Westfield Homeless Cat Project Westfield, Connecticut

I adopted the perfect kitty there but it is a filthy and terrible environment for the cats. The staff are distrustful and abrasive. Crowded conditions, my cat was matted and smelly when I brought him home (he is much better now). Her pet cats are wandering everywhere with dirty litter boxes in the office, and filth everywhere. The garage where the cats are is horrid, overcrowded and filthy. It’s sketchy walking up to the house with dark windows and no signs. I should have gone to dakin but I actually felt the need to rescue a cat from that environment. Total crazy cat lady vibes. The staff we Very condescending and were treating me like I don’t know anything about cats when I’ve had cats all my life. Horrible and uncomfortable place to be. The cats are overcrowded and stuck in small cages with no opportunity to play or exercise. At Dakin many cats have freedom in an open room during the day. Honestly she should not be in business because she has no idea has to safely run the place.

While the cages the cats are in are very clean, there is still an overall odor. The woman who runs it, while I commend her for keeping the cats safe and adopting them to good homes, is very rude and short with you. 3/10 wouldn’t highly recommend.

Went to view a cat, told to come in, and they are not there, but at the vet, then mention one I was interested in, and told they were in a foster home? Then tried to get me to adopt two kittens I had no interest in..

Thank you to the people who reviewed this shelter. I have not gone but have to give a star anyway. Me and my daughter will be going elsewhere, no time for rude people.

We adopted Dandelion in summer 2020 from Westfield Homeless Cat. We paid $400 including spayed services. She was about 7 weeks old. She had fleas and was underweight. The volunteer who handed her to me (not Denise) was nice but Denise was very rude and unresponsive for months beforehand. I never received or was able to reach her by phone. All email. When I arrived at Denise’s house to pick up Dandelion, a volunteer was waiting outside. I didn’t see the garage in which the cats were being housed. All I know is that it was a hot July day and the volunteer walked out of a garage with my kitten. No idea of conditions in which my kitten was living in. We gave Dandelion a warm, loving home and spoiled her every day. Our children loved having a new sister during coronavirus and beyond. She was our baby. Today, not even a year and a half later, she is suffering from FIP and is being put down. Please research FIP. It is contracted as a kitten between 5-7 weeks in households with many cats. It is basically Covid 19 for cats, received virus via saliva or feces and passed to others the same way. FIP presents itself when the cat’s immune system gets compromised. A few weeks ago, Dandelion had her 1-yr vaccines and was feeling under the weather. She started to show slight fever that would come and go, wouldn’t eat, had a very swollen belly but otherwise skinny all of a sudden, quickly lost her strength to jump and started having neck spasms. The disease has the liver excrete the toxins in food that cannot digest so that the cat’s belly swells. As I write this, Dandelion is suffering, uncomfortable, starving. It comes on quick in adulthood even though the virus is contracted as a kitten. Rescuing is so great and I’m happy that you’re interested. Please go to a shelter like Dakin, where kittens are caged separately and wellness checks are performed. We have had our other cat for 10 years who came from Dakin. Although Denise is doing something great and has great intentions, she is not a veterinarian and is not managing feline wellness or disease. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the kittens adopted from last summer are no longer with us today. Beware before adopting! Most of all, be patient and take your time to investigate!

This rescue takes on cats that shelters would euthanize. This shelter is run out of someone's home. The way that Denise has given her life to saving cats it an inspiration. Nobody is perfect, we all have our off, snarky days. But once you talk to her for some time, she is a sweetheart.

We went the first time and forgot our application so Denise had us fill out another one. After reviewing the questions, she didn't say anything to us. We came back the following weekend, and showed our application to Denise again and she said we had to find an vet if we adopt a cat. Her attitude and tone was very standoffish. Not very professional so we are looking somewhere else.

they are very rude and disrespectful i genuinely feel so bad for the cats there. There was a black pregnant cat in my back yard so my neighbor called and they did not pick up and when she called again they quickly said they couldn’t pick it up then 30 minutes go by and they call and say they have room now so they can pick it up barely said any thing after wards. horrible place

I know of their heartfelt work for all cats in out city.. .and I just like to make a donation from time to time. Please help the Homeless Cat Project. All donations of cat food and supplies are welcome

I adopted my Orion here. They are very good.

