Oregon Cat Project to have 250 felines ready at big weekend for cat lovers

Dana Lionel always thinks big when it comes to the welfare of cats in Oregon.

Since founding the Oregon Cat Project in Lake Oswego in 2010, Lionel has taken 1,500 cats off the street and placed them in new homes. One time she performed the miracle of taking in 100 orange cats and placing them with 100 orange cat lovers.

Now she is set to outdo herself by putting up 250 cats, mostly kittens, for adoption at Kitten Fest 2012, which will be held next weekend, July 28-29, at Petco in Lake Oswego. It will be sort of the Woodstock for kitten adoption.

This event has put Lionel in her usual state of serene excitement at the prospect of doing good for the cat world.

“I told Petco, ‘Why don’t we do something big? Let’s get all of Portland coming to our neighborhood,’” Lionel said.

This cat adoption gala is necessary because of a recent raft of new cats coming to the OCP’s little house on B Avenue. It will cost $120 to adopt a cat, a fee that will cover spaying or neutering, the placement of microchips and vaccinations. And there is a bonus: the second cat you adopt will be absolutely free. For military families, there will be no fee to adopt a cat. Lionel has a gem of a story regarding military cat adoption.

“There was the family of a young man who was having a very hard time adjusting to life back home after three trips to Afghanistan,” she said. “His family adopted a cat for him, and now the kitten and the young man are inseparable. They even go to the pool together. An animal can fill the void of companionship.”

Patrons of Kitten Fest 2012 will be overwhelmed by a sea of furry little faces with big eyes. Most of them will be very young kittens, aged 8 to 14 weeks, gathered from neighborhoods, barns, factories, fields and other places. A litter of nine kittens was found dumped in a trashcan on a reservation in Yakima.

“They are amazingly healthy,” Lionel said. And also amazingly cute.

The weekend of cat fun will include giveaways of free litter by Petco, coupons for half off the price of kitten food with each adoption, a bake sale, music and tents set up just for the occasion.

“This is the largest kitten adoption event that has ever been held,” Lionel said. “We need attention and recognition for these cats. For every one cat roaming around Portland there are four people on the street.”

If cats could select saints, Dana Lionel would be No. 1 on their list. Her scooping of cat food and cat litter alone is truly extraordinary, but it is the series of extraordinary events (maybe miracles) that she has facilitated that truly make Lionel a remarkable person. She is right on the verge of opening a spaying-neutering clinic and is only waiting for the “perfect veterinarian” to show up. Lionel thinks this will undoubtedly happen.

“This clinic will be like nothing else anywhere,” said Lionel, who that very day had picked up another grant for her project. “Our support is amazing from individuals and corporations. It’s just amazing.”

Lionel’s ultimate goal is to end the overpopulation, suffering and killing of cats and she says she will work on it until the end of her life.

She said, “It is a huge thing to get one cat off the streets, fixed and placed in a home.”

Petco is located at 333 S. State St. in Lake Oswego.

For more information about the Oregon Cat Project and Kitten Fest 2012, call 503-816-5149.