All Kitties
Go To Heaven

Lake County, California

All Kitties
Go To Heaven

Twenty years of hands-on rescue around Clear Lake. Now forming as a nonprofit, so the work can be funded by the community it serves.

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Illustration: a cat sitting at the end of a wooden dock, watching dusk settle over Clear Lake, a thin halo of light above its head
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01 The story

Twenty years, mostly unseen

Lew is an electrical contractor in Lake County, California. Before that, he spent decades as an engineer, working in radio frequency and microwave systems. And for the last twenty years, through all of it, he has been doing something quieter: animal rescue.

The work is not glamorous. It is colonies of cats that need looking after, day in and day out. It is trips to trusted local veterinary clinics around Clear Lake. It is about three colonies’ worth of lives, carried year after year at his own expense.

The name is older than the paperwork. In 2012, Lew taught a seminar for YouthWorks on Lake County ecology, solar power, electric cars, and animal rescue. The idea for the name came out of that seminar, and it stayed with him. Now it is becoming something real.

Illustration: a lantern glowing beside a food bowl at the lakeshore at evening, one cat eating while another watches
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20
years of hands-on rescue
3
cat colonies in his care
2012
the year the name was born

“This nonprofit, the idea is to allow me to operate at the same level, only not out of pocket.”

Lew, on the phone call that started this page

02 The mission

The mission, in plain terms

The whole idea is to prevent animal suffering. Most of that suffering comes from there being too many cats, so the work goes to the root. Trap, neuter, return means fewer cats are born into hardship, and the ones already here can live settled, healthy lives.

For two decades this has come out of one man’s pocket. Forming as a nonprofit lets the community it serves help carry the work.

Illustration: three cats on the bank among the tules at the edge of Clear Lake in early morning light
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03 How it works

Trap, neuter, return

This is mainly what the rescue is. It is a steady, humane routine that keeps cat colonies from forming and populations from growing out of control, so what remains is a stable group of healthy, vaccinated cats.

  1. Trap

    Cats are trapped, by Lew or the people working alongside him.

  2. Neuter & vaccinate

    Each cat is taken to a vet to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated.

  3. Aftercare

    A few days of watched recovery. Females are kept semi-confined and monitored for about three to five days; males, usually one to two.

  4. Return

    Recovered and healthy, each cat goes back to where it came from.

Fixed cats are placeholders

A cat that has been spayed or neutered and vaccinated holds its territory. Remove it, and an unfixed cat moves in from somewhere else and starts breeding, or falls sick and passes disease around.

So the goal is never an empty spot. It is a stable, healthy colony that holds steady, keeps rodents and poisonous spiders in check, and, because the cats are vaccinated, does not spread deadly disease.

The care does not end at return. The colonies are fed where they were released, and when a cat later gets sick or hurt, it can be treated at the vet.

04 Barn cats

Barn cats, done right

Ranchers and people with acreage often want cats on the property to keep mice and rats down. Placed well, a barn cat is a working cat with a real home.

Not every cat can live that life. A house cat that never learned to hunt should never be left in the country to fend for itself. Without those skills it goes hungry, gets sick, or is taken by coyotes, and that helps no one.

So barn placement is only for cats with real self-preservation experience, the ones already equipped to thrive outdoors. The aim is a good match, made with care, every time.

Have acreage and room for working cats? That is exactly the kind of home this rescue looks for. Reach out and say hello.

05 Your support

Where your donations go

No invented numbers and no borrowed stories. Donations go to valid, operating veterinary clinics in the Clear Lake and Lakeport areas, for the surgery, vaccination, and aftercare that trap, neuter, and return depends on.

Spay, neuter & vaccinate

Every trapped cat is spayed or neutered and vaccinated at a local vet clinic in the area. This is the heart of the program, and where most donations go.

Feeding the colonies

The cats are fed where they were returned, day after day, so the colonies stay healthy and settled.

Medical aftercare

Recovery is watched, and when a returned cat later gets sick or hurt, it can be treated at the vet. Care does not stop at release.

As the nonprofit takes shape, updates will appear here.

07 Right now

How to help today

Pass it along

Know someone around Clear Lake who cares about cats? Tell them this page exists. Word of mouth costs nothing and travels far in a small county.