Safe Harbor Farm 

A short history...

    Formed in early 2002 as Cat-Kind, Inc., our organization quickly gained a reputation for helping cat-colony caretakers, most of whom were older residents utilizing retirement income or disability benefits to feed 5-50 cats. During our first year and a half, 354 of these cats were spay-neutered, vaccinated and "fixed" in other ways, all at little or no cost to the cat caretakers. Dozens more cats were moved from hazardous locations & adopted by responsible individuals, and long-term support networks and friendships were forged as our group reached out to individuals caring for community strays.  

     In November 2003, we christened our Kindness Clinic for Cats & Dogs, a thirty-four foot not-for-profit, low-cost mobile spay-neuter clinic. In our first year of operation more than 1,000 additional cats & dogs were spay-neutered & vaccinated, most getting preventative veterinary care for the first time in their life!

    In January, 2005, we purchased 61 acres of beautiful, forest-nestled land off of Route 17 in Maysville, NC and officially changed our name to Safe Harbor Farm, Inc.

     In 2005 and 2006, volunteers cleared & groomed the land, creating a road, a pond and a spot for our new Feline Adoption Center (originally a 2-room schoolhouse moved onsite from a location in New Bern)..

     In 2007, we welcomed our second building - a 100 year old church moved from the center of Maysville. This will become the new Kindness Spay-neuter Clinic!

     In 2008 we expanded our programs, aiming for more spay-neuters (more than 3,600 performed to date!) and more carefully screened adoptions. We hosted a shelter externship for 4 senior veterinary students and continued work on our hospital building.  Utilizing a dozen volunteers, a ton of metal and more than 4,000 bolts, we raised our third building - our Dog Adoptions Center. This building is hurricane wind-rated to 155 mph, and it's where we'll all go come the next big storm.

     In 2009, the work continued... more spays & neuters (topping 7,000 animals since we began); hundreds of carefully-matched adoptions to forever homes; more coordinated efforts with sister rescues, the foundation poured for a new dog isolation building, expansion of our cat adoptions building (the addition of a 12' x 24' screened playroom for the kitties) and more finishing touches to our facility.

     And now, in 2010, with an average of 150 cats, dogs, goats, chickens and ducks onsite at any time, we find our shelter has transformed from a 100% cat rescue into an absolultely terrific Rescue, Rehabilitation & Rehoming Center specifically for Dogs!  Yes, there are roughly 80 beloved cats (and two dozen goats) living at SHF, but they are our "homies." They're not really for adoption. Why the transformation? More than anything else, we credit our dedication to helping more dogs to Cesar Millan, nationally known as "The Dog Whisperer." Thanks to Cesar, our working pack of 24-30 dogs is balanced, mentally healthy and very well behaved. Not familiar yet with Cesar's wonderful work with dogs? Check out his site at www.cesarsway.com.

       SHF's Patchoulli, offering to sign Cesar's book           Lynne & Cesar - San DIego June 2010

From left to right:  SHF's Cat Center

                               SHF's duck pond

                               SHF's  Kindness Spay-neuter Clinic  

    Please read our monthly E-newsletters to learn more about the work we've been doing!