Furever Friends Cat Rescue

by Ryan Jo Summers

Glynn and Pam Lookabill of Asheville feel a calling for animal rescue. They had been involved with Furever Friends in the early days of 2002 when Founder Steve Poplawski used his home and space in Old Fort. When Steve retired in 2016, Pam and Glynn took over.

They changed to a foster-only system so they could spend more funds on hands-on pet care instead of real estate expenses. Shortly after that decision, they applied for a federal 501 (c)(3) non-profit status as well. Their mission is to work with individual rescuers to keep cats out of the country shelters, thus becoming a no-kill cat rescue organization without a physical sheltering location. Since its inception, Furever Friends has placed about ten thousand cats into loving homes

Families who want to foster are asked to have a separate space in their house, like a bathroom or spare bedroom, where new arrivals can be quarantined. They can usually honor foster family requests to have just older cats, just kittens, short- or long-term fosters, bonded pairs, mothers and babies, bottle-feeding babies, foster to adopt, or just about any other personal request. If potential foster families wanted just orange tabbies or only shorthaired cats, they could probably accommodate that too.

Furever Friends is 100% volunteer run. All the board members are also foster families. They also furnish their own kitty food, litter, beds, toys, etc. Furever Friends will provide all that to foster families, as well as completing all core vaccines, spay/neuter, microchip, deflea and deworming on all cat adoptions. They still test every cat for feline leukemia, a highly contagious feline disease. And most importantly, adopted cats can be brought back to Furever Friends to complete their core vaccines series once they are in their adopted home.

Adoption events are held at Petco on Merrimon Avenue every Saturday from 2-6 pm and at Pet Supermarket on Tunnel Road every Sunday from 2-6 pm. Furever Friends is the only local rescue group that offers Sunday adoptions, to help local families with busy work schedules, to find that new family member.

Another exciting event they hold is “Caturday Yoga". Furever Friends brings adoptable cats to the Violet Owl Wellness studio. Yoga participants pay for their class, and share their time with some furry yoga naturals. Then all proceeds those days go to Furever Friends.

There are approximately 100 to 150 cats in Furever Friends rescue any given time. About 50-80 are adopted each month. There are also about a dozen community colonies helped by Furever Friends, and the cats are all trapped, neutered, and released back to their colony. However, those consistently high numbers mean they go through a ton of food, litter, supplies, and help.

Food donation bins are set up at both Petco and Pet Supermarket locations. Furever Friends advises they usually don’t take cats found by the public as those might be wandering family pets. If you find a stray cat in your yard, contact your local animal shelter first to give it a chance to be reunited with its family.

Contacting Furever Friends to adopt, to donate or to volunteer can be done by phone (828 348-7198), on the web fureverfriends.petfinder.com, on Facebook Fureverfriendsanimalrescue,est 2002 or by email fureverfriends@bellsouth.net.

Whether you are looking to adopt a kitten or cat, or just want to help some in need, check out Furever Friends in Asheville. Ten thousand cats homed can’t be wrong.

Ryan Jo Summers is a local author and animal advocate. To learn more about her and her writing, visit her website at ryanjosummers.com, her blog at summersrye.wordpress.com, or her Facebook page at facebook.com/RyanJoSummersAuthor