SAN ANTONIO – The Big Give is the biggest day of online giving in South Central Texas, raising in excess of $45 million for the local nonprofit community over the past decade.
The Big Give SA is Wednesday and Thursday when 400 nonprofits will benefit.
One of those nonprofits, the Bear Den Sanctuary hopes to raise thousands for a second location to help save San Antonio feral cats.
“Bear Den Sanctuary, it is a forever home for unadoptable and feral cats,” said Blake Feuge, director of Bear Den Sanctuary. “And we also spay and neuter in the community, that’s one of our big projects.”
All of the cats come from the streets of San Antonio, some pulled from the euthanasia list at Animal Care Services San Antonio or surrendered. They are trapped, fixed and released if they have someone who provides food and outdoor shelter. If not, they are kept at the sanctuary in Bulverde.
“But the big challenge is a lot of these cats and dogs they have no feeders,” Feuge said. “So we are trying to make room for these cats that don’t have feeders.”
Feuge lives on the property and runs the nonprofit, where she helps shelter and feed hundreds of cats.
From Chester, who they pulled off the euthanasia list on ACS, to Layton that has three legs, or Oscar who they found in a drainage ditch, Feuge knows all of the cats by name and their back stories.
“It’s kind of like high school, there’s little cliques of these cats,” Feuge said. “So it’s like the cool kids are over here, and the band kids are over here, and the smoker section is over here.”
The sanctuary also works with other nonprofits like the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition and the Humane Society.
“A lot of the times if they have an unadoptable cat, we’ll take them in and trade them for cats that tend to be adoptable,” Feuge said.
Since opening in 2021, Bear Den Sanctuary has gotten 1,300 calls to rescue cats. The property is three acres and is home to 150-200 cats. The nonprofit hopes to expand to a second property that’s 25-30 acres that can house thousands of felines.
“As soon as we can get land, the next step is to trim trees around the property, to fence the whole property and we can bring in cats once building structures and all,” Feuge said.
That second property will cost around $1 million to maintain, which is why Feuge is hoping they can get the property donated or at least $10,000 to $20,000 for a down payment this upcoming Big Give.
The nonprofit depends on donations for operating costs and people buying their unique merchandise.
Feuge said she doesn’t want to operate like most sanctuaries. She wants to continue to work with other nonprofits and the community and think outside the cat box to help a massive problem in San Antonio.
“I think with the problem, with the magnitude it is, it needs to be something that hasn’t been done,” Feuge said. “I think we just need to go for it, expand and dream big and just know that it’s possible to save all these cats.”