The Westfield Homeless Cat Project is AMAZING. I am sorry very grateful for all they do for cats!!!!

Facebook page is really convenient for viewing cats. BUT my experience at this place was not good at all. I reached out for an application, I received one and filled it out within 24 hrs. I was told my family and I could come see the cat we went the next day. The volunteers/shelter is so disorderly and disorganized. The lady who was working with us just left us randomly and started helping other people. Denise made a really snippy comment to my 6yo son who was petting one of the cats we were interested in. I reached out over a week later after I had sent in my application after I saw the cat I originally applied for being posted on the Facebook page again. I was told to send a follow up email, which I did and instead of an email addressing my actual question I received another application to fill out. Honestly don't even waste your time. My family and I went elsewhere and had a phenomenal experience and took home our cat the same day :)

Denise was very abrasive in her response to us. After waiting for 2 and half weeks for her to respond to my email (after putting in an application a month before), she came back with; "you answered on your application, reasons you would give up a cat.... NONE RIGHT NOW! What does that even mean???" She said cats live 10-20 years, so I guess I should've had a better response. If the cat is sick, it won't live that long. God forbid, something happens to me within 10-20 years, should I let the cat suffer or should I find him a better home? Makes absolutely no sense. I'm just happy we were successful at another shelter. They need to work on their people skills, these cats could all have happy homes but if people are turned off because of these rude people, the cats are the ones that suffer. Very unfortunate.

I was denied adopting a cat, I recommend going elsewhere to adopt a cat

Not even worth the one star. Anyone looking for a cat here needs psychiatric help. Unless willing to dump a month's paycheck on one cat go elsewhere. I was told "then go on craigslist you obviously don't appreciate what shelters and rescues do to save these cats and kitten lives. " so i intend to take my friends seeking cats elsewhere as well. Doesnt ever pay off to have a snarky attitude!!

if you email, you get an automated stoic response if they even respond. really disorganized and disappointed.. beware if you see any pet they have listed call and ask if they’re even there first. 99% chance they’re not even there! coming in was so unwelcoming and awkward.

This is a woman who puts cats first, impeccably clean facility, the care and love that is given to the animals is very apparent!

I adopted my kittens for here via telephone. They were in foster care for a few weeks before being spayed and neutered. They were very well taken care of in foster When it came time to pick them up I had to get them at the 1124 e.mtn Rd location. I entered the home after being greeted by Denise. She wasn't very welcoming. As I recall, she asked who I was here for. When I told her she said they are in the cage down on the right. She didn't bring me to them. There are wall to wall cages in this redone garage area. We grabbed the kittens and I told my bf to get them out of here while Denise finished up paperwork, and complained about someone not filling it out properly. It was clean enough but I just didn t get a good vibe from Denise She didn't seem happy to be doing what she was doing at all. She gave me my directions and paperwork and sent me on my way. I'm happy I have my kittens. It was a rigamarole getting them as well. It wasn't until I complained no one was getting back to my over 2 month old application that I received a call I commend her for taking care of these cats, I'm sure it's tough because she doesn't seem to enjoy it.

So happy there are people like these to take care of animals that people abandon, that get injured, and sick or just plain lost. We were so happy to donate today!!

Love how they communicate on Facebook. Seem so loving and caring and friendly. But when you email the reply back is so impersonal an in my opinion rude. Yes my email was long but I took the time to ask specific questions about adult cats and pricing so I knew if I even had enough $$ if I found one I couldn't part with. I had THOUGHT that would show I'm a conscientious serious person. But my reply back did not answer ONE question! Just said to come look at their cats an the hours. I was trying to respect THEIR time and MINE! I was peeved. Glad to see from other reviews I'm not just being sensitive

They ignored me completely. I’ve had cats my whole life they live into old old age. They blew me off. I thought the purpose of rescue is to give cats good homes. I’m now working with a rescue in ct. my vet highly recommended me. I’m adopting two kittens and fostering kittens soon. Denises loss. Not really her, her cats lose. Some people can’t handle power

Very kind, helpful volunteers. Gives chances to cats the larger shelters would not.

