Operation Aloha Cat Flight #35 sends 500th Cat to Seattle!

The last time we had a milestone announcement back in April, our total number of cats flown through Operation Aloha Cat was 400 cats. At the time, Good Cat Network was in operation for roughly 16 months. But, WOAH. It took us just three months to get another 120 cats flown to their forever homes in Seattle and we’re about to send twenty *more* next week! By August 1, our Operation Aloha Cat cat-tally will be at 540.

What does this mean? Well, it means that we’ve hit our stride, maximizing the opportunities of the OAC program, ensuring that each carrier that we have available through our partnership with Aloha Air Cargo is filled with as many healthy, social cats as our transfer partners will accept from us.

Our partnerships, volunteers and of course, our donors make this all possible.

Our valued foster partner Jennie and Emily of Honi Honi Cats Maui has been integral to maximizing the program. Before partnering with them, at times we would not have enough healthy, social cats in our own foster program that met the flight requirements, and would end up sending fewer cats that either our transfer partner or Aloha Air Cargo would actually allow. Learning and evolving is the only way to get better, and so we did! Partnering with Honi Honi means that there is a much larger pool of cats to work with, ensuring that we have cats and kittens that meet all the requirements of our transfer partners. And for Honi Honi – partnering with us means that they can depend on a way to get larger groups of foster cats into loving homes more quickly, thus allowing them to rescue more cats and kittens. It’s truly a win-win.

It can go without saying that our Operation Aloha Cat program would not be possible without our airline partner Aloha Air Cargo. Our partnership agreement includes 12 carriers, flown twice monthly from OGG to SEA, and we all sleep at night knowing that our cats are in the getting First Class treatment while with the crew at Aloha Air Cargo.

Another transportation partner of ours, Feline Friends of Sammamish, has stepped in to provide transport from Seattle Airport to our Transfer Partners when the organizations did not have their own transport crew available. We wouldn’t know what to do without their help!

Our wonderful transfer rescue partners PAWS – Progressive Animal Welfare Society, Seattle Humane and The NOAH Center have now found 500+ cats their forever homes in Washington State, getting adopted usually within a week after they land. We could not be more grateful for our these relationships.

Let’s take a moment to talk about how important our volunteers are to the operation! Mindie, our Transport Coordinator, has been involved in transporting the last 170 or so cats, so already she’s quite experienced when it comes to the clear and thoughtful communication necessary to get these kitties to our Transfer Partners.

The Honi Honi Cats Maui fosters who bring the cats to the airport for flight day – we consider them GCN volunteers because they too, are such an important part of the program. Our data assistants Elisabeth and Ghislain keep our software up to date so we can turn these numbers into possible grant opportunities in the near future.

Thank you to the Ellison family who offer us a venue to host our clinics, we adore having a safe and lovely space to provide the necessary services for our flight cats.

Huge MAHALO to the vet teams Dr. Bumpus & Vet Tech Kelli and Dr. Hellsen & Vet Tech Karen Hannie (Karen has an amazing company to if you’re travelling with pets called Maui Direct Release, check them out!) who have been available with their compassionate and kind veterinary services.

Let’s not forget the man with the vision: Adam Townley-Wren who had the idea for Operation Aloha Cat in the first place! He had the idea and the dream, secured the partnership, and then Good Cat Network brought it all to fruition.

And of course, our amazing, wonderful, supportive donors. We COULD NOT fund Operation Aloha Cat without all of the donors who have supported us along the way. Our operational costs are currently around 2-4K per month, completely funded by gracious individuals, just like you. Maybe even you! If so, thank you big time.

And thank you to the talented and cat-loving Madelynne Lorraine Photography for donating photography services to us, time and time again. She was kind enough to come to our OAC 500 Clinic and Flight and captured the beauty and the emotion of what we do so perfectly.

Last but not least – mahalo to Maui Cookie Lab for putting together those delicious GOOD CAT 500 cookies and giving me a deal