By JENNIFER MCMILLAN
Founder, Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society
We are thrilled to have two individuals supporting us this December, both matching donations to our year-end campaign.
The first donor, who has pledged a matching donation of up to $4,000, has been our matching donor for our last four year-end campaigns. We are so grateful that our second matching donor from 2024 has also returned, pledging a matching donation of up to $10,000. This means that, with your support, we can raise up to $28,000 to help cats in need here on Salt Spring Island.
We are very proud to share these highlights of the first 11 months of 2025:
Total number of cats and kittens assisted: 136 (an 11.5 per cent increase from 2024)
Cats surrendered by owners/caretakers to our rescue: 26
Stray/trapped cats or kittens born in care: 72
Number of cats and kittens adopted to date in 2025: 81
Cats/kittens provided with medical care (spay/neuter, vaccinations or other medical services) as part of our Community Care program: 27
Cats currently in care as part of our Lifetime Foster Program: 14
We enthusiastically continued our colony management projects in 2025. We carried on with trapping a colony on Vesuvius Bay Road, a project which began in 2024. We also brought in eight cats from a colony on Upper Ganges Road, several of whom were pregnant.
Our most significant colony management project in 2025 centred around the large population of black cats in the North Beach/North End Road area. Between August and November, we brought in a total of 36 cats from this colony. Work on this north Salt Spring colony will continue in 2026, as there are still many more cats needing help.
When Salt Spring residents need assistance caring for their own cats, we are here for them. We provided veterinary assistance and/or microchipping to 27 owned cats in 2025. We have also had 26 cats/kittens surrendered to us this year by owners or caretakers who were no longer able to care for them. We provided food and litter free of charge to several Salt Spring residents throughout 2025.
We continue to expand our Lifetime Foster Program and currently have 14 cats placed in homes through this program (up from 10 at the end of 2024). Cats placed through this program live in long-term foster homes where they receive love and care from their foster families, while their medical needs are facilitated by the rescue. The benefits of this program are twofold:
• Homes are provided for cats and kittens who, due to their ages or underlying medical conditions, would not otherwise be “adoptable,”and
• Companion animals are provided for individuals and families who might not otherwise be able to afford pet ownership or to coordinate veterinary care on their own.
We need your support! Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society relies on donations and monies that we fundraise (e.g., through our bottle drives and the Country Grocer Save-a-Tape program) to support our operations, including our work with feral colonies and programs like our Lifetime Foster Program. We charge adoption fees for our kitten and social adult cat adoptions; however, these adoption fees do not cover even our veterinary and food costs.
We are so grateful to have been awarded funds from the Salt Spring 100+ Women Who Care group in October of 2025. These funds have been allocated to some significant veterinary expenses incurred in the late fall of 2025.
We are a completely volunteer-run, foster-based organization, relying on donations from the public and fundraising events to sustain our programs and operations. We do not have any overhead or staffing costs, meaning that all funds received go directly toward assisting cats in our community.
We are a registered Canadian charity, issuing tax receipts for all donations of at least $20 received.
Donations to Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society can be made in several ways:
1. Cheques can be mailed to us at the following address:
Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society
PO Box 837 Ganges
Salt Spring Island, BC
V8K 2W3
2. Donations can be made through e-transfer to our email address – info@catsofsaltspring.com or by using our phone number: 236-508-2287.
3. Donations can be made through canadahelps.org. Although an administrative fee is deducted, tax receipts are provided directly to donors from Canada Helps.
Thanks to our dedicated supporters, we are making a tremendous difference in the lives of so many cats and kittens here on Salt Spring Island. None of this would be possible without our community’s support.