Bev Lake cares about cats. Of course, she loves the cats who live with her and husband Les Bakke in their home in south Moorhead. But her concern doesn’t stop with their own furry family. She keeps an eye out, too, for the homeless, stray and feral felines who fight for survival on their own.
That’s why she spends two days every week volunteering at the Minnkota PAAWS Project. PAAWS – People Advocating Animal Welfare Services – has been operating on a shoestring since 2004, when local animal lovers set out to improve their patients’ prospects by reducing the number of unwanted kittens and puppies in the community and helping low-income households keep their pets healthy.
In 2015, says Bev, the nonprofit project neutered 3,215 animals – the majority of them cats. Some are feral, born in the wild. Others are former pets that have been lost or abandoned by their owners. The rest are well-loved companions of individuals and families who can’t afford commercial veterinarians’ fees to prevent their pets from overpopulating.
“I love what PAAWS does for helpless, vulnerable animals,” Bev says. And she understands its value firsthand.
“About five years ago, a mama cat with two kittens began hanging around my condo,” she explains. “I fed them, and eventually I was able to trap them.
“They weren’t my own cats, but I wanted them to be spayed and vaccinated. I was willing to pay to have it done, but couldn’t really afford the $250 or so per cat that a typical veterinary clinic has to charge. My neighbor sent me to PAAWS.” She liked the organization so well that she offered to work there … and has spent two days a week there ever since, helping out in the recovering room.
PAAWS takes appointments for dogs on Mondays, and for cats on Wednesdays and Fridays. The local nonprofit depends on the services of two veterinarians and a vet tech who accept modest stipends,along with grants, donations and support from the city of Fargo to manage its feral cat population. Moorhead briefly supported services for its own homeless cats, but eliminated funding several years ago.
PAAWS focuses on two kinds of “patients” – homeless cats who are trapped by cat welfare advocates and Fargo animal control officers, and others who do have owners (as much as any cat can be said to be “owned”). The feral cats generally live in mobile-home parks and industrial areas. Those more amenable to taming may be adopted through Cat’s Cradle and other local organizations. Others are returned and released to continue their lives as independent working cats, keeping down the local rodent population.
“I tend to want every cat to have a home, but that’s not always realistic,” Bev points out. “Some have personalities that don’t do well with a family, but they can do just fine in the cat colony where they were found.” She adds that some of the behaviors that might make their human neighbors less hospitable – fighting, yowling, multiplying like rabbits – are reduced or eliminated when neutering calms the rampant hormones.
The second category includes cats (and a smaller number of dogs) whose humans lack the financial resources to pay for traditional vet services. PAAWS offers them neutering and other essential screening and services essentially at cost. Rabies and distemper vaccinationsare part of their service, along with worming, flea treatment and microchipping. Animals are also screened for highly contagious feline leukemia and more manageable feline HIV. “We make sure they go out healthy,” Bev notes.
Farmers, too, bring in crowds of barn cats. “They’re not pets, but they’re definitely part of the farming operation,” she explains. “We give them a hand in keeping their health and numbers under control.”
The PAAWS vets begin operating at 8 a.m. By noon, 20 to 40 cats are lying in rows on towel-covered heating pads, slowly waking up. When they’ve recovered, they’re returned to their carriers to await their owners.
Bev’s commitment to PAAWS – like project manager Carol Sawicki’s and the rest of the 10 or so regular volunteers – has taken on the dimensions of a personal mission. She maintains that her involvement more than repays the time that she invests.
“Do you realize how depressed I’d be if I had nothing to do?” she says, laughing. “Retirement is turning out to be the best time of my life. This is when I get to do what I want to do, whenever I want, and I can pick and choose to be with people I really want to spend time with.”
Raised in Chicago, Bev completed training in dental hygiene and was working on a master’s in public health at the University of Minnesota when Reagan-era budget cuts drastically reshaped her career prospects. “My sister Barb, who lived here, suggested I spend six months with her figuring out what to do next,” she remembers. Moorhead felt like home from the start.
That was 1982. Always interested in art, she became involved with the Rourke Art Gallery as a fan, a member and, soon, a volunteer … a role she’s continued for some 30 years. She also pitches in with activities at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County; the VFW Auxiliary; the Clay County DFL; the League of Women Voters; the Sons of Norway, and Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Minnesota, which connects veterans with the services they need. She formerly served on the Lake Agassiz Regional Library board.
When she and her husband Les – himself a near-full-time volunteer – were married at the Hjemkomst during last year’s Scandinavian Festival, their invitations underlined their passion for their favorite causes: The couple asked guests, in lieu of gifts, to donate to PAAWS, the art museum or the charity of their choice.
Donations keep their pet projects running. For PAAWS, gifts enable them to keep costs at the rock-bottom minimum. In addition to cash or gift cards to Fleet Farm, supporters can also make in-kind donations of necessities to the clinic – paper towels, laundry detergent and cleaning supplies. More information on the project and its services is available online at PAAWSproject.org or by calling (701) 356-0523.
