Heading Home Animal Rescue

Please see below for some photos and bios of current adoptable cats and kittens. If you are interested in a particular one please send an adoption application in.

More happily furever after pics of darling "Beamer" the deaf kitten who was rescued from up inside a car engine and "Clutch" with his new adoptive family too! Also pictured are some of our recent feral cat placements at their new beautiful horse ranch. Adoptions are what keep things in motion. Despite bad weather & a pandemic our dedicated volunteers continue to help the neediest cats in the communities we serve! Thank you to our adopters, fosters, volunteers and supporters!

Please see below for important information needed if you need to evacuate with animals due to potential debris flow.

We love happy endings and updates! Check out how awesome Aukua, Pike, Badger and two of our feral placements Mamba and Luke are doing! I mean every cat deserves a Unicorn bed and a custom kitty house right? We can't do it without you our supporters and adopters. Thank you!!

We are searching for a special home for this beautiful girl. Please read the foster's comments below, she will need a quiet cat savvy environment with someone who will give her the time she needs to adjust and get to know you. Thank you <3

Here are the faces of the "nameless" cats we trapped/spayed/neutered/vaccinated/microchipped and provided medical care for at our Snip Bus spay neuter event last week. You can imagine the Herculean effort involved in trapping, strategizing for and caring for 55 cats over a 4 day window. Thank you again to the volunteers (you ladies ROCK) to Ausonio's (Ausonio.com) construction for helping sponsor the event, to Snip Bus and their team for helping us get this done (snipbus.org) and of course to all of our donors and supporters who help us accomplish these great things! Without these events over population and suffering continue en masse. We are looking for businesses or individuals who want to sponsor entire events too.

Photo of the night before our big SNIP spay & neuter event today! 54 cats were trapped for this event...WOW. Thank you to everyone for your support for this life saving work.

Today our team trapped 39 cats for our upcoming spay and neuter clinic. This special little blind kitten was among the ones that we will need to provide additional veterinary care for. She and her sister both lost their eyes from an untreated infection. They will both get the surgeries they need and then be placed in to safe, indoor homes. There are several other cats that will need surgery or additional dental, medical treatment etc. Please continue to donate to our fundraiser for this event. Through this work we are able to uncover kittens like these that need our help and to prevent future suffering like this as well by making sure all "fed cats" are "fixed cats." Thank you and look for follow up posts on these two!

Some of you probably remember our BIG SNIP bus spay/neuter event in November? Well we are it again. Our team is trapping this week for a 40 cat spay & neuter clinic on Friday the 8th. We have our eyes on more than that many cats and kittens in need already (sigh). Last time we trapped 52 with our TNR (trap neuter release) cats, medical cats and kittens we pulled out to foster care and adoption. This time we ALREADY KNOW we are in for at least FOUR special medical needs. We ha...ve 3 cats on site that likely need enucleation surgery (eye removal surgery) and there is also a completely blind kitten we need to figure out and a cat that likely needs a tail amputation surgery. We are extremely grateful to Ausonio Construction for sponsoring the base cost of this clinic, please support their business at https://www.ausonio.com/ and thank them for this life saving contribution to our community's cats! BUT we STILL have to figure out how to cover ALL these extra costs. Every time we do a clinic we have to pay for the vaccines, microchips all the supplies to trap and care for the cats AND all the extra medical cases and needs that always come out of the clinics. Please help us help these cats this week by donating to our medical fund. Thank you!!! See more

Adoptable kittens are coming!!! If you are interested in adopting a new family member here are some of our current adoptables. Please fill out an adoption application FIRST that is step one. Sparkles & Daphne would love to find new families. Here is what their foster Mom says about them: Sparkles: Sparkles was found with her very loving mother. They were such a beautiful pair to watch and now that mom has found her forever home Sparkles is ready to find hers too. Sparkles lo...ves to be mothered and also is very clear about what she likes. She doesn’t like to go to bed first because, you know, she might miss something. lol. Sparkles is curious and adventurous. She’ll need to be watched that she doesn’t wander outside. Inside, she likes to climb up into her foster mom’s curly hair and play. She’s also a nibbler when she plays. She’s called scrappy cuz she’s tough and bossy. Sparkles learned to behave quickly at people’s dinner time. She receives lots and lots of kisses cuz she’s just so darn cute. At 3-1/2 months she is ready to liven up your household. Daphne: Daphne was found alone in North Monterey County at still a young age. Luckily for her she has good lungs. She cried until someone found her. She loved the bottle feedings, probably because she missed her mom so much. She’s still quite vocal about her food needs. She’s an easy to handle foster and has no interest in the outdoor stuff. Daphne likes to snuggle up to other older kitties and get pampered. Born early August, Daphne is now 4-1/2 months young and ready to bring joy to your house. http://www.headinghomerescue.org/adopt.html

This is Buhita; her name means little owl. She joined Heading Home a couple months ago and we’ve been trying to sort out her medical diagnosis for most of that time. After several rounds of vet visits and diagnostics, we finally have confirmation that she has a portosystemic shunt. Surgery to repair it and save her life is going to be in the neighborhood of 5k, and we’ve already spent over a thousand dollars in diagnostics to get us here. Please consider helping us help our little owl get the surgery she needs in order to live. https://www.facebook.com/donate/812768966201706/?fundraiser_source=external_url

More of our favorite thing to see on camera - potential sightings of target cats! How many reunites will this week bring? We are continuing to expand our work in Bonny Doon and SLV, please let us know if your animals are still missing or if you need help catching them.

