so deeply, so it’s all worth it,” she said. “When you hand that cat over to somebody, you know it’s going to have a great life. It’s moving, and it’s wonderful.”
The nonprofit's secretary, Connie Dekker, of the North Side, currently is fostering eight cats, with three more of her own. Though the group could always use more volunteers to help collect cats and dogs, what they need most is more good foster homes, she said. Between 20 and 25 households currently take in dogs and cats, but the need often overwhelms them.
“We do what we can whenever we can, but sometimes it may be that we ask the people who actually find the animals to step up,” Dekker, 56, said. “It’s a community effort.”
Oliver agreed that the animals themselves are the easy part.
“It’s not hard” she said, “to fall in love with helping these animals.”