About Del Gato Rescue
Del Gato Rescue is a foster-based cat rescue founded in 2020 when Jen Knight lost her job due to Covid shutdowns & had all the time in the world to begin rescuing cats. She volunteered with local rescues and went to work feeding, colony caretaking, and TNRing the surrounding area. All friendly colony cats and kittens were brought inside as fosters. The plight of the cats who lived on the streets was an instant shock — there was so much illness, death, tragedy, and suddenly her phone was ringing off the hook about new groups of cats needing help outside. The number of rescuers paled in comparison to the number of cats outside desperately needing help. There were a lot of people and organizations helping, but it did not matter because the number of cats outside continued to explode exponentially, especially with spay/neuter clinic shutdowns in the wake of covid. It was an uphill battle to say the least.
​
The next few years snowballed into massive amounts of TNR, fostering the friendlies, learning veterinary protocols from hardcore seasoned rescuers, finetuning a fostering and adoption process for all of the adoptable cats who had landed in her care, developing the rescue brand and social media to boost visibility for adoptables and to provide education shedding light on their origin stories, and endless amounts of organizational admin work. We often chose to meet in Del Taco parking lots for supply & medicine handoffs, cat handoffs, and even buying burgers to bait traps with, which ultimately gave birth to the name “Del Gato.” A 501(c)(3) was sought after in September 2021 in order to land a Petfinder page to network adoptables as well as to drive donations which were critically and endlessly needed.
Fast forward 5 years from the very first kitty rescued and 1000+ cats later (and counting), Del Gato is comprised of Jen Knight, Donald Tran (Urban Panthers Rescue founder), Taylor Aronow, Ayelet Ifrah, and 90+ foster families. Our hardworking and dedicated volunteers support us by fostering, transporting cats to/from clinics and vets, trapping, uploading and managing adoption listings, donating money and supplies, and more. Every single one of us are volunteers, working full time day jobs and moonlighting as cat rescuers at night.
Our place in the cat rescue community is to provide a reliable and trusted rescue network to our high volume TNR friends — whether 501(c)(3) or independent rescuers, they need immediate placement for friendlies in order to continue on their TNR missions, which is the single most effective way to help lower the staggering number of community cats living on the streets.
We currently provide TNR services and resources in the Hollywood area because we believe Trap-Neuter-Return is the only humane and effective solution to ending the cycle of suffering and preventing more kittens from being born into lives of hardship.
​
Every adoption through Del Gato makes space for another cat in need to come inside and receive the care, safety, and second chance they deserve.
Thank you for your support — please check out our Instagram for a constant flow of stories showing who we’re currently rescuing, fostering, who’s available to take home for adoption — and tell your friends if they’re looking to adopt a cat!