BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Dianne Leonard is a self-proclaimed cat person and one of the co-founders of Cats in Bloom.
A non-profit cat cafe on West Main Street in Bloomsburg that gives strays a temporary place to live before they find their forever home.
“We really started as a group of four friends who met doing rescue work at local shelters, and we just felt that if we could get cats and kittens out in the community where they could interact with people or be with people that we could really increase adoption rates,” she explained.
And since they opened their doors in 2019, they have helped hundreds of cats find their new families.
Now, Cats in Bloom is celebrating a major milestone-- rescuing and relocating one thousand cats.
“We never thought we would get this big, we never thought we would have the community support that we do, and we have the number of adoptions that we have,” Leonard added.
The cats they rescue live in the cafe and in foster homes throughout Columbia County, including Cassie Marks' house.
“People who are willing to open their homes and take in these cats, all the cats we currently have in foster, which I believe is over a hundred right now, would be on the streets,” she said.
“They would have zero chance of survival outside,” added Leonard. “To be nursed back, bringing them back to the cafe, and to find loving families."
Marks reminds cat lovers they don't need to travel very far for a new furry friend.
“Depending on the pet store that you go to, the kittens are not vetted, they're just, unfortunately, cats that are taken in and labeled as for sale,” Marks said.
Others are encouraged to join Cats in Bloom to give one or a dozen felines a new lease on life.
“I am fostering 20 right now,” Leonard added and has no doubt she will rescue another one.