When tiny Humpty Dumpty was left outside our shelter in June, she was so weak she could barely lift her head. She was dehydrated and malnourished, with a deep, open wound on her cheek. Fleas covered her body, and a severe upper respiratory infection had crusted her eyes shut. She was in critical condition, but she was finally safe.
Our veterinary team jumped in with syringe feedings, fluids, and warming pads to help stabilize her. The weeks that followed brought medications, tests, and careful, hands-on care as her little body fought to recover.
Slowly, she began gaining weight and growing stronger. Her eyes cleared, the wound on her face healed, and she started acting more like a kitten.
But after so much medical care, Humpty Dumpty was still learning that human hands didn’t always mean another treatment. When someone reached into her condo, she wasn’t sure whether she was getting a chin scratch or another round of medicine.
Our cat care and socialization volunteers made sure those hands brought good things, too. With feather toys, gentle pets, and lots of time together, Humpty Dumpty began to relax around people.
Soon, she wasn’t just accepting affection—she was seeking it out. She leaned into pets, curled up in laps, and even rode around in a sling to supervise shelter operations from above. The kitten who had once been unsure about every approaching hand was now happy to be close to people.
Last weekend, just two months after arriving at Nine Lives, a healthy Humpty Dumpty went home with her new family.
We’re so grateful to everyone whose support helped Humpty Dumpty heal. If you’d like to help us care for more kittens like her, please consider making a donation today.
Our 2027 Calendar Photo Fundraiser was a huge success, thanks to everyone who entered their cats, voted, and helped spread the word! Congratulations to Terabyte, our top vote-getter, and thank you to all 226 incredible participants. You can see all of the entries here.
The top five entries from the 2027 Calendar Photo Fundraiser.
Our keepsake calendars will be available in the fall and make wonderful holiday gifts for the cat lovers in your life. Pre-order yours today for just $20 each! They can be picked up at the shelter when they’re ready, or shipped for an additional $5.
Linda has been part of the Nine Lives community in just about every way possible. She volunteers at our Adoption Center, has been a donor since 2020, and has opened her own home to three Nine Lives cats.
Her most recent additions came in January 2025, when she adopted Wells and Brody—now Jack and Charlie. Here’s the story in Linda’s words:
“After losing my soulmate kitty Oliver, a Nine Lives rescue I adopted in 2020, I decided it was time to adopt two cats.
While volunteering at the Adoption Center, I was drawn to one-year-old Wells in a cage near the reception desk, pacing, purring, talking, and begging to be adopted. Across the hall, little six-month-old Brody was rolling around as if to say, ‘Pick me! Pick me!’
I put them together in the visiting room. They were a little apprehensive about each other at first, but I decided to take my chances and adopt them as a pair.
Fast forward a few days, and Jack and Charlie were thick as thieves: sleeping, playing, grooming each other, and giving me plenty of love and hugs!
Their loyalty toward one another and to me, and their gratitude for giving them a loving home, make it an all-around WIN WIN WIN!!”
Want to see your Nine Lives kitty featured in a future newsletter? Share their story with us at feedback@ninelives.org.
Leave a Legacy of Love
A will is about more than deciding what happens to your belongings. It’s a way to care for the people, animals, and causes that matter to you. August is National Make-A-Will Month, making it the perfect time to create or update your will and other important estate-planning documents.
Our Legacy Circle recognizes supporters whose planned gifts will help Nine Lives care for vulnerable kitties for years to come. Legacy Circle members can enroll their cats in our Continuing Care Program, which ensures their feline family members will always have a loving home. Members also receive invitations to private events and other special opportunities to connect with Nine Lives.
Visit our Legacy Circle page to learn more and find sample language for including Nine Lives in your estate plans.
August has already been an extraordinary month at Nine Lives, with record-breaking medical work and one of our biggest adoption weekends ever.
Earlier this month, we welcomed Dr. Crystal Heath from Southern California to work alongside our Lead Surgeon, Dr. Ramirez, and our surgery team for our first Double Doctor Days.
In just one week, our team performed 361 spay and neuter surgeries and administered more than 400 vaccines!
Thanks to our increased capacity, we are now on track to perform more than 9,000 low-cost spay and neuter surgeries this year.
This is exactly what we hoped our new Furever Home would make possible: expanding access to affordable care and tackling feline overpopulation at its source. A huge thank you to everyone who made our first Double Doctor Days such a success.
Then came Clear the Shelters.
Each August, NBCUniversal Local teams up with hundreds of shelters across the country for this nationwide adoption campaign. On Thursday, our Clinic Manager, Clare Sugarman, and I joined Laura Garcia on NBC Bay Area—with a few Nine Lives kittens, of course—to talk about our new home, our growing programs, and the nearly 1,000 kittens we expect to rescue this year.
You can watch our NBC Bay Area segment here:
On Saturday, we opened our doors for a weekend of $0 adoptions. And what a weekend it was.
The Adoption Center was packed with families, our staff and volunteers were moving nonstop, and cats and kittens were heading home with their new people. By Sunday evening, 87 cats and kittens had found forever homes.
We even completely emptied some of our adoption rooms. We had quite literally cleared the shelter!
Seeing our team standing together in one of those empty rooms was a moment I won’t soon forget. The rooms won’t stay empty for long, but every adoption creates space for another cat or kitten who needs us.
None of this happens without the incredible community behind Nine Lives. To everyone who adopted, volunteered, donated, shared our posts, or supported us along the way: thank you.
