For the Cats’ Sake: Where No Cat Is Unwanted

Written by Dulcy B. Hooper | Photos by Shannon Ayres

A lifelong cat lover, Frances Sip began her volunteer efforts with a cat rescue organization focused only on “friendly cats,” as she describes it. Along the way, she met many members of the community who sought her help with free roaming cats that continued to reproduce year after year. “Some were feral,” Sip recalls. “They were just not used to people at all. Others were friendly strays. And then, of course, there were all the kittens.”

In response to “all the kittens,” Sip founded For the Cats’ Sake in 2014. “I felt that it was so important,” she says, “and such a better use of funds to be doing T.N.R. work [trap, neuter, and return] to prevent the huge number of unwanted kittens and to help people who really cared about the cats, but who could not afford to fix them all.” 

When Sip and volunteers began to trap and fix cats, they quickly recognized that there were a lot of adoptable cats they did not want to return to “less than lovely situations.” Sip raised the issue of adding adoption to the organization’s mission. 

“The board voted 50/50,” she explains, “and we decided to see if we could find homes for several [cats].” With the help of other rescue groups, they quickly found homes for the strays and decided to move forward with adoptions and fostering as an additional component of their mission. Since then, For the Cats’ Sake has also added neonatal fosters for the “tiny bottle babies” and initiated a barn adoption program for feral cats that cannot be returned. 

Sip says she is committed to placing each cat where it will be happiest. “We have encountered many situations where there is no place for the cats to be returned,” she notes. “In other instances, the cats are friendly but need socialization and foster care.” The nonprofit also provides urgent veterinary care when owners lack the funds or the cats are strays. 

While there have been times when the organization has struggled to find volunteers and been low on resources, they’ve managed to survive and grow. The pandemic “posed major challenges, as all the shelters basically closed,” Sip remembers. “We had to keep taking in cats in need that could not go to shelters, and had to deal with all the volunteers getting sick and take all the necessary precautions.” Even so, she says, “We never stopped helping cats… I can only say it’s been amazing, really.” 

Sip has numerous stories of rescues that are memorable to her. “One that stands out is a senior cat who was almost blind and was found with another cat at the end of a rural driveway,” she shares. “Clearly, they were pets who seemed to have been just left there. They were not really moving and were so scared.” In another case, For the Cats’ Sake trapped a colony of about 20 cats as the caregivers were moving out of state and abandoning them. “Sultan was a Siamese feral,” she reminisces. “It took us time to make him friendly, but the transformation to a friendly and happy cat is amazing.” 

Sip is thrilled by the response from the community. “For the Cats’ Sake depends upon donations and the help and support of the community,” she says. “Grants are few and far between, so it is pretty much from donations that we survive.” Sip adds that adopters often become donors and even refer others. For the Cats’ Sake currently has around 40 volunteers, including teams focused on handling fundraising, T.N.R. work, adoption events, transportation, fostering, and data management. Sip credits Claudia Ross as a cofounder of the organization. “She had to take years off to care for her partner,” she says, “but now, in her 80s, she’s back helping!”

For the Cats’ Sake is an all-volunteer nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization operating in Rappahannock, Culpeper, Warren, and Fauquier counties. “People are incredibly grateful when we find them a cat that becomes a family member and companion, or when we go and trap 20 cats they feed and there is no more fighting or kittens. They bring us tiny kittens that they know would not make it otherwise, and injured and old cats that nobody else wants to deal with. We are one of the few groups that loves the ferals and will trap and relocate them to new homes when caregivers die or move.” ML

For the Cats’ Sake
P.O. Box 471
Flint Hill, VA 22627
forthecatssake.org

Published in the September 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.