Blue Moon Cat Sanctuary (Witter)

All cats that are 3 months or older and come into the Blue Moon Cat Sanctuary are spayed or neutered before they are released to their new owners.

Blue Moon is in frequent contact with local "kill" shelters, and takes in many cats from them when their time is up; Blue Moon does not kill cats, but keeps them until a suitable home for each can be found, thus helping to lower the euthanasia rates for the surrounding more conventional shelters.

Blue Moon has many cat-people friends who help foster cats and kittens for them.

Blue Moon Cat Sanctuary promotes their cats in several different ways. They have cats on display at the Fayetteville Petco store, and hold frequent adoption events there and at other stores in Northwest Arkansas. They have several web sites and a Facebook page. They can sometimes deliver cats to their new owners. They encourage visitors to come meet adoptable cats at their facility in Witter, Arkansas. Sometimes they offer price breaks for special-needs cats. They have adopted cats out to new owners in many states, even to some far from Arkansas.

Blue Moon staff and volunteers try to make sure that the cats they are adopting out are the right ones for those families or individuals by learning what other animals may be present in the home and whether they might be compatible with a particular cat, and what human family members would be at the home, how they are with cats, whether the cat would be inside only, etc. Contact information for low-cost spay/neuter is available at the Petco adoption site and is frequently provided when a kitten younger than 3 months is being adopted out. If a cat is later determined to be simply the wrong cat for that family or individual, an exchange can be made. If people are wanting to surrender a cat and it sounds like it would be because of just needing a little education on how to deal with cats and litter, cats and children, etc. sometimes the staff can make suggestions which can help turn the situation around.

The folks at Blue Moon really do an amazing job with a network of clinics and veterinarians, plus a lot of knowledge and experience with pulling cats through injury and illness. They initially separate new arrivals for a period of observation, before socializing them with the others. They have spent countless hours nursing cats and kittens back to health, and making friends with those shy types. Cats and kittens that are adopted out through Blue Moon have vaccination records which come with them, and are up-to-date on the basic vaccinations appropriate for their ages.

Blue Moon is partnered with Petco, which provides them a set of cat display cages near the front of the Fayetteville store. They have a variety of other ways of promoting adoptions, including adoption events there and at other NW Arkansas stores of various types, and through their web sites and Facebook page. They network with folks from Missouri to New York City, and elsewhere.

The Blue Moon Cat Sanctuary uses volunteers to clean its cages and talk with those interested in adopting, at the Fayetteville Petco store and also uses its volunteers for helping make cat-to-human introductions at its adoption events. Other volunteers help with some of the online duties, such as writing descriptions of particular cats, filming events, and fundraising. Some do fostering; some do rescue.

Being that Blue Moon Cat Sanctuary does not euthanize its cats anyway, so no worries about that! The easy visibility of cats at the front of the Petco store has afforded at least one return that I know of, of a cat to his young child owner. Anyone missing a cat is welcome to contact Blue Moon to see if they might have one of that description.

The head of Blue Moon is one of the hardest-working, most compassionate people I have ever seen, and her husband is right in there with her, working with and for the cats.