A Cat Lady in Training Rescue acquired official nonprofit status in early 2025 after five years of fostering and providing homes for felines, especially cats who are ill or living with special needs.
President Cyrene Brummage, a graduate of Stuarts Draft High School, grew up in Waynesboro and West Virginia with her mother fostering cats. She learned at an early age how to bottle feed and tube feed milk to kittens.
“I was just exposed to it pretty much my whole life,” Brummage said.
A Cat Lady in Training is a foster-based rescue, which means that the nonprofit does not have a physical space but welcomes volunteers willing to foster and care for rescues in their homes. The rescue’s mass intake for now is 25 fosters, and has also begun fostering some dogs and other small animals. Photos and information about cats and kittens available for adoption are online.
According to Brummage, 5o to 60 percent of the rescue’s intakes are seniors or cats with special needs.
“We love seniors,” she said.
Brummage’s future goals for the rescue will focus on prioritizing gaining more volunteers and rescuing even more cats and kittens. Brummage and four other individuals comprise the rescue’s board.
“Our biggest hope is just to be able to fully expand, gain more fosters, more volunteers. We prioritize sick animals. We prioritize a lot of animals with disabilities. We’ve taken in a lot of animals with FIV,” Brummage said.
Some rescues are not set up to handle cats with illnesses or disabilities, but A Cat Lady is prepared.
Brummage’s passion for cats comes from the fact that she wanted to become a veterinarian, but health reasons have inhibited that goal. She has always personally rescued special needs cats, and currently shares her home with eight cats.
“That’s kind of my biggest specialty is I just love helping the ones that might be harder or that other rescues or shelters might not be [able to help],” Brummage said. “Just so that they have a chance that they might not otherwise have.”
With nonprofit status, Brummage said the rescue will now be able to apply for grant funding opportunities to further rescue cats and find them furever homes.
“Funding is just the biggest hurdle that really any rescue faces,” Brummage said.
Brummage also hopes to increase the amount of adoption events and locations it participates in, including with Waynesboro Tractor Supply. A Cat Lady also hopes to help more in the area with TNR operations.
“We just want to get out there and we want people to know about us,” Brummage said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
