Kitty Harbor: One woman’s mission to care for the city’s cats | Community Spirit

Thinking about adopting a new family pet? I dare you to walk into Kitty Harbor and walk out empty handed.

I visited the shelter last week and found myself surrounded by playful, friendly cats and kittens curling up around my feet and climbing up my leg. Standing in the area where dozens of cats and kittens roamed free, it took all of my will power not to scoop up a ball of fur and take one home with me.

I had walked into Kitty Harbor with no expectations and a lot of curiosity. I walked out convinced that it is a very special place.

When I showed up at the shelter, without warning, I found it clean and filled with all the essentials a new pet owner would need. Most exciting of all, I saw healthy, neutered cats and kittens roaming and playing freely in a large, open air area.

Kitty Harbor is run by Delyn Kosbab, a woman who’s been rescuing cats since she was 4 years old. It started when her parents let her use their home garage in Sedro-Woolley as a pet nursery for abandoned cats and kittens. When she got older, Delyn trapped, neutered, and released cats back into the wild to help with over-population. Later, in 1994 and 2000, she started foster programs at King County and Kent Animal Shelters, preventing countless cats from being euthanized. Soon after, she converted her home into an animal shelter and, in 2007, bought the building at 3422 Harbor Ave. S.W. to start Kitty Harbor.  

To this day, there is no paid staff at Kitty Harbor. A group of 14 volunteers clean the entire shelter every day and spend hours playing with the cats to help socialize them.

The shelter operates with very little funding. Delyn owns the building and maintains the shelter with adoption fees ($65 per cat) and donations, which average $2500 a year.

Kitty Harbor takes in an average of 30 cats or kittens a week from rescue agencies that find them on the street, in foreclosed homes, in dumpsters and various conditions. On the first day we spoke, Delyn received seven phone calls asking if she had room for more cats. The next day, a truck pulled up with nearly 20 kittens.   

From June to January this year, Kitty Harbor will adopt out 600 to 1000 cats and kittens before taking six months off. Each year, they have been able to find homes for every pet, except last year, when a sweet tabby with big, green eyes was without a home.

At another shelter Abby (pictured below) might have been euthanized to make room for other cats. But Delyn found her a foster home for six months and continues to search for the right home for the affectionate girl.  

According Delyn, Kitty Harbor has only euthanized cats with severe, untreatable health problems. In fact she is trying to save as many cats as possible by treating infections like calici, ecoli and coccidia in isolated areas within the shelter.

While Delyn’s work demonstrates her compassion, she is a tough, no-nonsense leader who isn’t afraid to rub you the wrong way.

While I watched many families leave the shelter with new kittens, I saw one family walk away empty handed. They had wanted to adopt a single kitten without any other pets and raise it outdoors. Both are big no-no’s to Delyn, who requires kittens be adopted in pairs or to homes where another cat lives and recommends kittens stay inside until they grow into adults.

“They’ll find a kitten on Craigslist,” Delyn said. “But I’m not doing it.”

Delyn also doesn’t adopt cats to anyone under 18, to people living with temporary roommates or to anyone with a history of returning an adopted pet. She also doesn’t release kittens under 5 months old to families with children under 5 years old. While her requirements might seem tough, Delyn says it’s all “for the health of the cats.”

Delyn hopes to expand the shelter but isn’t sure what the future will bring for her shelter. Either way, tonight, Abby and many other cats, have a safe home at Kitty Harbor.