In 1998, Cindi Clum and her husband Melvin were on the board at an animal shelter. While on the board, they were saddened by the lack of care and compassion the animals were shown. One day she found a little kitten left in a back room that was very ill. It had very little food and water and no one had cleaned its cage. Cindi asked to take that kitten to her vet before she and her husband left for vacation. After taking the kitten to the vet, they found out it had a very treatable illness and took meds back to the shelter with instructions on how to treat her. When Cindi and Melvin came back from their vacation a week later, they found that the kitten was not given any of its medicine and had very little care. Cindi spoke up at the board meeting the next day but after a couple of weeks of no change, she and her husband decided to leave the shelter. Cindi then told Melvin that she wanted to start a shelter of their own. Melvin took money out of his 401K to pay for a year’s rent, supplies, cages and whatever else was needed. One week after they left the other shelter Cozy Cat Cottage was born.
Melvin unfortunately passed away in 2005, but Cindi is now the Executive Director for Cozy Cat Cottage and is on call 24/7, volunteering 40-70 hours a week, sometimes only sleeping 6 hours a night. Cindi oversees all aspects of Cozy Cat including medical, intake, adoptions, trapping, and more. She works closely with other groups to save as many cats and kittens as possible and even bottle feeds orphaned kittens. With Cindi’s help, Cozy Cat Cottage has found great homes for over 8,000 felines.
Cindi grew up in a family with nine siblings. She says that she was a shy and insecure child that grew into a shy and insecure woman. That was until, at the age of 37, she met a great group of ladies who “encouraged me to be all that I could be and all that I was ever meant to be.” Cindi says that in one short year she learned that she could do anything that she set out to do and “do it with honesty, passion, love and integrity.” Cindi now says that she has the best support system with eight directors that believe in Cozy Cat Cottage as much as she does. “They pick me up when I fall down and I have fantastic volunteers that give their time to make sure the feline residents of Cozy Cat are well taken care of.”
Recalling the best advice she has received, Cindi says she was very saddened by a group of baby kittens that she was unable to save. A woman that she met through Cozy Cat said to her, “Don’t dwell on the lives you couldn’t save but be happy for all those lives you did save.”
Oh, and that kitten that Cindi found in the back of the other animal shelter, well Cindi got that cat and four others out of the shelter when they left. They called the ill kitten Gretchen and with love, medicines and compassion she recovered and found her forever home.