Meowy Christmas

Cat Depot finds success with adoption event and mother and daughter-in-law duo win episode of "Chopped."

By Amanda Morales
| 6:00 a.m. December 23, 2015

Courtesy photo. Santa Claus sits with Lexington.

Sarasota
Neighbors

A special guest who helped Cat Depot set a record for number of adoptions in a weekend Dec. 12 and Dec. 13: Santa Claus, who attended the “Home for the Holidays," campaign. Santa spent the weekend surrounded by purring cats and kittens anxious to tell him about their holiday wishes for furrever homes. For 65 cats and kittens, that wish came true.

“Normally that’s how many we have in a month,” said Lynn Rasys, director of communications and development at Cat Depot. “That’s almost half the floor. We have typically 130 cats and kittens on the floor at a time.”

Courtesy photo. Mara and Gena Christiani

Whipping up success

Laurel Oak Country Club’s Pastry chef, Mara Cristiani and her daughter-in-law, Gena, took home the $10,000 prize Dec. 10, on the Food Network show "Chopped." The competition pitted teams of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law against each other to create a three-course dinner from unusual ingredients provided to each pair by the judges.