Community Concern For Cats — Local services in Walnut Creek

UPDATE: it’s been two weeks since this review and I haven’t heard from anybody at this organization. A complete disregard for my concern and feelings. By all means, adopt from them, but don’t trust anything they say. It feels like they played me for the money I offered, and either they don’t want to actually socialize and find the kittens homes (as promised), or they are totally inept/negligent when it comes to socializing kittens.

This review will either turn into a scathing 1 star review, or 5 stars. A pregnant cat recent showed up in my mom’s driveway and gave birth to six kittens under her shed. We tried every rescue and none could help, including Community Concern for Cats (CC4C), who were full. So my mom and I offered $600 to Lea, who I met at the Martinez Pet Food Express, if she could find a foster. The money seemed to work, as very quickly she was able to find a foster (Rachel) to socialize the kittens. I captured all six kittens shortly thereafter and handed them over to Rachel. My mom gave $400 to the foster, I donated $300 through the website, and brought another $300 cash to Lea and her team at the store the next week. CC4C promised the kittens would be placed in a home, as they do not euthanize. After only 2 and 1/2 weeks with Rachel, Lea contacted me saying the kittens are “wild” and need to be released, and the vet estimated their age at 3 to 4 months. This means the kittens were on Rachel’s care at 9 and 1/2 to 11 and 1/2 weeks old. Kittens between 9 and 11 weeks should have a VERY high socialization success rate. So I kindly questioned Lea, asking if Rachel was trained on the best socialization techniques. I questioned if the kitten’s environment is conducive to success, considering there are young children and other cats around, and that they are in a catio with outside cats also “bothering them”, per Rachel. Lea became extremely defensive and said “I’ve been doing this for 20 years” and she refused to acknowledge anything I said - she was “right” and I was wrong. So I sent some links to studies proving the kittens are within a reasonable age to socialize, and sent some links for best techniques to help socialize them. I advised that if they were giving up on the kittens to please contact me first, so I can find somebody competent in socializing kittens that age. No response back from her. No response back from the foster, who has repeatedly said she would send pictures of the kittens, then never did. The lack of human empathy is disturbing. I’ve been extremely distressed over the whole situation, as I’m a huge cat lover, and I see those kittens as my responsibility, as my babies. I contacted the CC4C website and Gemma (founder of CC4C) was quick to respond to my request to speak with her. She promised to look into the matter, but it’s been a week now and I haven’t heard back from anybody. For all I know the kittens have been dumped on the side of a freeway, by an organization that promised them a home. It feels like they don’t want to put in the effort to find these kittens a home, and it’s more a question of the space that CC4C has available than the reasonable feasibility of successful socialization of those babies. A very upsetting...

WARNING This is no longer a legitimate rescue. Their non-profit status has been revoked on May 15, 2021 by the IRS and no taxes have been filed or paid since 2017 tax year. This is my experience;

In June/July 2021 Northgate Kennels handed over approx. a dozen cats and kittens to Gemma Boyd claiming that they were abandoned. At least one or more of these cats were not abandoned, the one was my service animal Gracie. She is a 17 year old fully trained cat that can sense when my blood sugar drops too low. And last year she detected a tumor in my arm that turned out to be cancer. To say that she is a godsend would be an under statement. When I discovered that she had been given to this rescue I immediately called Gemma. I figured being a rescue she would do the right thing and return her to me. But after leaving two messages she didn't return my call so I called the Sheriff and before taking a formal complaint the Deputy said he would call and speak to her or leave a message. She did not answer her phone or call the Deputy back, but she did call me. She said she was returning my call which I knew was a lie, she was only calling because she received a message from the Sheriff's Deputy. In my conversation she was rude, condescending and judgemental and refused to return my cat/service animal. When she realized that I to rescue, foster and train cats and have been doing so for more than 30 years, she offered to replace Gracie with another untrained cat. Gemma clearly is ignorant in regards to the bond service animals have with their owners and training it takes to be a service animal. Not every dog or cat has what it takes to be a service animal and Gemma clearly lacks the experience to make this determination. I declined the "replacement" cat and called the Sheriff Deputy. This issue still isn't resolved and I still do not have Gracie...

I have been exchanging emails and phone calls with Marilyn to adopt a cat/kitten. Her daughter , Sara, was taking care of the young cat and she was busy getting ready to take an exam, so we couldn’t see the cat until 10 days after my inquiry .

My family was really excited about getting a new cat and she resembles our cat that had passed away.For example, our cat had a horrible beginning, but with love and patience, she came around, and we loved her dearly.

Finally, the day at come and my family was so excited, and I went to see the cat, but from the beginning, Sara was judgements, and short and I finally had to ask if I could see the cat. She was hiding in a corner and scared to come out and I finally asked to hold her, and she was scared, but I also had my mask on and Sara wasn’t making the situation any better, by not giving me any time to get to know her, and they have an indoor dog, which is horrible for this shy feral cat .

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time, but said I was available the next day, all day to pick her up, but Sara wouldn’t give an available time, so I knew at that point, she mis-judged me and we were not getting the cat. She didn’t offer more time to spend with her, nor did she offer to observe our home or environment .

Of course, late in the day, I got a call from Marilyn, saying her daughter didn’t think we were a good fit . My reply was , we just experienced a feral cat situation and we were ready for the challenge , but it didn’t help ...

The entire experience, was horrible, my children and husband were so excited , they knew what to expect and now I know what it feels like to be discriminated and judged, when she knew going in we were a family of four with an outdoor/indoor cat and I was told she would be better off with one person who lives in an apartment, rather than a warm loving family in a two...