North Carolina’s The Goathouse Refuge for cats survived a gun range but can it survive?

This post, about a cat refuge in North Carolina surviving against the odds, is headed with a fine photograph of two beautiful beings: the refuge’s owner – such a sweet lady – and one of her cats; an elderly 18-year-old called Dusty. Both have sweet expressions. Such tenderness and love. It leaps from the page.

On June 14th 2014 I wrote about a cat shelter in the woods called The Goathouse Refuge near Pittsboro, N. Carolina. They had in been in existence for seven years when a gun range opened up yards from their boundary. The noise made it almost impossible to run the sanctuary because the noise affected the cats.

There were thoughts of moving, a dramatic step with great risks. I found out through comments that the area where both the cat sanctuary and the range are sited is an ‘unzoned’ area which means there are no planning regulations applicable to the area. This is why there was a clash of organisations: a cat sanctuary next to a noisy enterprise. It wouldn’t have happened if there had been planning rules.

Anyway I caught up with the news today (somewhat belatedly) and found out that on December 2014, about 6 months after my article that the gun range owner, Mr Atkeson, had decided to ‘not proceed with the gun range operations’. That was a great result for the sanctuary. They had struggled with a petition and a request to the local authorities.

I don’t know why Atkeson decided to stop operations. Perhaps he is a kind man. Perhaps he liked cats. But then he would have not started a gun range there in the first place.

The next part of the story is not so good as far as I can tell. The last post on the sanctuary’s Facebook page in dated July 18th 2015. The owner had requested donations. They need $25,000 per month to run the refuge. Imagine trying to raise that every month. The pressure would become too much (for me). Perhaps they realized that Facebook is not a great place to raise funds. I have the utmost admiration for the owners of this cat refuge who appear to live from month to month, uncertain if sufficient funds will become available the next month to keep the sanctuary going.

Their website is still running which is a good sign. The last post on the website on the home page is dated December 14th 2017, which is also good news.

The Goathouse Refuge goes on. The picture on this page is of the refuge’s owner, Siglinda, with an elderly refuge cat, Dusty. One comment said:

An angel on earth – Siglinda is the most beautiful woman on earth…

It is a beautiful picture of two beautiful beings. If you can find the money to donate please do so: Link to donation page.