OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Over nearly two decades and thousands of cat adoptions, Sheltering Hands Inc. continues to be a powerful presence within the community.
Most of the adoptable felines live in Coco’s House, with about 20 of them in Stremmel’s Room., which is named after the gentlemen who donated the estate where the 501(c)(3) nonprofit is located. The kittens can be found in Bobbie’s Room and the more anxious and shy cats are residents of Karma’s Room. There are about 60 or so cats in total who reside at Coco’s House. Most of the senior cats can be found hanging out in the in main room. The floors to Coco’s House were redone recently, and there’s also a “catio.”
Everyone is welcome at Sheltering Hands between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., and visitors can spend time with the cats.
“You want the cat to be personable and OK with people,” said Bronson Mosley, Sheltering Hands partnership director. “You want them to be able to connect with people, to continue that even if they don’t get adopted when they come of age, that’s one of the main functions of this place, is to create a home-like environment.”
Something for everyoneÂ
The cats at the facility range from one to eight years in age. Cats eight years old and older are deemed seniors, and they go into a quieter room. There are televisions in every room, and although the cats look happy, the ultimate goal is to see them get adopted.
“We’ve had cats who’ve stayed here for a few years before they get adopted,” said Mosley. “We home the kitties here in Coco’s House, and they get to live as freely as they want.”
One of the cats has been there for nearly five years. The cats become like family members to the volunteers.
A commitment to the cats
Sheltering Hands has a thrift store in Lady Lake, with the proceeds helping to take care of the cats’ various and not-inconsiderable expenses.
“The revenue that we get from the [thrift store and on-site clinic] is to take care of the cats,” said Mosley. “Everything we do here is for the cats.”
It’s a lifetime commitment with the cats, said Mosley, as the nonprofit never gives up on the animals. Should someone adopt a cat, and can no longer take care of the animal, or it runs away, the cats are microchipped to Sheltering Hands.
“We always take our cats back,” said Mosley. “If someone gets too old, we step in.”
And that’s where Sheltering Hands’ Love for a Lifetime program comes in. Their Love for a Lifetime program is for individuals 75 or older and it’s for cats that are eight years and older in most cases.
Sheltering Hands understands that senior citizens may not always have the funds to be able to take care of them. The nonprofit takes care of all the medical costs for the senior cats when they go into a Love for a Lifetime home. Whatever happens to the person, the cats will always have a home back at Sheltering Hands. They’ll be able to place them somewhere else, said LeeAnn Frank, Sheltering Hands cat care specialist. No matter the health condition, they’ll find a foster, or some way that cat has a healthy and happy life.
Love for a Lifetime is trying to create a space for those animals to have a dignified second chapter of life. A second act if you will, said Mosley. The program was started in honor of Cathy D. Perry, who donated money to start the initiative for the animals to receive care, whether it be a second chance at life or adult cats that might not necessarily have a footing, so there are resources to provide them that love for a lifetime during their golden years.
“It was originally established as a senior-for-senior program,” said Mosley. “A lot of these cats don’t enter this environment until they reach adulthood., they’ve already been spayed and neutered. Most of our kittens are with individuals in foster homes. We’ll keep them here. Rarely will we reach out to other organizations to see if they can find a home for our cats, but we do work with the University of Florida–sometimes we have a cat that isn’t just a good fit here, they’ll go up to the University of Florida and become part of the testing program. They’ll get tested, their blood, their DNA, different illnesses. The cats are kept alive. They’re in a super high-class fancy environment. Almost every cat that goes into the UF blood program, gets adopted by one of the volunteers. We just had a cat in that program, it was one of our cats, Peppermint. We find a good space for every animal. We are committed until the very end for all of our cats.”
Raising the bar
TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) also plays a role in the cats’ well-being, happiness and standard of living, said Mosely.
“Trapping the community cats and reducing the community cats, and reducing the cat population,” said Mosley. “Yes, it means less cats, but it’s a better quality of life for the cats that are here, and there are cats that come from the TNR program that are really wonderful cats that aren’t made for the wild. We’ll take those in and put them with the foster and that cat will grow into an adoptable cat. Some cats would rather be out there than with us, and that’s just the reality.”
The Fix Them All program finds the nonprofit traveling to places as far away as Chiefland and Keystone, to take care of community “outdoor” or home-owned cats and will bring them to the on-site clinic at the facility, where they have a low-cost spay and neuter program, said Frank.
“Fix them All in Levy and Citrus County collect, they petition locals, whether you’re a trapper or a homeowner, if you need to get your animal fixed, we’re going to help you do it,” said Mosley. “They gather the animals, and we come once a month, in the middle of the month, pick those animals up, service them and then bring them back at the end of the day.”
Sheltering Hands even goes beyond spay and neuter in those cases sometimes because those cats are injured, and they’re able to do simple operations and make sure that cat continues to have a good quality of life, even beyond the spay and neuter.
“We do it at a low-cost rate, not everyone can afford $200 or $300 to get their cat spayed or neutered,” said Frank. “We get grants that we can use to help out the community. We try to spread it out as far as we can go. We’re open to anybody in the public. You don’t have to be at a certain income level.”
A labor of love
At any given time, there can be more than 225 animals that are at Sheltering Hands, said Mosley. They’re at Coco House, foster homes, and Sheltering Hands has six to 10 cats at Pet Smart in Lady Lake.
“We have our adoption center down there to serve our Villages community,” said Mosley. “The thrift shop opened in Lady Lake on Aug. 1, 2024.”
Sheltering Hands has been open since 2007, although it’s really evolved over the last seven or eight years, where there’s been a lot of growth. It started with one doctor, and a team of volunteers. There are more than 80 volunteers involved with the organization, said Mosley. Surgeries are done Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are dedicated to shelter diversion.
“All of the board works in different roles for the organization,” said Mosley. “Our president works in the surgery room every Friday and Wednesday. The surgeries are performed three days per week. The veterinarians are all board-certified veterinarians in the surgical center.”
Community consciousÂ
Sheltering Hands has a feral food pickup program, where resources come through the facility and they continue to pass them on to animals that need to be served, said Mosley. They pick up food every Sunday through a program with Voices of Change Animal League (VOCAL), where they receive donations from Chewy. That food is distributed to people who feed feral colonies. Every Sunday Sheltering Hands picks up food and distributes it to people that have signed up to feed colonies.
Next month, Sheltering Hands is holding the Partners in Animal Welfare Chili Challenge at Lake Lillian in Belleview on Jan. 24, 2026.
“It’s an annual celebration of all of the people who are partnered in the welfare of our community’s animals,” said Mosley. “That means Marion County Fire and Rescue is involved, Marion County Animal Services, VOCAL, the Humane Society and a ton of other smaller rescues come together. We cook chili, we have a car show that’s open to the public, raffles, games, music, all the fixings, it’s really a day to celebrate those individuals who are doing what they can in their sectors. Organizations who are coming out, we want them to raise awareness, allow them to collect donations, so they can meet new donors to feed their pipeline. It’s a day built around fun.”
Sheltering Hands main office is located at 10397 U.S. 27, Ocala. For more information, you can call (352) 840-0663 or visit shelteringhands.org.