Kitty City built at Nate's Honor with $250,000 donation from volunteer

Martha McKlveen is passionate about cats, especially those who have issues that keep them from being adopted.

By Madison Bierl
| 5:00 a.m. December 9, 2025

Martha McKlveen, a Nate's Honor Animal Rescue Center volunteer and donor, is eager for Kitty City to be able to support more cats that are in need, just like the over 1,000 she has fostered since 2009.

East County
Neighbors

Martha McKlveen, a longtime Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue Center volunteer, has a big heart for cats, and especially the ones who have health or behavioral issues that might keep them from being adopted.

An example is Mulan, who now is McKlveen’s oldest cat at 10. Mulan had just given birth to kittens in 2017 and wasn’t doing well in the shelter environment, so McKlveen decided to take her home.

McKlveen has fostered over 1,000 cats since 2009 and currently owns five cats that she described as "foster fails."

“You just get attached to them and I still cry because they deserve to have a safe environment to live in,” McKlveen said. “Not everybody, not all cats, are going to be cuddle bugs. I just make sure that I match them up with somebody who knows the expectation is not that the cat's going to sit on their lap and purr every night, but to be able to watch watch them develop and grow.”

Fiona and Shrek are among the cats that have been housed in the 400 square foot cat room. With Kitty City, Nate's Honor Animal Rescue Center hopes to get 1,000 cats adopted next year compared to this years 300. — Fiona and Shrek are among the cats that have been housed in the 400-square-foot cat room. With Kitty City, Nate's Honor Animal Rescue Center hopes to get 1,000 cats adopted next year compared to this year's 300.

For McKlveen, who is 75, volunteering has given her a purpose, as she said she would probably be sitting at home in her recliner a whole lot more. McKlveen’s impact at Nate’s Honor goes beyond greeting people at the shelter and fostering so many cats over the years.

McKlveen has donated $250,000 to Nate’s Honor, which completely funded the new cat wing — Kitty City — that will open in the first quarter of 2026. Right now the cats are in one 400-square-foot room. Kitty City expands the space for cats to 1,500 square feet.

Martha McKlveen's current cats

Currently in her care are five adopted cats:

Mulan is 10 years old and was adopted in 2017 after not doing well in the shelter environment and escaping a medical trailer.
Fuzzster is 8 years old and Martha adopted him in 2018 simply because he was cute.
Symba is 5 years old and seemed to have medical issues at a young age that he seemed to have outgrown. By the time he could be adopted, he was always whining at the door for Martha so she couldn't let him go.
Greyson is 3 years old and was adopted in 2022 from Knoxviille, Tennessee after a friend of Martha's said she needed to have him.
Echo is 8 months old and was adopted this year after going through surgery for a heart murmur. Without the surgery she had a short life expectancy but is now enjoying her time with Martha.

Nate's Honor has been planning and implementing construction for its renovated facility for eight years.

“When they announced what we were going to do as time went on (in 2019), I finally just said, ‘What will it cost me?’” McKlveen said. “I've fulfilled that obligation.”

The cat wing includes five rooms for individuals or pairs of cats. Those rooms will have big windows so they cats will be on display for adoption. There is also an office, kitchen and laundry room just for the cat wing.

Ophelia and Opalite, two kittens that returned to Nate's Honor Rescue Center after being fostered, test out a new cat condo located in the new Kitty City. Rob Oglesby said it was made out of durable material that is used for cabinets on boats, which holds up to anything.

In addition to the five individual rooms, there are seven rooms that will hold more cats — four rooms that hold three to four cats and three bigger rooms that can hold between six and eight. They all feature cat condos, interactive screens for the cats to play games, vented litter boxes and “catios” where the cats can take in the natural sunlight.

Rob Oglesby, the development director at Nate’s, said much of the cat condos are made of material used on boats.

“They make cabinets on boats," he said. "It holds up to everything until you can clean it. It's dense. It holds up to anything.”

Kitty City is especially important to McKlveen because it features silhouettes of McKlveen’s favorite cats she has fostered and owned.

The idea stemmed from a Christmas present she received in 2020, a Nate’s Honor sweatshirt with the silhouettes, from Michaela Oglesby who works as a veterinarian at the facility. Those same silhouettes and more are now spread across the walls to honor past and present cats.

Nate's Honor Animal Rescue Center volunteer and donor Martha McKlveen received a personalized sweatshirt from Michaela Oglesby, a veterinarian at the shelter, in 2020. Now the same cats are honored on the walls of Kitty City.

“All of the cats in our care that are going to be in those rooms are going to walk past all of the success stories,” Michaela Oglesby said.

Rob Oglesby said as of Dec. 3, 228 cats have been adopted through 2025. They expect to adopted out more than 300 by the new year, and with the new kitty city, Oglesby hopes they are able to get over 1,000 cats adopted next year.

“We had some donors here yesterday who love cats, and they're like, ‘This is just amazing,’” Rob Oglesby said. “They’ve been involved with other groups all over the country and they're like, ‘I've never seen anything like this.’”

The hallways of Kity City, which was fully funded by Martha McKlveen, honors her current cats as well as favorites she was fostered.

Once Kitty City opens its doors, Nate’s will need more volunteers to help as they will be caring for more cats. Volunteers will clean the rooms, feed and socialize with the cats, clean the litter boxes and more. McKlveen said in the past, volunteers have dumped food and litter that was perfectly usable so it’s important for them to go through training to know how to properly care for the felines.

Michaela Oglesby said that without financial support and volunteers like Martha, they wouldn’t be able to expand.

“With more space and more facilities comes the ability to do more,” Michaela Oglesby said.

author

Madison Bierl

Madison Bierl is the education and community reporter for the East County Observer. She grew up in Iowa and studied at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University.