A Paw in the Door is an all-volunteer, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization. We work within our community to provide a safe haven, medical support, foster placement and adoptive homes for cats in need. We depend upon our volunteers, board members, and our Paw Palace completely manned by our volunteer cat companions to care for our cats while they await adoption. We have developed a partnership with local veterinarians at Yarmouth Veterinary Center in Yarmouth who work with us on a case-by-case basis and who continue to impress us with their commitment to our mission. Our adoption process is thorough. We require references from all of our potential adopters and will do home visits and follow-up visits in most cases. A Paw in the Door will take back any cat we have adopted out with no questions asked. We prioritize the health and well-being of each and every cat that comes to us and are proud to be one of the few local groups who will invest the time and attention to making sure that all of our cats go to homes in which they will be loved and well-cared for for the rest of their lives! Our goal is to ensure a quality life for each and every one of our cats. Because of our continued involvement in checking in on our alumni we only adopt within the state of Maine. Preferred homes are within driving distance to our home base of Bath Maine Our annual fundraising events include lively auctions, busy yard sales, 4th of July celebrations, sports tournaments and other entertaining, community based gatherings. Our committed volunteers and advisory board members headed by the founder of the organization, Patty Sample Colwell, meet regularly and are actively involved in the individual support of each and every cat that enters our program. Last year A Paw in the Door found homes for 61 cats. We provided veterinary services to 88 cats, all of which also received full vaccinations, FIV and FELV screening and worm and flea treatments asw well as spay or neuter when necessary. We provided ongoing medical care for 18 cats that live with community members. These cats, due to a variety of circumstances are cats that A Paw in the Door is committed to covering all of the veterinary expenses during the lives of each cat as a condition of their adoptions. These are cats with ongoing medical conditions which would have excluded them from adoption without our help. Last year we placed fewer cats than the 113 cats placed in the previous year. This is a result of our decision to take on more cats that are less adoptable due to age, traumatic cricumstances and health conditions. These cats require longer stays in our care and more extensive & compassionate care in order to trust again or further medical treatments. Also, in an attempt to prioritize spending A Paw in the Door has begun to refer out spay/neuter requests. We continue to recognize spay/neuter as a crucial step in the effort to end the heartbreaking results of domestic animal overpopulation. However because A Paw in the Door is supported entirely by donations we have chosen to conserve and hone our efforts and to rely on other equally committed organizations for spay/neuter services. A Paw in the Door relies entirely on donations and fundraising events to support our mission. Community support and involvement is crucial to our effectiveness. We could not achieve our mission without the dedicated assistance of our foster home providers, our adoptive families, our veterinarian and business partners, our volunteer network and our generous supporters.