Feline fine at the 20th Anniversary Gala for Cat Depot

Happy purr-thday to Cat Depot. Celebrating with a gala held at the Hyatt Regency on March 7, with about 225 cool cats who attended, it was a night filled with a silent auction, wine pull, live music, dinner, dessert, and no "kitten" around — three tortoise kitties with human names,  Ivy, Laurel and Noel, who stole the show.

The current vice president is co-founder Linda Slavin, and her husband, Ken, serves as president of Cat Depot. With a mission to save lives, find loving homes, and provide resources and education to improve the destiny of homeless cats, they work tirelessly together with a team of volunteers, advocates and partners in addition to their staff of devoted cat-lovers.

Cat Depot has four main services it provides, which include adoption, affordable cat-specific veterinary care, public education and family activities, and a community cats program.

A female cat can begin reproduction as young as 5 months, and with a gestation period of only 65 days, can potentially become pregnant five times in a year. With an estimated 60-100 million stray cats in America, Florida's share is roughly 6.3-9.6 million, and Sarasota County can claim a staggering 55,000 as its own. Cat Depot has placed over 19,000 stray cats to date, and recent stats show 165 cats have been adopted in 2024.

With an adoption fee of $25, Cat Depot’s successful Senior to Senior program will pair humans who are 60+ years with senior cats aged 8+. Monies raised go directly to Cat Depot and cover the costs of shelter medical treatments, daily cat car, supplies for community cats, management, education, salaries and more.