This is Momma Kitty; she was lost in Bonny Doon during the fires. Most of her neighborhood burned, but those folks that stayed behind left food and water out for her and kept a watchful eye, hoping to spot her. She was too spooked to go near anyone, and even took off running when her family finally saw her. While it’s normal for cats in these situations to be so stressed that they don’t respond normally to those they know and love, it’s often heartbreaking and confusing for o...wners to experience this. Thankfully, Sarah and Dan reached out to us and we were able to put a plan in place to track her timing and movements well enough to catch her and bring her home. Welcome home, Momma Kitty, you’ve been deeply missed. If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

Earlier this week we got word of a cat that had shown up at a home in Boulder Creek. The cat was friendly, but not theirs and they were hoping to get it home to whoever was missing it. We went over, got her scooped up, scanned for a microchip and learned through that that we now had a cat named Bean in our care. A couple of phone calls later and the story became more clear; Bean had been lost a year before the fires, and her owners had thought she was a victim to the wildlife. Turns out that she is very much alive, and as of this morning she is now back with her family! If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

Leo is home with his people! It’s been over a month since he lost his home to the fire, but with the aid of a feeding station, water and monitoring, we were able to get confirmation that he was alive and seemingly well. His parents went by the property yesterday and they were reunited. (I’m not sure if they ran toward each other in slow motion or not, but I imagine it was pretty touching.) We are so glad to have been a part of helping this guy remain cared for in the midst of all of this, and him being home is the best part. Crossing another lost cat off the list this morning!

Is that? Yes it is!! It is!! Target cat spotted on camera last night we are getting ready to bring this boy home to his family a month after fires burned through their neighborhood and took their home. Traps will be set tonight; hopefully he’ll be in one within the next couple of days. ... If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

No one came to claim this handsome boy during his stray hold at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, so we picked him up from them yesterday so that he can get some time in foster (he’s people avoidant) and then go up for adoption. The vet said he is affectionate when he’s a little doped up so we know there’s a social boy in there just needing some help to gain confidence. Look for him (and his lion cut!) at our PetSmart Santa Cruz adoption center soon.

Two days ago we told you about Scout, one of three cats that were alumni of our barn cat program who needed to be caught after their home burned in the fire. Today we have the joy of updating that we caught her last night and she is pending reunification with her owners. If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

In our daily travels to the burn zone, we are starting to see progress on the path to getting outlying areas repopulated. PGE and various tree companies are seemingly everywhere! This creates new challenges for us, but we are glad to have more eyes out there looking for kitties! If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

Nice to see you again, Scout! We finally got an up close and personal re-introduction to a cat that has been spotted a few times since the fires, but not with the regularity that is needed for trapping. She’s one we knew personally prior to the fires as she is one of three barn cats we placed at the property next to this one a couple of years ago. All three have become more social toward people over time since that placement, and this one is the last one that needs catching so our work at this location is almost done! If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

In the fire zones every dayfeeding, checking cameras and doing what we can to help these animals. Thank you for your continued support of our efforts. If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/

The journey from lost to found: Shooting Star was lost during evacuation, her family had her safely in her carrier when a loud noise startled her just as they were closing the door to it. She took off, and they had to leave without her for the safety of their children and other animals. The fire unfortunately leveled their home, but as soon as they were allowed in, they set up food and water and started reaching out looking for her. We caught word of it, adding tried and te...sted processes utilized in previous fires (thank you PRR team and all the admin folks behind the scenes!) and got to work. Outreach to neighbors yielded permission to set up feeding stations, cameras and an APB for the neighborhood for this little fluffy girl. Within a few days we had her spotted on camera, set traps based on that info, and then woke this morning to news that she was inside a trap waiting for us. Shooting Star is home, back with her family and safe and sound. Thank you to the neighbors of Sweetwater Lane, the feeding station and trapping teams, and the admin teams keeping us all organized and moving together! Welcome home, Shooting Star.

UPDATE: Owner contacted! Pending reunification! Where do you belong, little one? This ear-tipped torti was caught on lower Alba last night in Ben Lomond. Do you know anyone with a missing cat that looks similar? Please share this post so we can get her home. If you are missing a pet from CZU fire or need rescue assistance please join and post to this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/958583661291359/