The Cat House Donate

Rowdy, my — our! — beautiful spotted and striped tabby 'baby' kitten, born during the South Street "rescue", turned 2 years old on August 1, 2005. That was no trivial feat, as he almost died at 4 weeks old. But Rowdy survived with the help of dedicated volunteers, and for his second birthday, he received a very generous gift from an anonymous admirer - $5000.00

Rowdy, a happy-go-lucky 2 year old (about the equivalent of a human 20 year old), was ecstatic — dreaming of all he could do with the money: catnip, toys, kibble — the BEST flavors – maybe even an outdoor cat run all his own!

Well, little Rowdy, a typical "adolescent", needed a little guidance on the use of this gift he has received. So we talked about it. He DID want to help his other cat friends – he personally knows Simba, and Daisy and Zeffie are his aunts, and his own mother, Mia, is at C Street. So, after settling down, eating some of his wonderful raspberry coconut birthday cake (made by his aunt Stephanie Kielian) – OK, I ate the cake (Mama Mia, KoKo nut cake, Yum Yum), he licked my fingers – he came up with an amazingly practical and generous idea. He said he would donate EVERY PENNY of his $5000 gift, IF we could find 5 others to MATCH that gift.

One of our volunteers with a herd of our cats

Rowdy had one other stipulation. He wants the money to be used either for health care for the kitties, or to help The Cat House get everyone moved into a single location. He knows how the human folk at The Cat House want to have all the kitties together, how much easier it would be on all cats and volunteers to have EVERYONE — even his Feline Leukemia buddies — many from South Street – under one roof.

I have to think Rowdy had been talking with Simba, a good friend from South Street who had become Office Manager, as his idea was amazingly well-thought-out for such a young soul! He recognized that his gift of $5000 would help, but that $30,000 would make a HUGE difference for everyone. So, he decided to put out the "Challenge".

The "Rowdy Challenge" was announced at the Volunteers & Friends picnic, Sunday, August 28th, and by the end of the picnic, 2 extremely generous volunteers had MATCHED his gift! His $5000 gift was now $15,000!!! We still need 3 more donors, though. Otherwise, Rowdy — still a growing boy — just may choose to blow his new found riches on his two favorite vices — catnip and pachinko…

I discussed with Rowdy if the remaining 3 matches could be "groups" of donations by organizations, work groups, youth troups, etc. He said "yeah, cool, no problem <lick, lick, lick on the birthday cake>" So, no one should feel they MUST come up with the whole $5000 match, but half, a quarter, even $50, $20 towards it is WONDERFUL and gets us closer to our goal. His final stipulation was "mmmph, rumph, slurp, slurp", which I interpreted as " We need $15,000, or Pachinko Parlors, here I come!"

So, your gifts will not only help The Cat House IMMEASURABLY, but will also keep Rowdy from a downward spiral into a life of catnip and pachinko! (Well, he only THINKS he can get out of the house — kids!)

You can choose to donate at this time by paying through PayPal

You can mail it to us at:
The Cat House
Box 23145
Lincoln, Nebraska 68542

You can fill out our pledge form (Rowdy says this is the ticket for groups, organizations and Schools!).

Click to fill out our pledge form.