Feral Cat Success Stories: Good Mews

Established in 1988, Good Mews is Georgia’s oldest cage-free, no-kill cat shelter. We asked Nancy Riley, who serves on the board of directors, to give our readers the inside story on its success.

1) Tell us more about how Good Mews started. Who were its founders, and what sparked its beginning?

Our founder, Gloria Skeen, was a flight attendant who recognized a stray cat over-population problem and set out to do something about it. With a few likeminded friends, she started taking in cats, spaying and neutering them, and learning how to start a nonprofit organization. Nearly 30 years later, Good Mews has morphed from a small group’s passion to help stray cats into a million-dollar, state-of-the-art adoption facility in Marietta.

Good Mews occupies 5,500 square feet of bright and airy space. It's filled with cat trees, perches, and toys to stimulate the resident cats’ natural tendency for exploration and play. We believe strongly that no healthy cat should be euthanized simply because there is no space to house them, so we fervently support a no-kill philosophy. About 100 cats live at Good Mews while they await their forever families. Another 30-40 cats—mostly kittens—live in foster homes until they move to the shelter. Our mission is finding good homes for good kitties. Our adoption counselors match families with just the right feline for their home and lifestyle.

2) Can you describe what a typical day at Good Mews looks like?

With just three paid staff, Good Mews relies heavily on more than 350 volunteers. Our volunteers donate their time to clean the shelter, feed the cats, and administer medication when necessary. They also socialize the cats, plan special events, fund-raise, and much more. Each day, volunteers clean the shelter from top to bottom twice–in the morning and evening–and feed all the cats twice. The staff monitors all the cats' health, arranges for vet visits as needed, and hosts vets.

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3) Tell us about your specialized programs for helping cats.

Good Mews offers several innovative programs. The Home at Last (HALO) program helps special-needs cats find their forever homes by paying for special medical bills even after adoption. We also offer a unique “Yoga with Cats” class that has been featured on CNN and in publications worldwide. Participants get to do yoga under the supervision of several friendly cats. And our “Reading to Cats” program invites students in grades 1-8 to read aloud to the cats. It helps kids build confidence in their reading skills while helping socialize the cats. Both the yoga and reading programs reinforce the human-animal connection that is so important to the well-being of both.

4) Can you tell us about one of your favorite animals currently looking for a family?

La Tigra is an exotic beauty with a huge personality. You can often find her sitting on someone’s lap, soaking up all the attention she can get. La Tigra just doesn’t like other cats. If she is sitting on someone's lap, and another cat comes around, watch out! La Tigra will quickly let the other cat know he is not welcome. She also tends to fuss with some of the other cats, which can land her in “time-out.” Sometimes, people think she is aggressive, but that is far from the truth. La Tigra loves people and just wants a person to call her own.

La Tigra was living outside as a stray when someone found her and her eight kittens. Luckily, someone spotted the babies. Later, they also saw La Tigra and contacted Good Mews. We knew we couldn’t let this family try to survive outside, so we immediately placed them in a foster home where they were safe and well-cared for.

Once the babies were old enough for adoption, they were all quickly adopted. We hope that La Tigra will find that special person that she has been longing for.

5) What’s one of your favourite adoption success stories?

There are so many! We have a list of great happy endings on our website here: http://goodmews.org/adopt/happy-endings/

6) What advice would you give someone interested in helping the feral cats in their neighbourhood?

The best thing you can do for feral community cats is to TNR – trap, neuter, return. Once they are older than 2 months, feral cats will be very hard to socialize. At that point, it’s best to give them shelter and food and take steps to control the populations. Alley Cat Allies is a great organization in the US that offers tips for caring for feral cats. Check out their website here: https://www.alleycat.org/

A huge shoutout to Nancy Riley and the wonderful staff and volunteers of Good Mews! Thank you for sharing your inspiring story with our readers!

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