AGNEW — A Peninsula Friends of Animals leader says a 5,000-square-foot trophy home will be a purr-fect place for up to 65 homeless cats.

Safe Haven will open late this summer with about 60 cats.

The furry felines might otherwise have be euthanized at the Clallam County Humane Society animal shelter, if not adopted, says Ann Gilson, Friends of Animals vice president.

“It’s just kind of a mess right now, and we’re trying to find our way,” Gilson says of Peninsula Friends of Animals’ efforts to pick up the slack left when Clallam County leaders, facing a $1.8 million budget deficit, were forced late last year to cut county animal control services.

Under such circumstances, groups like Friends of the Animals often rely on donations and grants to help cats and dogs in trouble.

Gilson is quick to say that the two-story Safe Haven home on open wetland acreage was purchased more than a year ago through private donations, and without government subsidies.

“We have done this all out of private dollars and no taxpayers dollars, and we never intend to use tax dollars,” Gilson says of the group that most recently received a $10,000 grant from PetsMart.com, an online pet supply company.

Friends of Animals’ mission is “to place as many homeless, neglected and/or abandoned pets as possible into good, safe and permanent homes.”

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The rest of the story appears in the Tuesday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.