ASAP Cats

The acronym in ASAP Cats’ name doesn’t mean “As soon as possible” but rather refers to its origin as the Animal Shelter Assistance Program, an all-volunteer organization. ASAP is dedicated to supporting the county animal shelter in reducing the numbers of euthanized cats, both sick and healthy ones, as a response to tremendous overpopulation at the facility. Back at ASAP’s founding in 1989, the shelter population was limited to approximately 50 cats. In 1988 alone the County euthanized approximately 4,400 cats, more than 90% of the ones it handled, partly because it was considered inhumane at that time to house a cat longer than two weeks in a cage.

The ASAP volunteers originally were only on hand to keep the facility open on Saturdays for adoptions. But barely a year into their founding, ASAP had transformed the Santa Barbara Animal Shelter into the first municipal shelter in the U.S. to stop the killing of adoptable cats for the sole purpose of population control. By the end of 1990, ASAP’s adoption rate leapt from 10 to 100% of adoptable cats. 

That’s pretty fast. 

That remarkable rate of improvement has continued over the years, ASAP most recent expansion of its services aligning with its mission to provide shelter, veterinary care, behavioral support, adopter and foster services, feline education, and community outreach. By supporting both cats and cat families, the organization – which now has 10 employees in addition to hundreds of volunteers – has dramatically reduced the overpopulation of stray, unsocial, and unhoused cats, and found homes of all sorts for the furry felines it comes across; homes that include many nontraditional situations.

At the moment, ASAP’s focus – in both senses of the term – is on a couple of current opportunities. One is the ongoing search for sponsorship of a new cat advocacy resource: ASAP’s first ever Mobile Spay/Neuter Care Unit. The nonprofit’s leap is arguably to a whole new order of magnitude. ASAP acquired the vehicle in 2024 through a donation from partner nonprofit C.A.R.E.4Paws, which allows ASAP Cats’ wellness team to save cats on the go, reaching feline families and cats out in the community, providing spay/neuter services and other low-cost care to pet families, while bringing critical vaccinations, microchips, and other lifesaving resources directly to cats in need. 

While the repurposed mobile unit is now out on the road after some much needed TLC – helping to expand the organization’s reach beyond Santa Barbara to Los Alamos and Santa Maria, as well as more remote areas of North County – there remains a strong need for funds to support ongoing services. 

It took a full year to get the Mobile Spay/Neuter Care Unit road-ready, explained Marketing & Development Coordinator Tanner Tait.

“We just had our first mobile clinic last fall, and we’re still spreading the word about the Mobile Unit,” said Tait. “We push out emails, put up posters, tell people, ‘Hey, we’re having a mobile clinic up in your neighborhood. Come meet us there so you don’t have to drive all the way down to us, and please take advantage of our low-cost or no-cost services, including injury repairs, vaccines, and exams beyond spay or neuter.’ With more financing, we could visit more places.”

Also on the move is ASAP Cats’ annual benefit fundraiser known as Basil’s Big Bash. Previously hewing to the nonprofit gala template (an elegant early evening of dress-up at Chase Palm Park’ Carousel House), this year’s event – slated for Sunday, June 14 – will be a more casual afternoon gathering on the charming grounds of the Stow House in Goleta. 

“We like to change up the venue every few years to be in different areas,” Tait explained. “But this year is even more distinct. Historically it was always an affair with dinner and dancing and a little afterparty, all with a high level of elegance and opulence. This is the first year we’re trying something different, a relaxed afternoon at the ranch. It’s in keeping with expanding to more rural areas of the county, where a ranch vibe made a lot of sense.”

The atmosphere also serves to highlight one of ASAP’s atypical approaches to saving cats by meeting them where they are, metaphorically – a program called Working Cats.

“This is for cats who don’t follow the traditional adoption pipeline of finding a home in a typical household,” Tait said. “They are more comfortable working on ranches, chasing critters or sleeping in barns. Stow House actually has a working cat on the property that we placed. So it’s a perfect locale to showcase one of the cool things that we do to help save all the cats we can in the county.”

Sounds like, ahem, the cat’s meow.  

Visit https://asapcats.org