About the Founders
Kitty Harbor was founded by Marylou and Bob Stachon. Marylou had the opportunity to manage another sanctuary for a while and decided she wanted to operate her own. She and Bob decided that starting a sanctuary and leaving it a legacy to continue was something they both felt good about.
Marylou attended a conference called ”No More Homeless Pets”, sponsored by Best Friends of Kanab, Utah, in 2004, and was inspired to try and help as many people in the community as possible to spay and neuter their companion animals or colonies they were feeding. She is also interested in working with the local schools on “Humane Education”.
In March of 2005, Bob and Marylou spent a week in Kanab, Utah at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Marylou attended a conference “How to Start a Sanctuary”, and Bob worked with the maintenance and building crews getting ideas on how to build and maintain Kitty Harbor.
They were surprised that many of the ideas they had were in place at Best Friends. When they returned to Connecticut they began to look for a piece of property where they could begin to build Kitty Harbor. In mid May, 2005 they closed on a 2 acre parcel of land in Griswold, with a home and outbuildings on it. If you go to the Scrapbook you can see pictures of the property before they started and their progress to date.
The ultimate dream is to have a veterinarian on the grounds to run a low cost spay/neuter program and monitor the health of the sanctuary cats and kittens. Currently all animals are tested for Feline Aids and Leukemia and must be negative to be admitted to the sanctuary. They are also vaccinated and altered if their age permits. In the near future Bob and Marylou hope to have two buildings dedicated to Aids and Leukemia positive cats.
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