What Is a Cat Ambassador?

July 27, 2020

“You can’t save them all,” said my friend, who stood with me on my mom’s porch one evening as we watched the tiny tiger kitten preparing to pounce on a dove pecking in the grass. The stray had shown up at my mom’s, along with a big orange tomcat, a few days earlier.

“Yeah, but I can save that one,” I said, nodding my head toward the disappointed kitten whose dinner had just flown away.

During that same time span, after several particularly stressful weeks at my workplace, I was feeling unfulfilled. I needed to do something about it; I wanted to follow my passion.

Every Sunday, for several weeks, I would glance at the handful of classified ads in the newspaper (back when job ads were listed in newspapers), just for the fun of it. And each time as I would refold the paper and set it down on the coffee table, I’d jokingly announce to my husband,  “Still no Cat Ambassador job.”

I soon realized that if I wanted to be a Cat Ambassador, I would have to create my own organization. Over the next several months, I pursued that dream. And in January 2013, I founded The Cat Ambassador, Inc.

About the Cat Ambassador

This inaugural blog post is to introduce you to The Cat Ambassador, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in the Lansing, Michigan, area. We rely solely on donations to fund our efforts. With limited funds and only a handful of volunteers and fosters, we have been able to assist nearly 400 cats in the mid-Michigan area since 2013.

The main mission of the organization is to improve the lives of cats—and their people. We primarily provide financial assistance to ensure proper veterinary care and provide food and litter to pet parents who can’t afford it. We work with several veterinarians who are willing to provide lower-cost options for sick and injured cats and kittens. In addition, every cat we come in contact with is spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and microchipped.

The intent of our organization is to ensure that the cats are able to remain with their people in their current homes, rather than be surrendered to an animal shelter, thrown out on the street, or euthanized if the owners feel they can no longer provide adequate care for their animals.

Our secondary mission is to assist injured, stray, and abandoned cats.

Our services range from bottle-feeding abandoned kittens to being with owners as they send their beloved pets over the Rainbow Bridge.

Pawsitively Touching the Lives of Cats and Their People—One at a Time

So what, exactly, does a Cat Ambassador do? On a typical day, you may find me:

– Diving headfirst into the engine of a car in an apartment complex at 11:00 at night to rescue an abandoned, crying kitten.

– Meeting with township officials, police, property owners, store managers and other rescue groups to help resolve a cat colony complaint about three friendly “community cats” that officials insist are “dangerous” to mall shoppers.

– Driving nearly 200 miles (round trip) to pick up a deceased cat to transport to our local pet crematory because the pet parent cannot afford cremation expenses in her town and does not have a working vehicle.

– Picking up donated cat food from a woman who no longer needs it because her beloved kitty was recently killed by a visitor’s dog.

– Comforting a grieving woman at the veterinarian’s office as the vet prepares to euthanize her 17-year-old kitty.

I invite you, fellow cat advocates, to follow future installments of this blog as I chronicle Cat Ambassador activities. I know we can’t save all of them, but we can make a big difference in the life of one kitty at a time.

Laura Luptowski Seeley, a freelance writer and editor, is Top Cat at The Cat Ambassador, Inc. She founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization located in the Lansing, Mich., area in 2013. She and her husband, Harley, live with several cats of their own in Haslett, Michigan.

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