Since 2021, I’ve been honored to support Cat Town Oakland as a foster, adopter, and a cat photographer! Cat Town’s mission is to transform the approach to saving shelter cats, reducing euthanasia nationwide. Their focus is to find great homes for cats who are considered unadoptable in the traditional rescue model.
My goal is to capture and share the unique personalities of each cat at Cat Town. Often this takes time to discover. Cat Town focuses on the most vulnerable and cats are often quite scared when they first arrive. But over time and through Cat Town’s programs, each cat builds trust with us and they eventually find their furever homes.
Neblina was just one years old when she came to Cat Town and was under their care for nearly a year! During that time she needed medical care and a supportive environment. My early photos were largely of her bright eyes staring from a hiding spot. Over time, she became more and more comfortable, eventually showing a very playful and silly side!
Cat Town’s programs extend much farther than the Cat Cafe, it was founded as a foster program and about half of the adoptions are from fostered cats! I’m grateful to the fosters who have welcomed cats into their homes as well as me to do photo shoots.
While most of my photos feature the stories of cats, I was honored to meet Tempo and Catcow, cats who made an incredible impact on their adopters. Tempo saved the day by alerting his family of a fire! Catcow needed a foster who could provide a safe place to recover from a suspected car accident and became the heart of the home.
And of course, I’ve been happy to take photos of cats in their homes. Koa and Kei live together (with their human caretakers) but have completely opposite personalities! See what they’re up to on IG, @koa.and.kei.
Photos of Koa and Kei