Gigi’s Purrs and Pawz Animal Rescue to open cat rescue house soon

When Georgia Drager was a senior in high school in 2013 she knew she wanted to be involved in animal rescue, perhaps being a vet. It had been a long time dream of hers because of her love of animals. Drager met with Sue Manion, who runs Safe Haven Animal Rescue, to help with her senior book. Manion showed Drager she was able to help, save and bring animals home. Drager began to take on one or two at a time, taking them to a vet, getting them shots, getting them fixed, slowly took on more and more. Drager decided this was her career path, this was what she wanted to do. Drager got her Associates Degree from Wentworth Military Academy and is goning back to get her Bachelors Degree in business administration with entrepreneurship and non profit leadership, so she can eventually run her own no kill shelter.

Drager volunteered for Safe Haven from 2013 to October of 2016, then decided she wanted her own feline rescue.  She went through state inspections, developed mission statement, got all the paperwork done and became a non profit. 

Drager says she knows cats at the city animal shelter don’t really have an outlet and that is part of why she is doing this.

“My plan is to continue to do this until Cameron builds a shelter that is large enough to cater to cats and dogs. Cats don’t have a very fair deal at the pound. They don’t really stand a chance over there, they don’t have an outlet, they don’t have as high an adoption rate as the dogs,” Drager said

Drager concentrates her efforts on momma cats having babies or injured cats. She made it clear she does not rehome people’s animals or just take on anything, because the city is still supposed to take on calls from the public and the community. Drager picks and chooses what they have the money, time and capability for. 

The cat house building, which Drager is moving her feline rescue into was donated by Dr. Mark Carr to Safe Haven and Sue Manion, approximately two years ago. The city, through the City Council, granted the land to place the building. Safe Haven decided to give the building to Drager to be used for the cats. Previously Drager was a foster-based rescue only, so all the cats she took in had to have a place to go immediately into foster care, which made it difficult to help the cats immediately when they needed help, because they had to have some where to go. 

The building has had two state inspections already and once the cages are up, it will have the third and final inspections. The state inspector will be able to tell Drager how many cats she is allowed to house at any one time. Having been only foster based only in the past, Drager was not able to take on cats in immediate need for help, as she had to have somewhere for the cat to go. With the new building to be used, Drager will be able to house the cats to get them to the vet, to get the treatment they need, and then find them homes. 

Since October 2016 Drager says with her rescue alone she has dealt with fifty cats so far and that was foster based only, without being able to use the building. Right now there are twenty-three cats in foster care and only two in need of homes. 

Drager says she takes cats to the vet at least once and sometimes twice a week, going to vets in Kearney or Savannah to try to keep costs down, depending on who can get her in. 

For those interested in fostering cats, Drager’s rescue offers two programs:

The foster to adopt program – Drager gets the cats all the shots, flea medicine and dewormer for six months, at six months, Drager gets them fixed, then they can be adopted. 

Foster to just be nice until they find somewhere to go, Drager provides litter, litter box, scoop, food, so the foster family has no out of pocket expenses. 

Drager’s future plans include a starting a spay/neuter program, where Drager will catch the cats, spay or neuter them, then find them a barn cat home, a forever home or put the cats back where she found them. The last option will have to go through the City Council to be certain once they are fixed they can be placed back where they were found. A spay/neuter program will also require more funding. When the funding is in place, Drager said she will work on the areas of the city that need it the most, of which she says there are several. 

Drager will be hosting an open house at the cat house for Gigi’s Purrs and Paws after the final state inspection is complete. 

Drager does many different donation drives including t-shirts, cans around town to collect change, and tries to think outside the box for donation drives. Drager also has a go-fund me page.

If you are interested in donating to Gigi’s Purrs and Paws or interested in more information, check out her Facebook page.