GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Second Chance Cats of West Michigan is a relatively new rescue planned to expand in the far-off future—but an opportunity presented itself that it couldn’t pass up.
The animal rescue has been in this space on Knapp Street in Grand Rapids for almost eight months.
The suite next door recently became available and they decided now was the time to expand.
“It kind of just fell into our laps and we're like, we know what, let's go for it," said Laura Moody, director of Second Chance Cats.
The suite will be converted to an event center that will offer fun activities like cat yoga, cat care classes and a cat library.
“We think it'll be a nice place people can come and read to the cats or just have some quiet time. We think it'll be a good place for kids to come and learn how to interact with the cats and also have story time," Moody said.
Since the rescue started, it's been able to help more than 130 cats find families.
It pulls cats from municipal shelters like older gentleman Dan from Calhoun County.
“He's just the sweetest cat in the world. We don't know how he ended up in you know, in a shelter that way, but we're really happy we were able to get him out of that shelter environment and bring him into this environment and hopefully find him a forever home," Moody said.
Second Chance Cats is 100% funded by donations from the community.
The plan is to have the event center up and running in two months or less.
"That's really what keeps us going is just the generosity of the community, the likeminded people who believe in what we're doing and believe in us and believe in the cats," Moody said.
The hope is that by allowing people to interact with the cats in the new space, more of these deserving cats like Dan will get adopted.
Network for Good has set up a fundraiser to help with costs for the new event center. To donate, click here.
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