Sarah Carolyn turned the space into a sanctuary for nine special-needs rescue cats
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Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Carolyn (2)
NEED TO KNOW
- Sarah Carolyn turned her basement into a sanctuary for disabled rescue cats, spending $17,000 on renovations
- Sarah and her sister, Emily, care for nine cats with severe medical needs, including blind and paralyzed cats
- Sarah plans to create a larger sanctuary employing people with disabilities, inspired by Emily’s bond with the cats
Sarah Carolyn has been in animal rescue for six years. The former nurse shares that the running joke in her area of Rochester, N.Y., is that she’s the first person people call when they come across a stray cat who needs help.
Sarah is also the legal guardian of her sister Emily, who has Down Syndrome. The two make content together full time, live together and take care of their cats.
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Carolyn
“In 2020, that’s when I first started rescuing. It started with cats and dogs, and then the rescue that I ended up spending years with transitioned to cats only because the need here is so great for cats. We have a feral cat problem,” Sarah tells PEOPLE.
Over the years, Sarah has taken in cats with “severe medical needs,” and with her nursing training, she would “be able to give fluids, IVs, steroid injections.” She adds, “anything you can think of, I was able to do.”
“Emily and I moved into this house a year and a half ago. One of my reasons I bought this house is because I knew that I could transform this space into a sanctuary for them. We have nine rescue cats that live with us. These are the ones that are the most severely disabled. We have ones that are blind, deaf, in a diaper, paralyzed. I change them like a real baby four times a day. They’re all the ones that were either pulled from a euthanasia list, or they’re the ones that an average person would not be able to take care of,” Sarah says.
@sar_carolyn Okay guys please be nice I worked sooo hard 🤣 #renovation #catsanctuary #basementremodel
♬ Almost forgot that this was the whole point – Take my Hand Instrumental – afterlives
Sarah knew she and Emily would be able to “provide a life for those kinds of cats.” She explains, “That is what inspired me to make the sanctuary, is because I knew that they deserved a space and a place to call home as much as a normal cat would.”
Turning her basement into a cat sanctuary took around four months, because she did a lot of the renovating herself. “I laid the floor. I did the painting. I was DIYing everything. I put the light fixtures in. I sprayed out of the ceiling. It was a hefty project. What inspired me the most is to create a space that is functional, inclusive, and safe for any of the disabled animals that we bring in,” Sarah shares.
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Carolyn
Sarah and her sister have nine cats, and they usually take in one extra foster cat that they can give attention to. “We take in the most severe, worst, most terrible cases, and we’ll bring them in, and then we’ll rehabilitate, and then we’ll find the best fit for them. It takes a minute to find a family or find someone who’s gonna be willing to take on a cat with special needs,” Sarah says.
When she was working on building the sanctuary, Sarah says that “it was so stressful” and estimated that there were “probably a hundred meltdowns.”
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Carolyn
“I had a contractor; he ended up doing the drywall and building closets because I can’t carry drywall up and down a flight of stairs. I knew that the way that I wanted things done was to make it functional for the cats, because I know them the best. I was like, ‘I’m gonna have to learn how to figure out how to make all this happen,’ “ she recalls. “It was really hard and really stressful. There is a different level of appreciation I have for myself. It’s really cool now to look back and be like, ‘I did this. I gave my amazing animals, like, this beautiful living space, and I did that.’”
Her favorite aspect is the bathroom that she set up for them. “With the number of cats I have, I cannot have regular litter boxes. So I have an entire section of all of their litter robots, and it looks funny, like it’s from outer space. But it’s so cute, because there are eight litter robots, and they all have little place mats, and they all have little cat carpets. I think it’s so cute,” Sarah shares.
She also added a big sectional for all of the cats to lounge on. She attached steps to each of the cat trees so each cat can climb up and access it. Despite including five cat trees around the room, Sarah says they all really enjoy one where they can sit and stare out the window.
Sarah reveals that she spent “probably close to $17,000.”
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Carolyn
“It’s a 2,000 square foot basement. The amount of drywall, that in itself was eight grand. The extra $9,000 to $10,000 comes from the flooring. The paint was at least $2,500. Then there’s the custom closet I built. That’s a feeding station, because trying to feed nine cats, you need to go into a separate space to prepare the food and then feed. All of those little additions added up. It broke the bank; that was my big expenditure of the year,” Sarah shares.
Sarah affirms that she is not done adding things for her cats. “Last year, I built a $4,000 outdoor patio for them. During the day, they have access through a window to my house to this huge outdoor space on my deck. In the wintertime, I put plexiglass over it so that they can go out. My next goal is to find a way to create a tunnel that goes from the basement directly to the outdoor patio. So they can go right there, all of the time. It’s possible. I’m gonna have to dig up my deck. We’ll figure it out,” she says.
One of the ways that Sarah has been able to take care of the cats and help provide a great life for them, sanctuary and all, is from the help of her sister. “Emily is phenomenal with the cats. She helps me feed them. She’ll help me make sure Melly has his diaper on. She’ll help me bathe him. It’s given her a sense of purpose too, which makes me, like, brainstorm for the future. Oh, I know exactly what I’m gonna do for the future,” Sarah says.
She says that is her next project for either the fall or the coming spring. She also hopes within the two years to “purchase a very big piece of property” and make it “a physical sanctuary separate from my house. I want to employ only people with disabilities.”
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Carolyn
“I want Emily to run it. She is so incredible with these cats and with these animals. How cool would it be to create a workforce, a workplace that people with disabilities can do? We don’t have that in upstate New York. We have nothing for the adults to actually do besides being set up in a group home or put in front of a TV. That is my next one- or two-year goal: a big piece of property and build a physical sanctuary,” Sarah says.
“One thing about raising Emily is that you learn a lot about the lack of support people with disabilities have. I’m like, ‘How are there such limited programs for these adults? Someone needs to make some more,’” Sarah shares.
