Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County, Inc.

The Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County, an all-volunteer, no-kill cat shelter in Gaithersburg, Maryland, strives to find homes for adoptable cats. These come from owner surrenders, the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center (MCASAC) and other rescue partners, and the Montgomery County Community Cat Coalition which traps community or outdoor cats and seeks fosters for kittens young enough to be socialized, unclaimed strays, and abandoned pets. AWLMC fosters these potentially adoptable cats, obtains necessary vet care and spay/neuter services from our participating vets, and adopts them out to loving homes when they are ready to make that transition. This keeps these cats out of the county shelter, benefiting the cats, the shelter, and county taxpayers.

AWLMC also offers a free cat and dog pet food bank for qualified residents, reduced cost spay/neuter certificates, and education on responsible pet ownership.

AWLMC picks up cats and kittens that are deemed adoptable (healthy, non-feral strays and abandoned animals) from high-kill shelters and fosters them for at least 10 days for cats and semi-permanently (until adopted) for kittens so as to spay/neuter, treat them for endemic parasites such as fleas, worms and other common ailments, embed microchips for identification, and advance the animals' ability to live with existing cats and dogs so that they are more adoptable when shown in the unique free-range shelter located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Kittens are cared for through weaning and spay/neutering and then kept in foster environments to ensure they are healthy so they can be successfully adopted. All cats and kittens are treated by certified veterinarians and given all appropriate shots for their ages. Potential adopters are vetted carefully so that cats and kittens successfully remain in their new homes well treated and are rarely returned to the shelter.

AWLMC is a volunteer organization with approximately 150 members working in teams to provide fostering support as well as adoption counseling, cat and kitten enrichment and socialization support, health checks, intake selection, outreach work and to maintain the house where the cats are given free-range in five large, airy rooms. AWLMC is a strictly no-kill shelter with several programs that enhance the adoptability of its feline residents: 1) low-cost spay/neutering; 2) CHOMPERS Pet Food Bank offering low-income residents access to donated wet and dry pet food for dogs and cats; 3) Foster and Shelter of cats and kittens; and 4) Hope 4 Paws that provides grants of up to $1,500 to low-income residents of Montgomery County, MD to help defray the cost of non-standard veterinary care.

AWLMC has a current capacity to shelter up to 20 cats at a time in its 12 Park Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland house. An equal number of kittens and cats are fostered in volunteers' homes at the same time. Each year, the organization has been able to take in and have adopted from 100 to almost 200 cats and kittens, reaching a cumulative total of adoptions of almost 2,400 cats since its launching in 2005. In addition, each year for the past 12 years, AWLMC has awarded approximately 2,500 low-cost Spay/Neuter certificates. The CHOMPERS Pet Food Bank has given out approximately 24,000 pounds of pet food to 1,100 pet owners of which 24 percent were senior citizens. AWLMC is constantly recruiting new volunteers to replace the number of people who retire from fostering and/or work at the Shelter or behind the scenes. AWLMC is constantly developing new ways to support the healthy lives of cats and kittens in the community as well as benefit county residents. It's newest program is Hope 4 Paws that is currently in start-up mode getting ready to raise the required funds to support low-income families with their feline vet bills so that cats are not abandoned or relinquished to shelters. AWLMC also continues to increase geographic area from which it takes in cats and kittens. Increased training of its volunteer staff ensures that its cats and kittens stay healthy and are successfully located into forever homes.