In 2009, Sarasota Code Enforcement banned all adoptions, surrenders, and volunteers to Englewood, Florida’s “World’s Greatest Cathouse,“ Puffy Paws Kitty Haven, a non-profit, no-kill cat hospice and rescue specializing in providing quality and loving care to special needs cats and finding homes for the adoptable kitties under their care.

Bottom line Per Code Enforcement: You can not run a business from a residential home - NO FOOT TRAFFIC.

Since then, my wife, Co-Founder Chrissy Kingston has been taking care of 200 kitties by herself.

Funds in and funds out.

The remaining amount was donations via checks and sales from the online stores.

The priority of incoming funds are in this order: the kitties daily needs, cat food, vet care and operating expenses.

After that, funds are used for the maintenance and improvement of the Haven for the kitties, and the care and maintenance of the vehicles.

Just by asking for help when the kitties need it.
The unwanted and special needs kitties are blessed to have a world wide family that loves them ever so much.
The majority of the funds are donated by the Kitty Lovers throughout the world.

Just by asking for help when the kitties need it.

Being a two man band, Chrissy running the Haven and myself the business end of it all, I wear many hats throughout the day.

I raise the funds needed online.
If I fail at raising the $40,000 a month needed to keep the doors open, there will be no other option but to close down.

What choice would we have?

An entire cat hospice will be wiped out and only painful and sad stories will be told because we could not round up the worldwide awareness and financial help these beautiful cats deserve.

I run to the vet. I'm our webmaster. I do all the graphical artwork. I'm the kitties photographer and video tech.
I update on Facebook everyday.

I put out the SOS's for help. I put out all the fires that pop out daily. I help out at the Haven when needed.

I'm my wife's venting post. I'm the fixer.

Now, let me tell you about Chrissy.  I love my wife, and her plate is full and heavy each and every day.  So I will share her pain.

Each day that Chrissy wakes up, life is pretty overwhelming. Her personal wants and desires went out the window a long time ago.  Her only concern is the kitties under our care.

She works in pain everyday with her rheumatoid arthritis.  She is under a doctor's care, but it is getting worse as the days goes on.  She suffers in silence on most days.

Yet, Chrissy makes the best of everyday and gives it her all by working long hours. Up to 16 hours on most days.
When her head hits the pillow for a brief amount of time, she fears what kind of mess the kitties made while she slumbered.

My wife takes care of the kitties by herself while I run the Business Center and fundraising online.
She has no help, nor friends who want to get down and dirty with the kitties.  She works up to 16 hours a day because Sarasota Code Enforcement banned all traffic at the Haven.

She starts her day by cleaning up any accidents outside the boxes, she mops and vacuums religiously.
Chrissy hauls in 600 pounds of cat litter around the Haven daily, and takes it back out. She washes over 20 cat litter boxes daily.

There are 20 feeding stations for the 200 special needs kitties at Puffy Paws.  Wet and dry food is down 24/7. The wet food gets changed out every four hours and the kitties get fresh bottled water.  She gives out meds. She brushes the kitties.  She tends to the sick ones.  She runs to Publix in the evening, to restock the kitties daily supplies.  She does this day in and day out.

Chrissy is one women doing the job of 20, with the inner strength of 1,000 men.

Chrissy is tired, some days down right exhausted, taking care of the kitties by herself. Her days are long and the same.  It is not a glamorous life style.

It is a down and dirty job to make the Haven spotless everyday and to take care of the kitties.  Day in and day out, year in and year out.

When the media has been in Haven, they say all the same.

It's spotless and odorless for all those hundreds of kitties under Chrissy's care.

Most folks would have thrown in the towel a long time ago and called it quits, but not Chrissy.
Unconditional love is her fuel to go on, taking take care of the sick and unwanted kitties.

She does this while I'm at the Business Center office, raising funds. Some days are better than most, and for Chrissy, when she having a hard day at the Haven, she cries alone.

One day her cell phone pocket dialed me and I heard her crying in the background, and I cried too because I was as powerless as a baby to take away her pain.

She could not hear me, but I heard her loud and clear and my heart broke that day for my wife of 21 years.
At the same time, I'm her venting post and I hear her struggle with pain everyday when I get home.

I wish I was a better husband, listener, and a better provider for the kitties, instead of just making it everyday, to relive the burden that is placed on Chrissy shoulders everyday.

I love to say our marriage is prefect, but it's not due to the extreme situation we are in.

Some days she feels like a prisoner at the Haven as she slaves away taking care of the kitties under her care. The kitties are all she knows these days.

They are her fur-babies with their own very special wants and needs.

Chrissy knows all the kitties by name and what their conditions are.

I hate to say it, but I have a hard time myself remembering all of their names.  But not Chrissy.

I have accepted in my heart that the kitties come first before my needs, when it comes to Chrissy.

I long for better days in our personal relationship, but finding time for us is so hard to do.

When we took our marriage vows, it was for better and for worse, and we will go to our graves knowing this from the first day we were one.

You see, I love my wife and the kitties, and I just wanted to share with you what its like for Chrissy.....

If Puffy Paws ever comes to an end, the kitties will perish because I could not raise the funds to take care of them.
If that ever happens, and with your help, it will not, because if that day ever comes, a piece of each and every one of us will die that day, and all the work to save the kitties would have been in vain.

Chrissy has always said she will go on as long as she can to take care of the kitties under her care.

If you can help and/or share, please do.

Because the kitties need Chrissy, and they need you.

Rick Kingston

Co-Founder

Puffy Paws Kitty Haven