2008 Woodie Awards
Professor seeks kind homes for cats
No declawing, barnyard watching, fire setting allowed
Anna Douglas
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: News
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Rodriguez, a Spanish professor at Winthrop, began the St. Francis Animal Rescue Center 4 years ago. She began to notice that within her apartment complex, people would move out and often leave their pets behind.
"Sometimes people would leave the animals actually in the apartment without food," Rodriguez said, "and the owners of the complex wouldn't feed them until weeks later, dead."
As soon as Rodriguez and her mother began setting out food and water for the cats, she said, she realized she must be feeding two dozen cats.
She added that her mother has always been an animal advocate and was a big source of inspiration for her to start the animal rescue center.
"I grew up in Germany and we never had stray animals," Rodriguez said. "When we came here, we couldn't believe that people just get tired of them and let them go somewhere."
Rodriguez decided something needed to be done for the abandoned cats. Her solution, the St. Francis Animal Rescue Center located in Downtown Rock Hill, is currently home to nearly 100 cats. Rodriguez started the center with her own money, but recently St. Francis received non-profit status.
Rodriguez was quick to say that the center does not sell cats; it adopts them out to loving homes. The adoption fee only exists to cover part of the cost of taking care of all the animals, she said.
Adopting a kitten is $65, and adopting a cat that has been spayed or neutered is $95. The total expense, however, for Rodriguez to prepare a cat for adoption is close to $250.
She, along with assistant director Samantha Rose, feeds and plays with the animals until they find a good home.
"Samantha is a godsend," Rodriguez said.
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