Theresa Foley, founder and director of Venice Cat Coalition, suffered a stroke last week and is currently recovering in the hospital. Her medical team is working diligently to get her home and back to her beloved sanctuary cats as soon as possible, but in the meantime, we need your help! We have had to hire helpers to feed, medicate, and care for the sanctuary cats in her absence, and we have hired cleaners to keep the litter boxes, house, and catio tidy. These unexpected expenses are not in our current budget. Theresa currently has some left-side paralysis, so she will need some continued assistance with daily sanctuary tasks even once she's back home. She and her board of directors are brainstorming ways to fill the gaps and recruit more volunteers, but right now we need assistance paying our current helpers.

Theresa has dedicated the last 35 years of her life to helping community cats and kittens through TNVR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) services. She started her work in Key West over three decades ago then established Venice Cat Coalition in 2006. Over the years, she has successfully secured dozens of grants which have funded TNVR efforts, low-income spay/neuter assistance surgeries, emergency medical care for both personal pets and community cats, and VCC supplies food to community cat feeders and income-qualified pet owners in partnership with The Pet Project and Greater Good Charities. VCC has also fostered and found adopters for thousands of cats and kittens through the years! Additionally, Theresa has organized and hosted community gatherings, trapper training sessions, and spent countless hours raising awareness at local farmers' markets and community events. Theresa is even continuing to work on fundraising from her hospital room! 

We want you to know that our TNVR efforts continue while Theresa is recovering and we have board members monitoring spay/neuter assistance requests. Lemon Bay Animal will exclusively handle all of our adoptions for the time being. Our work goes on despite this temporary setback! 

Now it's time for us to lift her up in her time of need. Let's take some of the financial burden off her shoulders so she can relax and focus on healing. Please consider donating today to help cover current and future sanctuary needs. Theresa and her kitties need us!

We want to offer our sincerest thanks to all of our previous donors who have made VCC's mission possible over the last 19 years! We can't wait to celebrate our 20th anniversary next year!