Got a great kitten from them! Adoption fee was alittle expensive but happy to pay it.

Don’t expect to hear anything back from them. And then when you do finally hear back after emailing for the third time simply asking about your application status, it’ll be a curt response trying to make you feel bad for inquiring. I understand this process is a lot of work for them and appreciate the way they help homeless cats, but better communication would be appreciated. Get more volunteers / help.

Denise is rude and unprofessional. She posted on Facebook that she had two barn cats available, we inquired and after several emails of her asking us many questions and her barely answering any of ours she said she had two cats for us that we could pick up. We bought all the supplies and were totally excited and one hour before we were scheduled to pick up the cats, she had someone call and leave us a message that she found another indoor home for the cats. I called back to get more information and expressed the idea that it would have been nice to know she was still actively looking for an indoor home after she advertised them as barn cats and after she had said we could have them and made a date to pick them up and her response was “well you know now”! I will never deal with this place again. We have made several monetary and item donations to this place before and we will never donate anything here again! This place doesn’t even deserve a one star review!

We got a cat they were calling "Feisty" but we adopted him and changed his name to Smokey. The experience was positive and although Smokey passed recently because of liver cancer, we loved him very much. He became a great lover of affection and we miss him dearly. Looking now for 2 to come live with us. Would certainly recommend the project, and if possible we will use them ourselves. ????????????????

An organization that truly cares for the cats. Such a great no kill shelter!

I love the Westfield homeless cat project. Really cares about saving all cats and kittens.

I would like to say we got 2 amazing kittens from this place, but they way they treated us an telling us to go against our vets advice was the last straw for me. Our Kitten Mittens who they said was 2 months at the time of adoption, come to find out is about 3 - 4 months old had some tumtum issues an we had brought them to our vet. They did tests, gave meds and sent him home and sense hes been a happy boy. I messaged Denise about it because she told us that if anything where to happen with our kittens to let her know. So thats what i did, she immediately started in on our vet saying she does not believe them an that we should be doing a different medication for worms when all tests came back clear. when we did not listen to her, she switched tones an started to throw it back in our face that we had to get help for our two kittens when they got sick 1 week after getting them from her place. We had a 3rd kitten from them that died a week after getting her, come to find out Denise gave us this story about a bunch of kittens got sick from the hospital they use to get them spayed / neutered. Mittens an our other kitten graice had been sick with the same infection that the other kitten passed away from in December. I dont care how many cats you have saved or rescued that does not make you a licensed vet. We have also donated close to 300 - 400 dollars to this place over the last 7 months. And we are treated like this because we did not want to listen to someone who did not go to veterinary school. Also our last vist there was to drop off food in feb. When we did things had been changed around. In the area where the kittens normally would have been they moved the cages out an in there place was 6 huge tubs of cat litter and feces. The smell was horrible i dont know how anyone was able to stay in that environment. All they kept talking about was how bad dakin in springfield was and how they where so grateful that we where donating food / money. I dont recommend going here but if you do make sure to just get the kitten you want an leave. Take them to the vet for a full check up, alot of the cats / kittens here are sick and stuck in a small garage with a wood stove in the back.

Very caring staff and clean. They definitely make sure the cats go to good homes. To those complaining of adoption fees, let me break this down for you. 1st off if you are complaining of an adoption fee then you probably shouldn't be looking to adopt an animal to begin with because if they do get sick, it's going to cost a lot more than that and secondly adoption fees go towards food, shelter supplies and medical supplies/ costs, for the animals that are being brought in to the facility, that's where the money goes. A lot of the cats that are being brought in are coming from bad situations or neglect so they need to be cautious of who they adopt out to and some of them are in rough shape from their previous homes.