Vallejo feline adoption event is the cat's meow
May 9-Hailey Costa of Vallejo gazed longingly at the cage where Stella, a tiny but regal tuxedo cat, was holding court at a feline adoption event at PetSmart in Vallejo Saturday.
"She's been bugging me to get another cat," said Costa's grandmother Deborah. "I love this one," referring to Stella, as the two ogled solid black, orange, tabby, calico, tortoiseshell, smoke and white kitties displayed by Community Cat Advocates, the organization that holds the events every Saturday.
The all-volunteer organization found homes for 241 cats in 2025 and neutered 926 cats. It was founded in 2021 by Rachel Sweet and Wenona Natley, both Vallejo residents. Dana Wilson of Vacaville, now the president, came on board a year later.
"We fix cats at cost for community members - $120 for boys, $140 for girls," Wilson said at the Saturday event. "We also do TNR."
TNR, or Trap, Neuter, Release, is a humane way to keep feral cat populations down without having to euthanize the felines.
"We pull in cats and kittens off the street who are friendly and put them in foster care so they get socialized, they get healthy," said Sweet. "Some of them are abandoned pets. Some are the offspring of abandoned pets."
Those who aren't as friendly are also trapped, spayed or neutered, but instead of being homed, they are returned to the area where they were found.
Back at PetSmart, a large economy-size tuxedo cat did a double somersault as Giselle Centeno and Makayla Jones brandished a wand toy over her head. Jones was getting credit for volunteering through her Introduction to Medical Careers class at Benicia High School.
Meanwhile, Appa, a black cat, and Evee, a "torbie," cuddled together in one of the cages stacked against the wall. (A "torbie" is a cat with the markings of a tabby and the orange or gray of a tortoiseshell.)
Community Cat Advocates is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the northeastern Bay Area. It has around 25 volunteers and foster homes from Woodland to Oakland.
"We have all types of foster homes, including those taking in neonatal kittens. Very few people have the experience and the ability to wake up every two hours in the middle of the night to feed the kittens," Sweet said.
"It can happen on the spur of the moment when someone walks into a pet store and drops off a kitten. Those are specialty foster homes," Sweet said.
"A couple of foster families we worked with for three or four years encourage their friends and family to adopt. Once they get (the cats) adopted, they say, 'We need our kitten fix. What more do you have?'" Sweet said.
"We have met really awesome people in the community who are dedicated and caring. If we didn't have these community helpers we wouldn't be possible as a rescue. It takes a lot of work," Sweet said.
Cats up for adoption can be found via the organization's Facebook group and Pet Finders.
They're also on display at the Saturday adoption events. The Vallejo events run from noon to 3 p.m. at PetSmart. The group also holds adoptions at the El Cerrito Petco every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
All cats and kittens who are adopted out through Community Cat Advocates have been dewormed, treated for fleas, tested for Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, vaccinated to age-appropriate levels, microchipped, and spayed or neutered.
The organization is foster-based rescue, and all cats and kittens live in someone's house when not at adoption events. For more information, email cca.adoptionteam@gmail.com.
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This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 7:28 PM.