06/15/2026
Week after week I'm in the homeless camps with Whitney. To watch her work with people and see how much the people trust her is amazing.
Something I'm trying to follow. Trust is not built overnight or over weeks. It's showing up to each and every outreach. It's getting to know the people and the dogs. It's me biting my tongue when they talk about bringing a litter into this world. But me biting my tongue and stating clear facts have allowed me to get these females fixed before they get pregnant.
You and I understand we have too many puppies in this world and many are put down per day. But homeless people don't. They see their amazing dog and they want to share that. Usually after stating facts and letting the conversation rest, they come back. They ask for that spay and neuter and I take care of it.
Since starting we have fixed over twenty dogs at no costs to their owners. We housed one for a few days when she decided to pop a stitch and needed to be on complete rest for about a week.
These dogs are loved, taken care of. If the dogs have a need many have my number now. I drop off food or this or that.
I can't do this much longer without the support from you all and we will talk about that shortly.
Please understand these animals are loved, and taken care of.
💛🐾 "Why don't you just take the cats away?"
We hear this one a lot. The assumption is that people experiencing homelessness cannot possibly be taking care of their animals - so why not just remove the cats and place them somewhere better?
We want to address this directly. Because it reflects a misunderstanding of what we do, who our clients are, and why trust is the foundation of everything we have built.
First - the legal reality.
Oly Camp Kitties does not have the legal authority to remove an animal from its owner. That authority belongs to Joint Animal Services, the animal control entity serving our region. We are not animal control. We are a veterinary services organization. Our job is to care for the cats - not to take them.
And neither do you have the authority.
We say this with care - because we know that people who go into encampments and take animals belonging to unhoused people often believe they are doing the right thing. They see a cat in an encampment and they make a judgment call. They think the animal is not being cared for. They think they are helping.
But a concerned citizen - no matter how genuinely concerned - does not have the legal authority to remove someone's animal. What they are doing, however good their intentions, is stealing someone's pet.
This has happened. It happens with some regularity. And it is devastating to the people it happens to.
If you have a genuine concern about an animal's welfare, the right course of action is to report it to Joint Animal Services and let trained professionals with the proper legal authority assess the situation. That is the system that exists for exactly this reason. It is not perfect - no system is - but it is the appropriate and legal path forward.
Second - concerned citizens frequently do not have the full picture.
Encampments are complex communities. The cat you see alone outside a tent may have an owner who is twenty feet away. The cat who looks thin may have a medical condition being actively managed. The cat who seems feral may be deeply bonded to a person you have never met. The absence of a food bowl in your line of sight does not mean there is no food.
We have been doing this work for years. We go into these spaces regularly. We know these cats and these owners by name. And what we consistently find is that the cats are cared for - often with a level of devotion that would put many housed pet owners to shame. Jumping to conclusions based on a snapshot of someone else's life, in someone else's space, without any of the context, does not make you a rescuer. It makes you someone who took a person's companion without their consent.
Third - trust is everything.
We have spent years building relationships with our clients. Years of showing up, following through, and earning the right to be let into their spaces. The foundation of that trust rests on one unwavering promise: we will take care of your cat and we will bring them back.
Not "we will bring them back if we think you deserve them." Not "we will bring them back unless we decide someone else could do better." We will bring them back. Full stop.
The moment we violate that promise - the moment we become an organization that takes animals away - we lose not just one client's trust. We lose all of it. No one in The Jungle, no one at Maple Court, no one at any encampment or shelter would let us anywhere near their cat again. And the cats - the cats we exist to help - would lose access to the only veterinary care they are ever going to get.
Finally - let's talk about the actual care.
Here is something we have observed over years of outreach that challenges the assumption behind this question: the cats are typically pretty well cared for.
Anecdotally? The cats we see in encampments and at outreach sites are as well cared for - if not better cared for - than many cats we see in housed neighborhoods. Because they matter enormously. Because for someone who has lost so much - housing, stability, community, sometimes family - their cat may be the most important relationship in their life. The research backs this up. Studies consistently show that unhoused pet owners prioritize their animals' food and medical needs, often before their own.
We will absolutely share any medical concerns a veterinarian raises with our clients. We will work with them on how to care for their cat going forward. We will connect them with resources and follow up.
What we will not do is take their cat. Because that cat is not ours to take. And because the bond between our clients and their animals is not a problem to be solved. It is one of the most profound things we have ever had the privilege of witnessing. 💛🐾
