Monadnock Kitty Rescue’s dedicated duo named Hometown Heroes

Mary Wright and Heidi Bourgeois, shelter managers for Monadnock Kitty Rescue and Adoption in Jaffrey, know the cats in their care.

Some are at the shelter for a short stay before being adopted. Others are feral or have serious medical needs, and though all cats are up for adoption, some may be residents for life.

“But that’s okay. They’re not homeless. This is their home,” said Wright.

Many of the feral cats aren’t in individual cages, but live in groups in open rooms, with access to outdoor “catios,” enclosed spaces that let them experience the outdoors.

It is their dedication to running the all-volunteer, no-kill shelter that makes Wright and Bourgeois the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Heroes for the month of March.

The 501c3 nonprofit shelter, which was started in 2001, is staffed by volunteers — including Wright and Bourgeois — who dedicate their time every day to making sure the cats are fed and medicated, rooms are cleaned, and intake and adoption of about 200 animals each year are handled.

The duo was nominated by Carole William of Peterborough, who knows them through their work. After adopting two cats from Kitty Rescue in 2004 and several more since, William became one of the shelter’s volunteers in 2010 and 2011, going in every day to help clean, feed, and socialize the cats.

She said she’s seen firsthand how hard it is to keep the shelter going and the sacrifices it takes to keep it running.

“These people mean it, they’re there to counsel, rescue, help place, help people with behavioral issues,” William said. “Especially more recently, there is a helplessness that many of us feel, so many things that seem to be going wrong, and it’s restorative to have a group say ‘This is a problem we can do something about’, and they have.”

Both women have been involved in the shelter since its founding. Bourgeois said it began as an effort among local women trying to manage feral cat populations in their communities. Bourgeois was working out of Keene, and said that the concept really took shape after she found a litter of feral kittens, and reached out to a woman in Jaffrey known for helping raise them.

It was a much smaller operation then, Bourgeois said, with maybe 10 cats at a time. But over time, it’s blossomed.

Wright said she knew she wanted to be involved right away when she was invited to be involved by her co-worker at her day job.

“I’ve just always loved cats, always,” Wright said. “I had probably taken in a feral cat in my teens, and didn’t know it was a feral cat.”

Now, the shelter has about 100 cats, some surrendered pets and some ferals or strays that have been trapped by concerned neighbors or shelter volunteers. In addition to taking in ferals, the shelter will also assist with trapping, neutering and releasing cats back to their original location, if a resident will take responsibility for providing a shelter and regularly feeding and watering them.

Keeping the feral cat population under control is an ongoing battle, said Bourgeois.

“In the last 24 years, we’ve never found it’s not a need,” she said. In part, she said, that’s because cats can breed as young as four months old, and have a short gestation period. One cat recently taken in by the shelter had a litter of six-week-old kittens, and was already pregnant again when she was taken in.

The shelter is fundraising to start a community low-cost spay-and-neuter program and is holding a golf tournament on May 15 at the Crotched Mountain Golf Club in Francestown. Registrations are $125 per player or $500 for a foursome, and include 18 holes of golf, lunch, and a $10,000 hole-in-one contest. To register, email info@kittyrescuenh.org by May 2.