Feline Rescue — Attraction in Saint Paul

Note that I haven't been to Feline Rescue for a number of years, so my info might be outdated. But I wanted to review it anyway. I was a volunteer there for about a year and I also fostered 2 cats for a little while from their outreach program.

Volunteering was good. You would scoop all the litter boxes and then clean the kennels and surfaces in the rooms. Then you would mop the floors. Sometimes you could do tasks in the intake room where they quarantined new cats before putting them in with the others. After all the work was done you could play with the cats.

Some cats had their own rooms. There were 2 big general rooms, one for FIV+ cats (I accidentally let a few out once, that was a disaster), and one for quiet and shy cats. Then there were a few rotating rooms/areas for cats that needed it. The cats would be in kennels overnight and when the shelter was closed but when people were there they could run free and play.

I learned a ton about cat behavior both by watching them and from other volunteers.

One thing I remember vividly is that they would put out food for feral cats, and if you left around dusk, you could see dozens of pairs of glowing eyes coming towards you from all directions. I'll never forget that!

The outreach program took in really difficult cats that the main shelter couldn't take. The two I fostered actually had fleas and I had never dealt with that, so I learned a lot from that situation.

I attached some pictures of cats but I didn't see any pics of the areas in the shelter. The two in the blue hamper are the ones I fostered and that is in...

If I could leave zero stars I would. I was hoping to start fostering and also adopt from Feline Rescue. I had adopted once before and was told by staff and volunteers that if there was a problem I could bring the cat back, no questions asked. Unfortunately I returned the cat within a week due to persistent problems with my resident cat. I did keep them separate, but there was a day that the new cat got out and went after the resident cat and almost killed him. During the time that I did have him in the room I frequently went in to play with him and give him some love. Unfortunately he kept trying to get out of the room and caused scratches on his nose. This was all explained when I returned him. . Now because of this past incident I'm being told that I can't volunteer or adopt again. I was also told that I was rude to staff and volunteers. Which is absolutely not true. I was told that I missed an appointment, not true, because I called and told the foster that I was sick and couldn't make it. We then rescheduled. I was also told that I didn't care for the medical needs of the cat correctly- also not true. Be careful with this place, they say one thing and then do the complete opposite. Shall we...

5 stars for the way they treat thier cats & kittens.. thanks in large part to the vet staff that work so hard to treat & cure sick and injured kitties.. but a word of advice to anyone trying to adopt a cat.. do not go when a "volunteer coordinator" named Selma is working there. When I was volunteering there she worked on Friday nights. Very likely she will NOT let you adopt the cat(s) or kitten(s) you are interested in & will instead try to push another one of her choosing on you, like a used car sales parking lot. Ive seen her do it every night I volunteered to multiple people & both times when I tried to adopt (the 1st time a beautiful adult cat, the 2nd two kittens) with cash in hand (not to mention a long history of growing up with cats & dogs) she would not even give me the time of day, yelled at me for "bothering her" in the office & then claimed that she had no clue why I was "bothering her" on the job when all I was trying to do was adopt an animal & I was sick of her blowing me off. I would recommend finding out when she DOESN'T work & then going there then, because she thinks that Feline Rescue is all about HER, when Im pretty sure most people go there...