Photo – Sparrow Marcioni
BUFORD — In honor of International Cat Day, the Voice would like to shine a light on one of the community’s finest cat shelters. Located in Buford, CatRangers is a home for cats and kittens who have experienced poor living conditions or near to death situations.
Founder of CatRangers, Sparrow Marcioni, received the inspiration for the shelter when she witnessed the horrible safety and health conditions of the cats. She explained a crisis that took place in a park around Lake Lanier where a fierce lady took care of over 100 cats. When she wasn’t able to spay and neuter most of the cats, the government-mandated the dismissal of all the animals from the facility. With no place to go, they were on a death sentence.
This is when CatRangers came into effect and fought a hard battle of euthanizing the animals in the poor animal control facilities. Today, with the help of local rescue groups, the organization has helped adopt over 4,500 cats and kittens into loving homes.
As a community, we can help the organization in a variety of different ways. CatRangers is a nonprofit organization that is sustained entirely by donations. The donations can help the program help the lives of countless cats. They are also looking for volunteers to help with their day to day activities.
Perhaps the most incredible feature the program has to offer is their Maison du Chat facility where people can visit and play with the cats. Though the hope is for community members to adopt a cat on the way out, their primary focus is encouraging a loving and safe environment for both the visitors and the animals.
When asked about why CatRangers focuses their attention specifically on cats who are in desperate situations, Marcioni stated, “We rescue those that no one wants to adopt and other rescues won’t accept. We feel this is where we are most needed.”
For more information about CatRangers please visit: http://www.catrangers.org/
— By Nida Merchant
