Desert Cat Topia was able to bring one of the first mobile cat adoption centers to California this summer. 

Desert Cat Topia is a non-profit organization that was established in May of last year and is led by the President Executive Manager Zhanna Sedykh, the President Development Program Manager Javier Moreno, the Donor Relations and Marketing Manager Megan Ericks, who were running their event on Saturday, Oct. 11.

They are based in Rancho Mirage, but the new addition of their mobile cat adoption center has made a huge difference for them. Since the start of the Desert Catopia Organization, they have found a home for 111 cats. 

They take in all the cats that are about to be euthanized after they have been in shelters for multiple years. 

It was founded to try to get cats out of shelters because of how many cats end up getting euthanized. Ericks explained that they came down to Riverside to save the cats in the shelters because Riverside’s Shelters had to euthanize 550 animals in July alone. 

That’s just one of the many problems they are trying to solve. 

“(We noticed a) shortage in visibility for the animals that were available for adoption,” Ericks said.

Most rescues are foster-based, so it’s easy to get the first and second litter adopted because a lot of families and friends would adopt from the fosters. But after that, there aren’t many options for the kittens to get adopted.

These foster homes then get stuck with the cats for months because the rescues don’t have a physical location for people looking to adopt to go and see the cats, Ericks explained.

The bus mobile adoption center allows for the foster cats to be seen by people looking to adopt and helps move more cats into permanent homes.

It has also helped pull cats out of the high-kill shelters and get them put into foster homes, where they can be better taken care of.

Ericks also went into detail explaining that mama cats will give birth to kittens and leave to get food, and when people find those kittens and bring them to the shelter, they end up getting euthanized because they have to be fed every three to four hours.

Because of this, Desert Catopia ends up with a lot of very young kittens, but they usually are gone by the second or third time they get taken on the bus.

“The problem with these rescues is that they couldn’t bring the cats to where people were, and this bus does exactly that,” said Ericks. 

The mobile adoption center was unique. There were up to 12 cats on the bus, and the enclosures there were very clean and catered to be comfortable for the cat, especially while the van is moving.

Ericks expressed the biggest challenge Desert Cat Topia has faced is making sure the cats are vetted the same. They want to make sure all the cats are healthy and fully ready to be taken home from the bus. At the event they had five rescuers represented on the bus.

They are always looking for more volunteers and foster homes, so if you are interested, make sure to check their website out: www.desertcatopia.org. It has all the links to apply to be a foster home and to be a volunteer. All future events are found on the same website. 

The bus will come to events run by companies, and since they are a non-profit, donations are appreciated to help power the bus to get there.