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Proceeds Will Help Local Nonprofit With Veterinary Bills, Food For Feral Colonies, Fostering Of Community Cats
By Anne Carroll
Laura Pesanell and Fran Oldenburger have shared a friendship – and ultimately a love of cats – for a half century. For roughly a decade, the pair have hatched creative ways to raise money for Care About the Strays, a local Rockland County cat rescue group.
Channeling their energy and passion, the old school mates have opened Catique Boutique Thrift Shoppe in Sparkill, which sells new and gently used women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories. The proceeds from Catique will be donated to Care About the Strays’ mission, which includes veterinary care, fostering, adoption, and TNVR (Trap Neuter Vaccinate Return).
Care About the Strays is a volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has focused on feral and colony cats for nearly 25 years. The organization helps Rockland’s “community cats” in a multitude of ways, from TNVR to providing necessary food and medical attention. Volunteers foster, socialize and adopt cats that aren’t necessarily too feral to live with humans.
For years, Pesanell and Oldenburger fundraised via yard sales. At their last some six weeks ago the two “looked at each other and said, we’re too old for this. I can’t lug another box,” said Pesanell.
Alas Catique Boutique was born, giving the cat crusaders a new way to raise money for Care About the Strays without the physical strain of running yard sales.
Catique Boutique Thrift Shoppe opened early October at 642 Main Street in Sparkill. Its hours are 3-7 pm, Thursdays and Saturdays and 12-6 on Sundays. The store is, as Oldenburger puts it, “the smallest thrift shop probably on the planet.” Indeed, the space is cozy with the sales floor being basically a hallway and the bathroom also doubling as the fitting room.
Pesanell and Oldenburger get women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories they sell from other thrift shops, such as Goodwill, or from clothing donations. Given the nature of thrift stores, no exact piece is guaranteed, but Catique is selling name brand products such as Zara, Cole Haan, Steve Madden, and Coach, as well as a few handmade products.
For now, Catique is cash only, but will soon accept Zelle.
To turn the Catique into a reality, Pesanell and Oldenburger have relied on a community of support.
Catique’s Instagram account @catiqueboutiquesparkill and Facebook page Catique Boutique Thrift Shoppe Sparkill NY are managed by a volunteer named Margaret, whom Pesanell describes as their “social media guru.” Margaret also created the storefront’s QR code and email address, posts about Catique in social media groups and media-related issues.
Pesanell’s husband, Steve, has helped to set up Catique, hanging up Christmas lights inside the shop, making a bench for customers, carrying the display case they got from a local church, and much more. Oldenburger says Steve is “such a genuinely kind person. He does anything we ask him. And he’s always creative in trying to find solutions to the problems we give him.”
Pesanell and Oldenburger have enlisted Hilarie Blumenthal, who owns the high-end Nyack consignment shop Honor & Blume. If Pesanell and Oldenburger find an item that’s too expensive to sell at Catique, they give it to Blumenthal who can sell it and give them half the sale money. When the Catique owners were worried about not having a credit card machine, Pesanell says Blumenthal gave them the advice to “start off slow […] just get your doors open” and eventually “you’ll find out.”
Catique also maintains a friendly relationship with 5 Cent Bottle Return in Pearl River. Those who say they’re with Care About the Strays when redeeming their aluminum cans, glass bottles, or plastic bottles at 5 Cent Bottle Return will have their redemption money sent to Pesanell at the end of the month. Catique’s startup has been helped by many community members who’ve made financial or clothing donations.
Similarly, Care About the Strays also requires a strong community to help keep its operations running. Unfortunately, the nonprofit has been suffering from a decline in volunteers. While some members have moved out of the area, others have grown older and become unable to do physically strenuous work, especially trapping.
Laura and Steve Pesanell used to help the organization by recuperating sick and injured cats after their vet appointments. Although neither has ever been involved in TNVR, Pesanell and Oldenburger deeply believe in the importance of Care About the Strays’ work to neuter stray cats. Cats can become pregnant at four months old and give birth to three litters per year, with litters of up to nine kittens. With those high reproductive capabilities, Pesanell explains TNVR efforts are an attempt “to control the birth rate” of stray cats since they are “all outside, and they’re starving, and they’re getting eaten by foxes, they’re getting hit by cars, they’re getting fleas, and diseases.”
Along with doing TNVR work, Care About the Strays also provides food to feral cats living in colonies. This food not only sustains these groups or colonies of feral cats, but is thought to make them less inclined to hunt and therefore less likely to disturb wildlife such as birds and rodents.
However, the costs of caring for colonies of stray cats are high, which makes donations and fundraising a necessity for Care About the Strays. Care About the Strays always needs volunteers to transport cats to and from vet appointments, recuperate cats after medical procedures, foster cats, feed cats, do TNVR work, or fundraise.
The money for the Catique’s rent, insurance, and other bills have come from Pesanell and Oldenburger’s pockets. And while it hasn’t taken a massive fortune to open Catique, both have dipped into their savings, Pesanell’s part-time bartending earnings, and Oldenberger’s Social Security checks.
Pesanell has said that the store is “not paying for itself, but it eventually will […] even if it doesn’t, who cares.”
The pair like to quote George Bernard Shaw: “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.”
More information on how to donate, get involved, or adopt a cat is available on Care About the Strays’ website, visit www.catsforadoption.org/home.html.
