Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue to have three fundraisers for expansion project

Kitty Kat Haven and Rescue, a Hoover-based nonprofit that rescues and cares for cats until someone adopts them, has three fundraising events scheduled over the next three weeks to help fund an expansion project.

The first is a Cheese and Cheers event designed to celebrate the first anniversary of Board in Birmingham, a charcuterie board and catering company.

It’s being held Saturday, March 18, at the Cat-n-Bird Winery at 11661 Old U.S. 280 in Chelsea from 6 to 9 p.m. and is slated to include performances from the Magic City Magician (Matt Wilson), music from disc jockey Kaleb, charcuterie and cheese boards and wine. Tickets are $35 and can be obtained at eventbrite.com/e/cheese-cheers-to-board-in-birminghams-1st-year-tickets-570030976997.

The second fundraiser is bingo night at Brock’s Gap Brewery in Hoover from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28. For a $25 donation, you can play eight rounds of bingo. There will be $300 in gift cards awarded, with the grand prize being a $100 Chevron gas card.

The third fundraiser is a garage sale at the Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue house at 3432 Old Columbiana Road in Hoover on April 1-2. Hours are 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Items in the garage sale are slated to include both things related to cats and things not related to cats.

Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue is trying to raise $20,000 to add a portable building to its property on Old Columbiana Road to provide a place for adoption events for its “teenage” cats (ages 6 months to a year), Founder and Executive Director Rita Bowman said.

The 2,100-square-foot house is used as a home for adult cats (more than a year old), but kittens and the “teenager” cats are kept in foster homes and brought to adoption events. The problem is that “teenage” cats don’t “show” very well when they are in cages at adoption events at pet stores, Bowman said. They tend to shut down and not interact, she said.

It’s better when they can be in a cage-free environment and interact with potential adopters, she said. She considered renting a space for adoption events but decided a portable building would be more financially responsible, she said. The cats will not live in the portable building; they’ll just visit for specific events, she said.

The house is allowed to have up to 60 cats a time, according to rules passed by the Hoover City Council.

The portable building costs $14,000 but will need to be finished on the inside and hooked up to electricity, so the total expected cost, including some free labor of love, is about $20,000, Bowman said. So far, about $3,000 has been raised, she said.

All the money raised at these three fundraisers will go toward the portable “kitty cabin,” she said.

Since Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue opened in 2016, the nonprofit has saved and found homes for more than 5,500 cats and kittens, Bowman said. There are about 60 at the center now and another 150 cats and kittens in foster care elsewhere, she said.

For more information about Kitty Kat Haven, visit kittykathavenrescue.org. Also, see a video tour of the Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue center given when the current facility opened in 2020.