MEDINA: There is an unwritten rule at Kitten Krazy rescue and cat adoption shelter on Lafayette Road in Medina.
A potential adopter might decide which feline he or she likes best, but if the cat doesn’t agree, the deal is off, said Wendy Mirrotto, executive director of Kitten Krazy and the adjoining Quick Fix wellness clinic. She pointed to a cat named Halle as an example.
“That cat has not so much as looked at anyone since he got here in April,” said Mirrotto during a recent tour of the facility.
Indeed, the black cat didn’t bother to glance at visitors staring at him from behind a glass window.
But when a little girl entered the room recently, the cat wouldn’t leave her alone, Mirrotto said.
“That’s how it works,” she said.
The child offered Mirrotto $20 to hold Halle until her parents were ready to come back to adopt her.
“I’m going to make sure she’s still here when that happens,” she said.
Quick Fix, which opened in its current location alongside Kitten Krazy in July 2011, has completed just under 13,000 spays and neuters of cats and dogs, 900 of them on feral cats to prevent them from reproducing.
The success those numbers represent is one of the reasons the Medina Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals turned to the clinic when it took on the issue of the county’s unwanted felines last month, said SPCA Executive Director Stephanie Moore.
The nonprofit agency rescues abandoned, abused, neglected and injured animals and those that are victims of cruelty in Medina County. It offered to step in to take owner-surrendered and stray healthy cats for the first time in its history when the county shelter decided to stop accepting them.
“The county was being criticized for their method of euthanizing cats, so we decided we could help and went to them to discuss different options,” Moore said.
The county shelter took in 490 cats in 2012, including 152 ferals, and euthanized 267 of them, according to statistics provided by Medina County.
Medina, one of four counties in Ohio that still used a carbon monoxide chamber to euthanize cats, came under fire by animal welfare advocates that claimed the method was inhumane and urged commissioners to adopt a policy instead using sodium pentobarbital injections.
The county is not required to take stray and surrendered cats, and commissioners decided in December to stop accepting them, said Chris Jakab, Medina County administrator.
“When the issue arose with regard to cats, we were approached by the SPCA about taking over the cat intake and adoptions. We thought that would be a better way to handle it,” Jakab said.
Commissioners offered the SPCA $13,000 to take in healthy adoptable cats from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2014, leased their cat enclosures to the agency, then transferred their remaining cats to the South Medina Street facility.
The county shelter, which ranks as one of the highest in the state in dog adoptions with a 92 percent save rate, didn’t have the same success with cat adoptions, Jakab said.
The SPCA has been using Quick Fix for spay and neuter surgeries since it opened, so calling on the agency to handle more volume was a given, said Moore.
The agency has grown so rapidly, Mirrotto, who started the rescue in her Brunswick Hills backyard 10 years ago, is currently moving the adoption center next door to a 4,000-square-foot building, doubling the available space for operations.
The clinic and rescue are headed by a board of directors and has an annual budget of about $600,000. The agency has one full-time and two part-time veterinarians and a staff of 18 full- and part-time employees, including four registered veterinary technicians and two vet techs in training.
Last year, Kitten Krazy found homes for 470 cats, its best year to date.
The clinic, which operates a large transport truck for animals, sponsors several programs, including a senior foster program that connects seniors with felines and provides all necessary medical care for cats at no charge.
Each week, Thursdays are set aside for examinations and alterations for animals from other rescue groups.
Jen D’Aurelio, executive director of Paws and Prayers, said she has been using the clinic for about six months for animals her group has rescued from around the state.
“What I love is that they not only perform spays and neuters for us, they examine the animals and send back notes on other medical needs we should watch out for,” D’Aurelio said.
Veterinarian Scott Morse said on a recent Monday that he expected to do 38 surgeries, including female cat spays that may take only a few minutes and several large dogs alterations, which would take much longer.
Clinic vets are not expected to do a set number of surgeries a day because each surgery is different and some are much more difficult than others, he said.
“Everything here gets a point system,” he said. “I’m comfortable with between 400 and 500 points in a day. When it gets beyond that, we stop.”
Mirrotto admits she is a stickler for organization. Information about every animal’s health and welfare is entered on a spreadsheet. Each week, a 10-member volunteer committee meets to discuss and manage the care the animal receives.
On the day an animal enters the facility, it is assigned a chart containing all the information each staff member will use when working with the animal.
Mirrotto also insists that the facility is kept clean at all times and has no offensive odor, the bane of many shelters. Music from speakers soothes animals and staff throughout the day.
As with most nonprofits, funding needs are constant but Mirrotto was quick to add donors are always thanked in writing.
Signs remind staff to treat each other and visitors with dignity.
“Our focus is to enhance people’s lives with the animals we serve,” Mirrotto said.
Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com.