by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

When a stray cat’s cry is heard around Claremont, chances are rescuer Judy Mann will be receiving a call. She’s contacted near daily about strays in the area. People also deliver wayward cats to her doorstep. She then finds treatment for them, if necessary, and hopefully, a new home.

“One day you’ll see me in a tree getting a cat. The next day you may see me in the attic, or in a bush,” Mann said. “You just never know.”

The 79-year-old Montclair resident has always had a soft spot for animals. But it wasn’t until her retirement that she became a pivotal figure in local feline survival, starting the nonprofit Judy Mann Cat Rescue.

Judy Mann feeds a three-week-old kitten through a syringe. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

“I always knew when I retired that I wanted to do this. I opened hotels for a living for 30 years, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to find something that I can do that’s not as demanding,’” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking. This is 24/7.”

Mann was feeding a three-week-old calico kitten through a syringe at Unleashed by Petco in Claremont, one of the organizations with which she’s partnered, when we spoke to her. It was one of five kittens she fed over the course of an hour.

“I say they’re about three weeks,” Mann said as she carefully fed the kitten. “Somebody dropped the mom off on my doorstep. She was feral, jumped out of the carrier and I found her in my backyard, so I started feeding her. And I noticed she was pregnant, so I said, ‘Well, I’m just going to keep feeding her and watch.’ So about three weeks ago these little guys were born. They look healthy. I’ve given them flea meds. I think they’re going to make it. I do have a foster that’s going to take them in.”

Mann hadn’t named the kittens.

“When I got into this, I said, ‘I’m only going to have two cats of my own,’” Mann said. “And once you start naming them, then they’re learning their personalities, and you buy into them, you want to keep them, and I can’t do that. So, I still have only two.”

Spending the afternoon with stray cats is not new for Mann. In fact, it’s been her Tuesday routine for the last 18 years. Back then, Mann spoke with the Unleashed store manager, who told her how to get involved. She quickly established a nonprofit, got a work vehicle, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Mann has since partnered with Petco stores in Claremont and San Dimas to aid kittens. “I adopt out about 400 [cats] a year here,” Mann said.

While Mann is best known for her feline heroics, they’re not her only focus.

“People drop off all kinds of things on my doorstep: dogs, cats, bearded dragons, chickens, turtles,” Mann said. “In the very beginning I didn’t have a network for all of that, but I do now.”

Mann makes sure the kittens at the Claremont Petco locations are properly medicated, fed, fostered, and spayed and neutered.

“I have a lot of support from the community,” she said. “People drop off things here all the time. I came in [one day] and there was a brand-new bed, there was a whole bag of food, and I find that quite often.”

The work is a mission, Mann said. Tuesdays and Wednesdays often see her commuting to and from the Claremont’s location to aid animal foster parents and to take cats to veterinarian appointments. She also fields up recuse requests — sometimes out of state — and attempts to find homes, all while feeding colonies of cats around the region.

From the get-go, Mann’s operation has been mostly self-funded.

“I saved and knew this was what I was going to do,” Mann said. “The first three years were rough. You had to get your equipment. You had to get food. I didn’t have anything.”

Mann said the Unleashed store manager gave her about $1,000 for bedding and cages and other essentials to get started.

“The first three years, it was definitely, totally out of pocket,” she said. “But now you kind of catch up. Sometimes it evens out, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Mann said an unfortunate component of her mission involves dealing with the death of a rescue.

“That’s the horrible part of this and especially when you get them in like this,” she said, pointing to a kitten she was feeding. “Because they need their mom. But if I left these kittens out there in the field, they would have been feral because it’s a feral mom. So, I had to pull them. Could I lose them? I could lose all of them. But, you know, I’m going to just do the best I can to keep them alive. It’s all you can do.”

For more information, search “Judy Mann Cat Rescue” on facebook.com and instagram.com, or call (909) 225-5042.