By Alyssa Serrano
Correspondent
Lexi Duran has been rescuing cats since she was 6-years-old, when her mom decided fostering a pregnant cat over the summer would be a fun experience. Since then she has dedicated her life to helping rescue cats, and currently leads Tiny Kitten House, or Tiny House for short, a house filled to the brim with kittens ready to find their forever homes.
“Tiny house is just a waiting area for kittens that are older that are ready to adopt but haven’t been chosen yet,” said Duran during a phone interview.
Despite its purpose now, Tiny House was not originally intended to house kittens. Tiny House started as a project at Trenton High School to teach kids how to use tools and build things on their own, and they wanted to structure it around home ownership, renting and why it is so expensive. During the time it was made, the school had canceled all the technical classes they had, but they still wanted students to have the skills they would have gained in those courses.
“So somehow that translated into…well we don’t have enough mentors for all these kids so what if we only had a couple of mentors and we brought all the kids here and work on one big project here?” said Duran.
Duran stated that the full process took around a year, but the kids did every part of it. Throughout its construction, the majority of the building materials were donated such as mahogany flooring, windows and doors. A Trenton based company that makes wallboards out of recycled cardboard also donated the walls.
Their original goal after the building was completed was to donate it to Capitol Farms (a Trenton farm, built in an abandoned lot next to Trenton Area Soup Kitchen) as a welcome center.
However, when they finished, they realized that the building was too tall for them to relocate in its current state, so their only options were to either take down powerlines all the way to the new location, or remove the roof and reinstall it once they got it there, with both of these options costing thousands of dollars that they did not have.
As a result of this issue and the COVID-19 shutdowns, Tiny House was left unused for a year until they decided to rediscuss how they could still donate the building without it being moved.
When discussing options for the building, Duran offered up a solution, “I just said, ‘well I could put kittens in it’ and that was that.”
There weren’t actually kittens in the building until the beginning of 2021, and it worked out well because it was such a small space that only one group could fit in at a time. People didn’t have to interact with other people while they interacted with the cats, making it COVID friendly.
Tiny House houses all the adoptable kittens, which are all fixed, vaxxed and microchipped. Their time in Tiny House gets them adjusted to living with other cats and interacting with humans, so they are already used to these things when they are adopted. Tiny House 2.0, a chicken coop turned semi-feral and adult cat shelter, helps transition older cats and gets them used to interacting with people in a safe, controlled environment.
During February, Duran uses a two-week period with no kittens to refresh the house and complete all the preparations needed for the next year of kittens. Duran stated that what this entails and looks like changes every year, as it really depends on what the cats and volunteers will need most.
“This year it means changing out the back wall. It was a declining structure and with all the kittens it gets a lot of use. So, it’s replacing scratching posts, wiping down the walls, deep cleaning, making it photo ready,” said Duran.
Currently, Trenton Cat Rescue doesn’t have a physical base of operations, so they are incredibly reliant on fosters to help support them and find places to put the cats.
“A rescue can only help as many cats as they have foster homes for. A foster home is not an amazing magical thing. It’s a spare bathroom, an office a cat can stay in for a couple weeks, it’s not magic,” said Duran. “The only way that rescues can help animals is if people can help animals. One person can do more than you think, but a bunch of people together is really all a rescue is; a bunch of people who want the right thing for animals.”
Duran discussed how important foster homes are to keeping rescues functional and getting the support they need, but stated there are definitely other ways you can provide support such as reaching out to local businesses to help gain monetary support or donations. People can also donate to them directly through their Venmo and P.O. box that can both be found on the Trenton Cats website directly.
“Even people making toys for cats, or if you’re good at knitting, crocheting or art, reach out about donating items they could use at events to help fundraise, things that are out of the box can be really helpful too,” said Duran. “Making cardboard scratching posts, and if they are cute, we have tabling events and such where they can be used to help educate people or sell to people who are interested in donating. Stuff like that is always helpful.”
Duran said that fosters are definitely their biggest need right now though.
“Anyone can do it, it’s not something that is difficult per se. You just have to want to help a cat. There’s a whole group of people that will hold your hand and give you support through every step of the way.”
