A Day With CATALES

Written by HOLLIE ROSE

It’s nearly 1:00 pm on a perfect summer Saturday.

Three volunteers for Catales, Inc. sit in the shade outside the eastern entrance to the Cromwell Stop & Shop. They are here for what Catales calls a “Sit and Beg.”

Margery May, Sandra Reynolds and Reid Smalley at the Catales Inc. Sit and Beg

Catales, which stands for Connecticut Association To Assure Love & End Suffering, is a non-profit no-kill cat shelter located in Middletown. Catales is run completely by volunteers dedicated to making life better for the over-abundance of cats in and around Middlesex county.

As I approach their table I see one volunteer saying “Thank you thank you, would you like a hug?” as she embraces a patron who just dropped some supplies in the cart. That’s Sandra Reynolds. She’s been volunteering for Catales for about 2 months now. Bubbly and enthusiastic, Reynolds is a seasoned volunteer and has worked with everyone from Habitat for Humanity, The American Heart Association and Special Olympics, to the Middletown Lion’s Club, the USO and the Salvation Army. She looks to her nametag lanyard at a giant collection of pins to try to remember and rattle off all the places she has volunteered, and then turns from me quickly to greet an incoming shopper.

The friendly crew asks shoppers if they would like to contribute to the Cat Shelter by buying and donating anything on Catales shopping list. The list includes expected items like wet and dry cat food, but it also contains some items you might not immediately think of. They need lots of Clorox and/or Lysol wipes. Paper towels, dryer sheets and bleach round out today’s shopping list.

Shari Dupuis and her daughters Autumn and Isabel drop a few cans of cat food in one of the carts. I ask if they’ve ever heard of Catales before today. Isabel tells me they know all about Catales because a friend volunteers there feeding cats and cleaning litter boxes. Isabel hopes to become a volunteer next year so she can do the same.

A man comes out of the store and drops a few cans on the table. Shamus Slominski has never heard of Catales before but he’s a cat lover. He has a cat at home and says “I know their cats need food and I wanted to do what I can to help.”

Margery May is here working too. She’s been working with Catales since 1999 doing things like caring for the cats, cleaning litter boxes (an ever important duty in a cat shelter!) and helping with various fund raisers. This is her first Sit and Beg. She resonates sincere and grateful thanks as she takes donations from Tracy Ritter of Middletown. Ritter has 3 cats at home and has called Catales for advice about the colony of homeless cats that she sometimes feeds out in back of her condo. Along with her donation of food she thought to pick up a scratching post for the cats.

Margery May and Tracy Ritter

The line of shoppers adding goods to the Catales shopping carts is nonstop. Eva Bonhwicz has two dogs and no cats, but she gave because she loves all animals. Laura Dowd of Higganum doesn’t currently have any cats but she used to have two that she adopted from Forgotten Felines in Clinton. She appreciates the work that no-kill cat shelters do. Sue Desorbo got a kitten from Catales 8 or 10 years ago. Sadly, she lost that cat to cancer when it was 5. She has three cats now, all adopted from various local shelters. Carolyn Garofoli always contributes when she sees Catales. Usually she gives food but today she decided to buy a huge package of paper towels. Another woman didn’t have any supplies when she came out of the store but she opened her purse and put some money in the donation jar as she told us about her 15 year old cat at home with kidney problems.

Feline health problems are something Catales is quite familiar with. Many of their residents are special needs cats waiting for their special owners. Some have diabetes, or asthma or thyroid problems or any number of other health issues, but that doesn’t stop Catales from loving them and trying to find them forever homes. All cats deserve a good life.

One of the rising stars in Catales’ organization, helping to insure that the cats get the good life they deserve, is Reid Smalley. He’s the coordinator of the Sit and Beg events. Avuncular and smiling, Smalley hands out shopping lists, chats with the many people eager to be of some help, keeps track of the merchandise sales, and efficiently sorts through the donations. He doesn’t have a schedule that allows for a regular volunteer shift, so instead he takes time out of his summer weekends to make all this happen. He’s only been involved with Catales since last year but he’s pleased to be able to participate.

There’s a lot involved with coordinating such an event. Smalley first contacts the store managers to make arrangements for setting up the table. Then he networks with the volunteer coordinator to make sure the shifts can be covered. The morning of an event he gathers the table, the signs, the merchandise and brings it all to the site and sets up. Spending the next four hours informing people of Catales mission and the work they do seems to be the easy part. When it’s all done he’ll transport the contents of three bulging shopping carts back to the shelter for sorting and storing.

These events are very successful and extremely helpful in keeping Catales well stocked but the need never diminishes. If you’d like to help Catales, there are many ways to do so:

You could visit Catales.org and make a donation. Monetary donations go towards expenses such as veterinarian bills and the costs of medicine and transportation.

You could become a sponsor, or a foster, or a volunteer (info on the website.)

You could volunteer your skills as a carpenter, plumber, or electrician.

You could collect coupons for supplies they need and mail them to Catales Inc.

You could come to Walmart in Cromwell next Saturday, August 6^th from 10a-2p and be part of a Sit and Beg.

Reid Smalley – Sit and Beg coordinator

Back at our Sit and Beg things are winding down. The volunteers aren’t handing out the lists any more for fear of being gone by the time shoppers come out of the store. A man comes rushing up to the table enthusiastically, “Am I too late? Where’s the list? I came to shop for you.” He’s told that the table will only be here until 2:00 and he says “I’ll be right back.”

His name is James Myrick. His wife told him Catales was here. Myrick has two cats at home – Moorea and Jasmine. He returns to the table a few short minutes later with four huge bags of dry cat food (all different brands and varieties), three large boxes of canned food and an extra large bag of cat toys. “All cats need toys” he told me. He wasn’t even here to shop for himself. It was a great addition to the bounty of the day.

The last person I saw before I left the volunteers to their packing up was Jean Dufrat who contributed a big bag of canned food. When I asked her why she chose to participate in the Sit and Beg she threw her hands in the air and practically shouted “Because I love animals!” Then she leaned in close to me and theatrically whispered “Sometimes more than people.”