Kitty Lodge Inc. receives $4,000 grant from The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels
June 27, 2023
Kitty Lodge Inc. is proud to announce it received a grant from The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels in the amount of $4000.00 to purchase much needed supplies for its resident cats. Kitty Lodge Inc. provides a forever home to senior cats whose owners are no longer able to care for them.
HOKC awarded $3.1 million in grants supporting 343 non-profits, impacting more than 3.8 million Kentuckians. Grants are made possible through donations from Kentucky Colonels from throughout the Commonwealth and around the world who chose to exercise the honor of being named a Kentucky Colonel in a meaningful way.
According to Commanding General Gary Boschert: “2022/2023 was another generous year for the Colonels. We were able to award another $3.1 million dollars to 343 non-profits this year that helps them support over 3.8 million Kentuckians. Kentucky Colonels generosity is heartfelt and well spent on worthy agencies across the Commonwealth. Our long-term efforts in both western and eastern Kentucky are ongoing with funds remaining for each effort. We work with other agencies to ensure Kentucky Colonels money is spent wisely and deliver goods and products needed for the rebuild.”
About Kitty Lodge Inc.
Ms. Ellen Estill is the founder and operator of Kitty Lodge Inc. located in Mt. Sterling, KY. Kitty Lodge is a retirement home for cats whose owners have passed away or are no longer able to care for them. Adoption is not our focus, since our mission is to provide a loving, safe forever home for senior cats. The motto of Kitty Lodge is, “Cats, like people, are never too old to be loved.”
About the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels
The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels is a 501(c) (3) entity dedicated to supporting charitable activities throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The organization is governed by an all-volunteer Board of Trustees. The “Kentucky Colonel” commission is an honorary title granted by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Since 1951, the organization has pursued its mission through annual grants totaling $63 million to more than 1,700 nonprofits. Of those Colonels’ contributions, each grant is thoroughly vetted by the trustees and staff. Though the corporate name is The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, most know it by its long-term trademark, KENTUCKY COLONELS. Visit kycolonels.org to learn more.
Kitty Lodge receives grant from Doris Day Animal Foundation
January 16, 2019
Kitty Lodge, Inc is delighted to announce that we have received a generous grant from the Doris Day Animal Foundation. The Doris Day Animal Foundation (DDAF) is a national, nonprofit 501(c)(3) Public Charity founded in 1978 as the Doris Day Pet Foundation by legendary performer, Doris Day, with a straightforward mission that continues to this day: to help animals and the people who love them. As a grant-giving charity, DDAF funds other nonprofit organizations across the United States that directly care for and protect animals. The grant from DDAF will help us to continue to provide the high quality care the kitties of Kitty Lodge have always received, because “Cats, like people, are never too old to be loved.” Many thanks to the folks at the Doris Day Animal Foundation!
Learn more about The Doris Day Animal Foundation:
Website: https://www.dorisdayanimalfoundation.org
Like them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DDAF.org
315 Lives: A visual story about Ellen Estill and the cats of Kitty Lodge
January 16, 2019
Kendall Warner, a photojournalism student at Western Kentucky University, composed this story about Ellen and the cats of Kitty Lodge as part of a national project to tell the stories of people in small town America. Participants in the project include college and university students from across the United States and nationally recognized professional photojournalist mentors. This year’s project featured residents of Mount Sterling, Kentucky and Ellen was chosen as a noteworthy resident. She was randomly paired with Kendall to tell her story. Kendall spent several days following in Ellen’s footsteps at work and at home. Lucky for all of us, Kendall is a cat lover herself and fit right into the routines of Kitty Lodge. Please click on the link below to enjoy her visual story.
View full story and photos:
https://www.kendallwarner.com/5784665-315-lives
Uncommonwealth: Mount Sterling woman’s home is a sanctuary for cats
By Cheryl Truman
Lexington Herald-Leader
March 24, 2013
Ellen Estill sat with Sage, left and Mitt-Tons at her home in Mt. Sterling. The Kitty Lodge is a non-profit home for older cats whose owners can no longer care for them.
Photo by Pablo Alcala
Lexington Herald-Leader
MOUNT STERLING — Ellen Estill’s house sits on a 2½-acre rise near downtown Mount Sterling and is decorated with cat pictures, ceramic cats, cat trays, cat rugs, cat jars and cat bowls.
And then there are 32 cats — most of them from people who died, got sick or had to go into nursing homes and could find no one willing to take on the rigors of pet ownership. Estill points out a cat whose owner has stage four cancer. Only two of the cats belong to Estill.
Cats who were left in the lurch when the person who cared for them lost the ability to do so had no refuge. So Estill made one — a cattery for animals, once petted and indulged, who were left confused and alone to live out their last years. She calls it “a retirement home for older cats.”
Here they get premium products: Science Diet food and Fresh Step premium cat litter. Estill even lines a couple of the litter boxes with paper for the cats who prefer that toilet arrangement: “You know how they are, they’ve got a mind a of their own.”
She has eight litter boxes, including several that are jumbo-sized.
“I didn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘I want 30 cats,’ Estill said. “It’s a labor of love. ... Once they come to me, they don’t leave.”
She even went to the local planning and zoning committee to get a permit for her endeavor, which has been operating as a non-profit since 2009.
The cats’ names include Stewie and Miss Kitty, Rebel and Little Britches, Smokey and Sage. Each cat gets a name, and its personality quirks are noted. The basement of Estill’s home is theirs to roam, lined with furniture to lounge on. Outside there is a yard with a high fence and a sandbox in the corner.
Not all the cats came from people who were sick or incapacitated. Bob-tailed Stewie was a feral cat who came across the roof of the house, arrived in the backyard and decided to stay.
Mitt-Tons got a special highfalutin name, Estill said, because “She’s French, exciting and exotic.” Smokey is diabetic. Sage tried to immerse himself in a bowl of catnip.
Estill, 65, works part-time for a Meals on Wheels program. The rest of her day she devotes to her cats. Between feeding and cleaning the litter boxes, it’s a full-time job.
“A lot of people think that cats, if you throw them outside, they’ll do OK,” Estill said.
That’s not true, she said. Cats that have lived indoors are bewildered by being outside.
And cats might seem unsociable to strangers, but they become used to routines and to human contact.
Jim and Pat Lawrence of Lexington needed to place a cat named Ruka, a regal feline that had come to live with Jim’s sister, Nancy Stong, after being brought from Hawaii by a niece.
When Stong died in January, 2012, the couple didn’t know what to do with Ruka. Pat Lawrence was allergic to cats. Eventually the couple found the Kitty Lodge, where Ruka now lives.
Occasionally, Jim Lawrence said, Estill will update him by cellphone on Ruka’s progress. In turn, he sends occasional donations.
“We wanted to make sure she got a good home,” said Jim Lawrence. “We weren’t ready to turn her over to just anybody.”
Dr. Eric Headley, a veterinarian at Lexington’s Chevy Chase Animal Clinic, said that Estill is “100 percent committed to these cats, no matter what. Whatever the temperament of the cat, she always gives them a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance. ... It’s amazing what she can do with them.”
The cat home got off to a swift start. Soon after Estill moved in during 2009 with an eye toward starting the Kitty Lodge, three female cats were dropped off: “If I hadn’t had them neutered, I’d have nine million cats by now,” she said.
Once cats establish social relationships with each other, they’re home, she said.
“Once they make friends, they’ve got it made,” Estill said.