Aloha & Welcome from Phyllis Tavares, Executive Director of 9th Life Hawaii

We just celebrated our one year anniversary at our new, permanent property in Upcountry Maui. Our secluded facility located on 2 ½ acres is home to Maui’s only non-profit, NO-KILL Cat Rescue and Sanctuary. Many of our cats are free-roaming and can be seen lounging about the lawn furniture set out for them, or even hiding up in the trees.

In this our first year, we have been able to remodel the existing barn into three indoor/outdoor catteries. We also added 3 catteries to the main house and have utilized one room in the main house as a surgery room for the neutering of male cats only. We have transferred over almost all of the cats from our original rented location and at this point in time our catteries are full to the brim. However, there is no let up in the number of calls we receive from people needing help to place their cats or to relocate sterilized feral cat colonies that are in harms way.

The abandoned and homeless cat population on Maui is estimated at between 100,000 and 500,000. Either figure is staggering and results in almost 600 cats being killed monthly at Maui Humane Society. The kitties only crime: They were homeless. 9th Life Hawaii does NOT advocate euthanasia as a method of population control. The key to controlling the population humanely is sterilization. To that end, we have been providing free or extremely low-cost spay/neuter services for cats in the care of island residents. We have held three Neuter clinics at our sanctuary and a fourth is scheduled for September 16th. We have also held spay/neuter clinics with participating veterinarians at their clinics throughout the past few years. All in all, we have sterilized about 600 cats in two years.

9th Life Hawaii needs your help and support to continue these spay/neuter clinics and to help us provide food, shelter, veterinary care and meds for the cats at our sanctuary. AND we need your help to expand the catteries so we can help even more kitties.

We would like to set up an isolation unit on our property where we can segregate, observe and care for sick, contagious, injured or special needs cats. We are hoping someone will donate a used construction trailer for this purpose (or money for a new one). And as we take in more cats, we need a second trailer for a second live-in cat caretaker. Utilizing construction trailers or modular homes would be ideal because with construction at an all-time high on Maui, it is hard to find good people available in the construction industry to actually build something for us. So these two trailers and a generator are our wish list for 2007-2008.

We also need volunteers in the following areas: Fundraising especially calling for donations of gift certificates we can auction, foster parents for baby kittens, chain link and chain link installers, carpenters and tile contractors. Please call if you can help.

We have come a long way in the past year. But we have a long ways to go. We truly hope you are inspired to join us in creating a better environment for Maui's cats. We invite you to embrace the humane philosophy that guides us: “NO-KILL, NO MORE HOMELESS PETS”. We have the commitment and the dedication to lead the Hawaiian Islands towards this goal. We need your help and welcome your monetary donations, gift certificate donations that we can auction, a small SUV or van for shuttling large groups of cats in for spay/neuter surgeries, cat food, toys, and cat condos even dog houses (cats love them).

It is time to use all our resources to control the cat population humanely, compassionately, non-lethally and to use the only method that really works and the only method that 9th Life Hawaii advocates. SPAY/NEUTER

Sad but true……..Cats Nap, only Humans "PUT THEM TO SLEEP"