She knows she can’t save every cat but Jennifer Grayston is resolved to do all she can to help cats in need find a safe, healthy and happy life.
This soft-spoken, tender-hearted woman is turning a personal mission into a highly visible, innovative adoption center in Fort Smith.
Jen’s Kitty Rehab is an inviting, cage-free environment where prospective forever owners can meet and socialize with fur friends who may become members of their families.
Jen formed a nonprofit organization after buying a former gas station at Jenny Lind Road and Dallas Street. Remodeling for its new purpose has taken almost three years to reach its grand opening. Throughout the construction work, she displayed eye-catching graphics and installed a giant, yellow-eyed cat sculpture to attract attention and support.
Leveraging powerful artwork and making tons of social media posts with appealing kitty pictures is her pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps strategy. Fundraising will have to be “constant,” Jen acknowledged, while matching kittens and cats with the right homes is ongoing.
She also aims to create a big team of committed, regular volunteers to staff Jen’s Kitty Rehab, which includes the feeding, watering and, yes, litter-box scooping that will keep this environment healthy for its feline residents and inviting to visitors who may come, by appointment only, to socialize with the cats.
Simply sitting with Jen for this interview gives a pretty good idea of the experience. There were about 10 cats lounging in the big space that day. First to greet a new visitor was S’mores, a juvenile calico female Jen calls their ambassador. She hopped right up into this reporter’s lap.
Across the room, another kitty was absolutely charming the socks off of a visitor by rolling over to beg for belly rubs, purring loudly. These two extroverts will quickly find forever homes.
But a few feet away, still hiding inside his cat carrier, was a grown male who, along with his brother, was wary and seemed disoriented. Socrates and Homer were surrendered to the Kitty Rehab when their long-time, older owner became too ill to keep them, Jen explained, compassionately.
“They need some time to trust anyone new,” she said, speaking softly to the cat but making no move toward him. “His brother is starting to warm up and we think he will, too.” These two would do well to be kept together.
Every cat there has a distinct personality and some have endured trauma. That’s why Jen created a rehabilitation process, usually placing them first with trusted foster parents in homes, before offering them for adoption. Over years, she grew a team of people who will nurture a cat or mothers and kittens until they are healthy, spayed or neutered and fully socialized. These foster parents are critically important, she emphasized. She’s always looking to enlist more. Of course, she fosters in her own home, as well.
Jen is purposely staging the opposite atmosphere of the first shelter she encountered. “When I was in college 20 years ago in Conway, I wanted to adopt a cat,” Jen explained. What she visited was a pound, which struck her as an animal prison, with distressed, terrified dogs and cats either screaming or cowering, from behind bars. “I knew they deserved better than that,” she said. “I want a home-like environment where cats can live well, as long as they need to, before they find the right home.”
Prospective adoption applicants are carefully vetted.
Animal welfare is a tough, sometimes heart-breaking pursuit, Jen well knows. She has standards to establish a mission that can work. It can’t save every cat, but it can save many; more than she has already saved.
Other local animal welfare groups are also worthy and important, she added. She’s not trying to tackle the enormous crusade alone. It takes a “whole community” effort to solve animal welfare problems, she believes.
But she does want to try innovative ideas, such as the Kitty Rehab adoption center, cat care classes for novice and caring owners and a myriad of related programs to mesh with the community. Last month there saw yoga classes with kitties and “kiddy” art opportunities. Jen’s kids, Ana and Admiral, have been dedicated team players.
Her partner, Jesse Fenwick, has taken over the back yard of the building to outfit it as a “fun-sized” gathering place with a stage, outdoor movie screen and pro sound system. He envisions events that may serve other nonprofits and causes, as well as Jen’s programs.
Jen’s Kitty Rehab, a hard-achieved dream, is ready to work with the community in any way that can help cats find good lives.
Connect by following their Facebook page for news, appointments, donations or questions. Or simply make arrangements to visit.
“Just hanging out is therapy for people and the cats,” Jen said. “So, hang out, pet the cats and drop a dollar in the donation box, if you like.”
by Lynn Wasson
