Meet Our Cats Ace Angel #12: Susan, The Pioneer for Mobile’s Community Cats
Meet Our Cats Ace Angel #12: Susan, The Pioneer for Mobile’s Community Cats
For Susan in Mobile, everything began with a discovery that was impossible to ignore. In early 2005, she found a colony of about thirty cats living behind a business. There were sick kittens with ringworm and eye infections, thin mama cats trying to care for babies, and large tomcats competing for scraps of food. They were all gathered in one place, simply trying to survive. It was heartbreaking, and it felt wrong that nothing was being done to help them.
When Susan reached out to the main local animal agency at the time, she was told they did not handle stray or feral cats. That moment made something very clear. There was a serious problem in the community, and there were no organizations specifically set up to help cats.
Instead of accepting that reality, she decided to change it.
Building Something That Didn’t Exist
Susan began working with a cat group in a neighboring county to get help for the colony she had found. Through that experience, she learned how cat coalitions functioned and saw what was possible when people focused specifically on community cats. That knowledge inspired her to create something similar for the Mobile area.
What started as an idea eventually became Azalea City Cat Coalition, which officially received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2008. At the time, the concept of trap neuter return was not widely understood locally, and much of the early work involved educating the community about feeding and fixing as a humane solution for stray cats.
Today, TNR has become far more accepted in the region, and Susan and her team are proud to have helped introduce and promote those practices in Mobile and surrounding areas.
Boots on the Ground Rescue
Azalea City Cat Coalition now services approximately fifty to sixty cats across multiple locations. There are six established colonies and several feeding stations, including areas around a local mall, apartment complexes, and the largest colony at a gas station. It continues to surprise Susan how often people abandon cats in busy commercial areas, assuming someone else will take responsibility.
The organization operates with six to seven primary feeders along with substitute volunteers who step in when needed. Cats are provided fresh water and, whenever possible, canned food in addition to dry. Volunteers monitor for new arrivals, identify cats needing to be spayed or neutered, and watch for injuries or illness.
When friendly cats appear, they know those animals cannot remain on the street. Those cats are brought into foster homes until they can be adopted into permanent families.
Programs That Save Lives
Because Azalea City Cat Coalition does not own a building or clinic, it operates as a foster based network supported entirely by volunteers. Despite limited resources, the organization offers several critical programs, including low cost trap neuter return services, assistance for individuals feeding community cats, medical help for injured animals when possible, foster and adoption placement, and even a barn cat program for cats that are not suited to indoor homes.
Their group color is green, a symbol that their cats all come from the outdoors and deserve a second chance.
The Ongoing Challenges
Like many grassroots rescue organizations, the challenges are constant. The coalition always needs more volunteers, especially people willing to help with feeding, trapping, and fostering. Access to affordable veterinary clinics willing to partner with them is one of their biggest needs. Food donations are inconsistent, and most of the time volunteers purchase supplies themselves to make sure the cats are fed.
Without a building or storage space, even keeping equipment organized can be difficult. Larger organizations with physical facilities often receive more visibility and donations, while Azalea City Cat Coalition continues working quietly in the background as what Susan calls “boots on the ground street rescuers.”
Despite these challenges, the work continues because the need has never disappeared.
Cats Ace Angel: A Community Builder
Susan does not just feed cats or rescue individuals. She helped build an entire support system where none existed before. Because of her determination, trap neuter return awareness has grown in Mobile, more cats are being fixed, and more volunteers have stepped forward to help.
What started with one colony behind a business became a movement that continues to protect community cats across multiple areas.
That kind of impact defines a Cats Ace Angel.
How You Can Help
If you are local to Mobile or Baldwin County and would like to support Azalea City Cat Coalition, they are always in need of:
Volunteers
Affordable veterinary partners
Food donations
Foster homes
Community support
You can also support caregivers like Susan by sharing her story, becoming a Cat Angel, or shopping from our store where 33 percent of proceeds go directly toward helping people caring for cats every day.
Because sometimes one person deciding to act…
Creates change for an entire community.
