Ever wonder how our shelter came to be? This is our origin story.
Cat Care Society (CCS) was founded in 1981 by Linda East, DVM and Lynn Rowe. It began on the second floor of East’s Lincoln Street cat-only veterinary clinic near downtown Denver and became an official 501(c)(3) federally tax exempt non-profit organization in October 1982.
In 1985, the founders purchased a small home at 11th and Harlan in Lakewood, which was converted and served as a shelter for the next 16 years. The house was sold when the shelter later relocated, but it still stands there today.
Kathy Macklem Hill was the organization’s first executive director, serving 20 years in total until January 2006. The first statistics collected in 1986 for eight months showed 146 adoptions, an average of 16 per month (compare this to our stats today!).
Photos: The Early Days
The current property was purchased as a parcel of land in the fall of 1994 to serve as a new cage-free cat shelter. It took much work to rezone the area from office to industrial use. A capital campaign was established to raise funds to build the shelter.
At this time, CCS only had three paid employees — a shelter manager, cleaner and a volunteer coordinator. The shelter manager also served as the vet tech, receptionist, adoption coordinator and fill-in cleaner, on call 24/7. The executive director volunteered her time at 60 to 80 hours a week. By this time, CCS was doing an average of 27 adoptions per month.
The small white house on the front of the property is the original farmhouse located on the property. In 1995, it was renovated to house a charity thrift store called Cajun’s Closet, named after CCS’ mascot at the time. Cajun was a large long-haired orange tabby in residence at the shop until 2002 when his health began to fail. After losing one eye and becoming blind in the other, it was time for him to retire. When the thrift shop closed, it was again remodeled for much-needed office space and now holds multiple administrative offices and some very special cats.
It took six years of grassroots fundraising from 1995 to 2001 to break ground on the $1.2 million, 10,000 square foot custom-built facility at 5787 W 6th Avenue in Lakewood. The shelter as we know it opened in 2001 and is where we still are today. The new building also allowed us to open our first in-shelter store, Meow Mart!
By 2002, adoptions increased to 862, an average of 72 per month.
In October 2005, we completed the lower level of the shelter and opened The Cat Clinic at Cat Care Society, which served both private-pay clients and low-income families. In 2018, the clinic was closed as it was no longer financially sustainable. However, the shelter cats are still taken care of in this area by our medical care team as all medical and treatment care remains in-house.
The first-ever Tails of the Painted Cats event was announced in 2010 and debuted in 2011, now heading into its 10th gala.
Learn more about us in this 40th-anniversary video produced by 9News Denver:
What do you remember of Cat Care Society’s early years? Share your memories and favorite moments in the comments!
