Cathy Arratia of Felton found her feline calling while working at Costco 15 years ago.
“A lot of times, people would dump cats they couldn’t take care of,” Arratia said.
Her heart went out to the abandoned animals, which often huddled in cardboard boxes outside the warehouse to keep warm. Soon, she started taking the cats to get spayed or neutered with her bonus paychecks.
“I also tried to adopt them out,” she said. “My parents started the American Wildlife Rescue in Scotts Valley, so you might say people could guess where this comes from.”
Arratia opened Pet Palace, a grooming shop in Felton that specializes in cats, though she grooms dogs as well, seven years ago.
To say Arratia is a cat lover would be an understatement.
“They are my true love,” she said.
“I really feel a connection to them. I’ve been called everything from the cat whisperer to the shaman woman.”
On average, she finds a home for 25 cats a year. For a long time, when elderly clients died or got too old to care for their cats, Arratia would take them until she found a suitable home — or would just keep them herself.
“I no longer do that because animal services changed their rules,” Arratia said. “Ideally, I would like to be a nonprofit that works with the shelter.”
Her vision is to open a hospice program for people who can’t afford medication or care for their “end-of-life” cats and for those who grow too old to take care of their feline companions.
“This is what I’m meant to do,” Arratia said. “I’m hoping people will come out of the woodwork to help me with advice. This really is a service that could benefit a lot of animals and people.”
Arratia said she’s boarded many end-of-life cats at the Pet Palace, often free of charge.
She doesn’t just give them a place to stay. She concocts special homeopathic diets. She figures out their favorite foods. And she makes sure they can die quietly when it’s their time to go.
She said she doesn’t do it for the money.
“A friend told me to become a nonprofit, because it’s what I do anyway,” Arratia said. “I just want to take care of the animals, but there’s overhead.”
Leilani Taylor of Felton said she’s taken her animals to Arratia for five years.
“Cathy has a huge heart and does a lot for the cats,” Taylor said. “She really knows how to handle them and knows how to read them. She also does a lot of free stuff for people. It’d be nice for her to become a nonprofit to get something back.”
At a glance
WHAT: Animal advocate Cathy Arratia grooms animals, feeds and rescues stray cats and hopes to start a cat hospice nonprofit.
WHERE: Pet Palace, 6535 Highway 9, in Felton
INFO: 335-7703
