Getting to Know: Cat shelter volunteer tells her story

Local News Getting to Know: Cat shelter volunteer tells her story By EMMAKAY POLING November 9, 2026 4 min read Submitted Photo Lisa Schneider is a volunteer at Hairball Haven, a local cat shelter. Trending Lisa Schneider has been volunteering at Hairball Haven, a local cat shelter, for about four and a half years and volunteers two days a week, Sundays and Thursdays. She said she's known the owner of Hairball Haven for about 20 years. For Schneider, volunteering means scooping the cat litter, feeding the cats, cleaning the kennels and even taking kittens home to foster until they are ready to be brought back to Hairball Haven and put up for adoption, though she mentioned there is a lot more volunteer work to be done. Schneider has pets of her own and expressed a deep love for animals, both cats and dogs. She was inspired to start volunteering at Hairball Haven after seeing a post on the non-profit's social media page, and realized she wanted to volunteer. "I just love animals and they need us. There's an overload of cats in town," she said. She explained that now Hairball Haven does intakes from the pound, meaning the quantity of cats coming into the facility has increased some. Besides the volunteer work she does at the facility, Schneider also puts up Christmas trees around Christmastime around town that have tags on them with things to donate to the cats such as toys and food. There were five trees around town last year, and this year Schneider said she is hoping to have five or six trees again. One of the many complications Schneider deals with in fostering kittens is FIV positive felines. FIV stands for feline immunodeficiency virus and is the feline form of HIV. Cats with FIV must be separated from other cats as once the virus spreads, there really is no way to get rid of it. Cats that are FIV positive also require special care because if an FIV cat comes into contact with another illness, it could mean life or death. Schneider has dealt with multiple FIV cats and kittens and said about the cats she is currently fostering that she hopes when they are tested again, they all test negative. Schneider said one of her favorite parts of the job is watching the cats grow from being scared to being comfortable in the new environment. She described many cats coming in as unhealthy and terrified, but expressed joy at the idea of being able to nurse the felines back to health and provide a nurturing environment for a healthier development and lifestyle. She described one of the most difficult parts of the job as losing cats. When asked why she volunteers, Schneider said "I used to just donate goods to the shelter, then I discovered Hairball Haven and I feel like I am actually doing good by taking care of the cats and giving them my time. People always ask me why I do it and that it's not my problem, but it is a community problem. So many people just dump their animals outside and leave them to fend for themselves. All they want is love, and I feel as though one of my greatest accomplishments is instilling a love of animals in all of my children." She said she's lost a few fosters, which can be extra hard as living with a cat allows for a deeper personal connection. Alongside loss, she said it can be very heartbreaking to see how some of the cats are treated or how they have lived their lives, as many come in injured and scared. Schneider said volunteering at Hairball Haven is important because "all of them need love, and its just good for a person. Sometimes its sad. Sometimes it gets overwhelming when there's so many and we're short on volunteers so it's a lot of work." But she said it’s worth it "just to see the pictures when they get adopted, not just the kittens but the faces of the families who adopt, and especially the older cats." She said she volunteers because she loves animals and wants to help them as much as possible. She said volunteering and working with the cats "makes your heart happy,” and remarked that "sometimes you wish they could tell you their story." "There's a whole lot of us that work up here. I'm just a small part of it," she said, referring to the other volunteers, staff and veterinarians who contribute to the function of the Hairball Haven nonprofit. Suggest someone to get to know by submitting their name and why readers should get to know them to [email protected].