CLAWS-Cat Lives Are Worth Saving

06/11/2026

06/11/2026

Meet Spot, Tig, and Karen.

Spot can leap small buildings in a single bound. He's a superhero in disguise. The disguise is a very small black kitten. It's working.

Tig came in hissing and has since pivoted to a career in lap sitting. He has a five-year plan. It involves being held.

Karen is the boss. She has made this clear to her brothers on multiple occasions and will make it clear again if necessary. She is independent, sassy, and running this foster room whether we like it or not.

All three came from a local colony and are fostering with CLAWS until we can get them to a rescue.

You can help Spot, Tig, and Karen get to a rescue by donating at givebutter.com/standinthegap or sharing this post.

Every little bit helps. 🐾

06/10/2026

Meet Karen.

Karen would like to speak to the manager about the quality of this nap surface. She has concerns. She will address them after her fourth consecutive hour of sleep.

Karen came to us from a local colony and is currently fostering with CLAWS while she waits for her forever home. She is independent, opinionated, and absolutely perfect.

You can help Karen get to a rescue by donating at givebutter.com/standinthegap or sharing this post.

Every little bit helps. 🐾

06/10/2026

Meet Tig.

On day one, Tig had opinions about being handled. Loud ones. With teeth.

Today he is a snuggly ball of cuteness who would like to be held indefinitely. That's fostering. That's what a safe space and a little patience can do.

Tig came to us from a local colony and is fostering with CLAWS until we can get him to a rescue. He has come a long way in a short time and he's just getting started.

You can help Tig get to a rescue by donating at givebutter.com/standinthegap or sharing this post.

Every little bit helps. 🐾

06/10/2026

Meet Spot.

Spot is a tiny minion of darkness. He has a single white spot on his chest — his one concession to the light. He is spunky, mysterious, and currently fostering with CLAWS while he waits for a rescue to recognize his potential.

He came to us from a local colony. He has plans. We don't know what they are.

You can help Spot and his siblings get to a rescue by donating at givebutter.com/standinthegap or sharing this post.

Every little bit helps. 🐾

06/04/2026

Update on the little guy from this morning: unfortunately he tested positive for panleukopenia (feline parvo). He was euthanized this afternoon to prevent further suffering. We are heartbroken.

We are now in crisis mode disinfecting the crate we used, the table it was sitting on, anything we might have touched as we brought him in the house. This also means monitoring our other cats and the three kittens in our care. Five other kittens from the same colony are under observation. We won't know for several days if others were exposed.

This is exactly why CLAWS cannot be a rescue organization. We don't have the resources, the space, or the ability to absorb the risk to our own animals. We took him in because we couldn't leave him suffering. That will always be who we are. But today has a cost, and we're not sure yet how high it will be.

If you really support the work that we're trying to do in our community please consider making a donation to help cover the cost of today's vet services, as well as the boarding fees for the other five kittens while they are under observation.

By Cat Lives Are Worth Saving

06/04/2026

**UPDATE** Even after a nice nap and offers of food, water, and kitten milk, our little friend is lethargic and well....limp. Trying to figure out the problem would take time he might not have, so we've dropped him off with our wonderful friends at Southwest Virginia Veterinary Services. We know that if anyone can help him, they can. We'll keep you updated as we learn more, but please consider donating to help with his care.**

Sorry Villagers, but I'm going to preach for a minute on dumping cats — scroll on if you need to.

This is what a dumped kitten looks like.

The poor little thing in this picture is weak, cold, and absolutely exhausted from stress. Look in his eyes. Do you see how beaten down he looks? How utterly dejected? That's what I'm looking at this morning, and it breaks my heart every single time.

The colony caregivers discovered the new arrivals this morning and were thankfully able to bring him to us, but his littermate(s) and parents are still out there somewhere. This could have been prevented. The solution isn't dumping unwanted cats at a public location and hoping someone else figures it out — it's spaying and neutering before it gets to this point.

Yes, it costs money. We know that. But it costs us money too — right now we have to find the funds to cover the vet exam, vaccines, deworming, any needed meds or treatment, and day-to-day care so we can find this little one a forever home. Every kitten like him is a reminder of what happens when we don't get ahead of the problem.

CLAWS was never intended to be a rescue operation, but that's increasingly the role we're being asked to fill. Right now we have four kittens in care and honestly? We don't know how we're going to cover all the vet bills. We can't turn them away, but we can't do this without your help.

So instead of staying angry (ok, maybe retain a little righteous indignation), we're asking for your help. If you can donate even a few dollars to CLAWS, it goes directly toward the care of kittens like this boy, and toward spay/neuter assistance so fewer cats end up abandoned and frightened in the first place. The link to donate is https://givebutter.com/its-kitten-season-fhlojx.

He didn't ask to be here. But he's here, and we've got him. Help us keep doing that.

06/03/2026

We have a TNR group scheduled to be in town June 11th-17th and we need a physical location for them to operate from.

The location has to have power and water, bathroom and dumpster if possible, and has to be a secure location, with 24 hour access, and not be used for anything else during those dates.

There are so many empty stores that there's got to be someone out there with a location we can use.

This is how we start reducing community cat populations. If we don't step up as a community and work together to bring TNR events to us, we're never going to make a dent in the number of feral and owned pets that need spay/neuter.

I can assure you that the location will be taken care of and cleaned/sterilized after the event is over.

Please, help CLAWS start making a difference for community cats and owned cats in Lebanon!

If you have a contact for a location, please email us at [email protected].

06/03/2026

Our little Chicken Nugget (aka Walnut) left on his freedom ride this morning. We won't miss our first experience with tube feeding, but we are already missing this cute little floof! God speed to your forever home Nuggie.

We still have three litters of kittens and two mama cats that need vet visits and freedom rides.

Please consider helping CLAWS care for community cats and kittens just like Nugget.
https://givebutter.com/its-kitten-season-fhlojx