Best Cat Retirement Home
The Hermitage Cat Shelter
IF CATS REALLY have nine lives, then the 75 or more cats at the Hermitage Cat Shelter will get to spend the rest of theirs living in unquestionable luxury.The Hermitage, a single-family home and backyard complex in central Tucson, is singularly devoted to caring for older or less fortunate cats. The cat house was started in 1967 as the mission of Sister Seraphim, a Russian Orthodox nun. Sister has since passed away, but the cats enjoy the safety and comfort of her legacy.
Most of the felines are adults who ended up abandoned or alone after their owners' deaths. For these cats, the Hermitage is a kitty retirement home, after a lifetime of work as companions and friends to humans. Here they are treated with more care and respect than many people receive in their golden years.
You won't catch the staff and volunteers at Hermitage catnapping; taking care of a colony of cats is no small task. Work begins at 7 a.m., with cleaning and feeding taking about three hours. The Hermitage then opens for tours and adoptions 11 a.m.-2 p.m. daily.
The only cages used are for sick or recovering cats. Grouped and managed by age, diet or special needs, cats roam free in their rooms and a labyrinth of outdoor covered patios.
Though the dozen rooms and covered porch are filled with a mass of cats, where they all start to look alike after awhile, each feline has its own distinctive personality and name. Some of the cats' sorry stories are what makes it easy to tell them apart. Rooster has tan stripes and one eye. Barney has seven toes on one paw. Twinner is 22 years old and blind.
The "Cabinet Kitties" hang about, watching from their pressboard lairs. The "Spraysters," well, you can imagine. The "Oldsters" are all older than 10 years; one Oldster, a Sister Seraphim original, recently passed away at 30 years old.
The Hermitage tries to find as many good humans for the cats as possible. While they take kittens for adoption, the focus is finding safe homes for the adult cats. Some cats aren't adoptable--they're too old, they spray or are scarred from past abuse. But because the Hermitage is a "no-kill" shelter (except in cases of painful or terminal illness), these cats have little to worry about except where to find the appropriate scratching post or litter box.
The Hermitage has cats available for adoption at Petsmart (4740 E. Grant Road) Mondays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers do home checks before and after adoptions. The fee is $25, which helps support the shelter.
The Hermitage is no longer religiously affiliated, and depends on donations to operate. The $55,000 budget is stretched thin and more money is needed to care for the plethora of purring pussies.
For more information about the Hermitage, call 571-7839. Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 13508, Tucson, AZ, 85732.
--Sarah Garrecht
