Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Vigos.
Jessica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a Utah native. Growing up, I always had animals in the home. My mom was a foster for animal rescues and from a very young age, a home just was not a home without a cat. I started volunteering at my local animal shelter in 2012 & became a civically engaged scholar at SLCC. I needed something to focus my free time on and wanted to give back to the community in a positive way. In the summer of 2012, I also TNR’d (trap-neuter-return) my first colony of under-socialized cats. It was a colony of cats that my mom had cared for but was never able to afford to spay & neuter them during her life due to cost. By 2012 the feral fix program had begun in SL County. This really opened my eyes to truly how many cats in the community & shelters needed help. Learning that cats were the number one euthanized animal in the world was devastating. In 2013, I was able to become a volunteer at the kitten nursery for SL County. Volunteering over two hundred hours that season helping save tiny lives, learning to care for under-socialized moms and babies was a crash course in obtaining a position with Best Friends as a Community Cat Coordinator in 2014.
During my time at Best Friends, I was able to be a public advocate for community cats, educating the public and assisting hundreds of caregivers in providing a better life for the cats they cared for. Trapping in the community to spay & neuter these cats for my first four years with Best Friends had a huge impact- spaying and neutering over 3,000 cats. During this time, I worked with Davis County Animal Control and helped implement the life-saving TNR program that they use today. Assisting a shelter that originally had below a 30% save rate for cats to over 90% in just over two years was incredible! During this time, the plight of older, less adoptable cats became very apparent to me, as they were often overlooked and euthanized. I gained a great deal of skills during my time with Best Friends and with the kitten nursery, and was able to get involved with the rescue world.
In 2015, I became heavily involved with Pet Samaritan Fund, the oldest rescue in Utah. Through Pet Samaritan, I was able to provide the care that many of these cats needed, save lives primarily from Davis County and begin to expand that care to seniors, declawed cats with botched declaw jobs, and kittens. From 2015 to 2018 we were able to save over 300 lives. As the Lead Adoption Specialist for the north end of the valley, I was able to build a volunteer & foster base. Pet Samaritan was extremely good to me and we still have strong bonds today. I learned valuable skills during this time to help manage a rescue, volunteers and fosters.
In 2018, while I was finishing my bachelor’s degree, I founded Whiskers. Focusing on those needing medical care, having special needs, declawed cats, and behavioral cats has a direct impact on euthanasia rates in our shelters. Helping the underserved in this area has meant so much to me.
The Whiskers volunteers, fosters, adopters, donors & community help us do amazing transformations on cats that would otherwise be euthanized due to lack of resources to help them in a typical shelter environment.
I work a full-time job and dedicate my life to running Whiskers. I hold a Bachelor’s in Business Management which has been so useful in running Whiskers. I have three personal cats and care for some of the longer-term & special needs Whiskers cats. I am one of the first stops for many of the felines that come into Whiskers & am a dedicated foster home for Whiskers.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Doing this work is never easy, in fact, it is heart-wrenching at times. It can be extremely emotional and often, you feel that you can never do enough. You have to have thick skin and, in all honesty, be able to compartmentalize at times because you have others depending on you, both animals and people.
When you run a non-profit that is a volunteer-run, you are responsible for much of the behind-the-scenes work and fill in the gaps. We have an incredible team of dedicated humans that make it work but it does ebb & flow, as life and circumstances are always changing for all of us.
Resources are always the biggest challenge. Due to the population we serve, we often don’t qualify for large animal welfare grants because we are not moving animals through super quickly and we don’t have a huge intake number. The cats we serve need time to recover – each one an individual. The last few years have been especially difficult. Both donations and adoptions have been lower as everyone tries to navigate our new realities and that has impacted the work we can accomplish at times. We are doing really amazing work though with what we have and forever changing lives.
It is also extremely rewarding; whether you are providing end-of-life care to a sweet soul or providing care that can help an animal recover to get to their new life, there is no better reward. Caring for special needs and hospice animals has a profound impact on your life, something I feel so blessed to be able to experience.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Whiskers?
If you believe in our mission and giving second chances, we need your support! The daily care and veterinary care is expensive but it is always worth it! We cater to cats who need more time than the current standard of care available through most rescue groups and animal shelters- older cats who needed extensive health care to live out their golden years free of pain, the injured who might be saved with a surgical procedure and/or a safe place to recover, and the sick who need in-depth diagnostics to search for a remedy and restore them to health. We are always in need of foster homes and volunteers too!
As of year end 2021, Whiskers has been able to rescue 563 high-risk felines. It is because of the support of our community donations that our work is possible.
We give more time for these cats to recover, to heal both mentally and physically. We are different because we focus on the underserved population of cats in the community and shelters who often do not have the necessary resources to provide the type of care Whiskers gives.
We go to great lengths to thoroughly vet our cats so that we know their needs. We do this amount of care to ensure our adoptive families will have all the information possible to continue their care. It is important to know that we do have kittens all the way up to super seniors available for adoption, some may need special care but others may simply need a stable, loving home.
All of our cats come to us because they need a second chance whether that is to avoid an outdoor life of an unowned cat or address medical needs, like a dental, they all have any immediate care completed. All of our cats are also spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and microchipped. We want adopters who will make these special cats part of their family and give them a great life.
We can’t do the work we do without volunteers, foster homes and donations!
Our website is whiskersutah.org (we are in the process of building a new website!)
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have often had to take risks; I have had to speak up and advocate for sometimes unpopular opinions or simply less-known issues. I believe that taking risks is how you succeed. The ability to fall and get back up is imperative. The ability to learn from your faults or failures can empower you in the most meaningful ways. I believe if you don’t take risks, you will never know what you’re capable of!
I am often faced with taking risks to save lives. It is because of my ability to believe that even if I fail, I will gain some type of knowledge and a precious life will be forever changed regardless of whether it is for a short time or a long time. Whiskers is known for taking risks. Rescuing those truly in need of becoming Whiskers cats and those who otherwise would not have a chance. We have some pretty incredible success stories!
Pricing:
- Adoptions-Adults $100 with dental/medical $125
- Adoptions-Kittens $130 pairs $150
- donations- $25 covers vaccines
- $65 covers a spay/neuter
- $350 covers a dental
Contact Info:
- Website: whiskersutah.org
- Instagram: @whiskersutah
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhiskersUtah
Image Credits
Sarah Kichas
Nikki Brant
Doree Tateoka
Erin Mc Mullin
Nikki Brant
Erin McMullin
Cathy Cooper
Lauren Tate (logo Whiskers)
