Oasis builds safety net for homeless animals.

Every weekend Jean Favini loads up her van with 15 to 18 cats and drives to the PetSmart in Woodinville.

It’s not a road trip for Favini and her feline friends. Instead, it’s a regular trip in Favini’s ongoing quest to connect cats with good homes.

Sometimes, she doesn’t make the drive home alone. And that’s OK, because if prospective owners don’t pass Favini’s strict criteria, they won’t go home with one of her rescued cats. Instead, the Langley woman will reload her van and head for the evening ferry with the cats that didn’t get adopted.

“For us it’s all about the animals. Finding the right match is important,” Favini said.

It’s a wonder why some of the cats haven’t found new homes. Take Milo, for example, an orange tabby who is still available for adoption.

Milo was found with his two sisters abandoned in a house. But when Milo, Mandy and Molly were taken to a shelter to be euthanized, Oasis stepped in.

Favini recalled how the trio was taken to an overcrowded shelter and the fruitless search for the cats’ owners.

“No owner was located and no one came to claim them at the shelter, so all three were about to be euthanized,” she said.

Instead, Favini brought the cats back to her Langley sanctuary. Along with her husband Gerry, Jean Favini operates Oasis for Animals out of their Goss Lake home.

The Favinis have been rescuing cats and dogs for about seven years now; frightened ferals, kittens who have lost their mother, pregnant dogs, abandoned pets or those surrendered by owners. They’ve also taken in animals that have gotten too big, too active, or too old for their owners.

This past weekend in Woodinville was a good weekend.

“We placed 18 cats in good homes,” Favini said.

The sanctuary is housed in a two-story heated building on the couple’s property. Upstairs is the Oasis office, with computer filing cabinet and too many cat beds to count. Lying in front of the computer is Siam, who came to Oasis from a shelter in eastern Washington.

“Siam was severely beat up and injured by other animals. And he was out of time at the Spokane shelter, which euthanizes its pets,” Favini said.

A number of the rescued cats at Oasis come from shelters in other counties, including Skagit, Wentachee and Spokane. Many times, Oasis is the last chance that some pets get.

“We get calls about animals who are about to be killed,” Favini said.

Their success rate in finding new homes for animals is impressive. They adopt more than 500 cats a year.

The cats are housed in the lap of luxury. They all have their own beds. Their large cages are usually left open so the cats can roam around the building, play on cat trees, or just explore their environs.

“They all seem to get along,” she said.

Indeed, many look like they are looking for love. Visitors to Oasis are usually greeted by a few cats trying for a little extra attention.

The cats get plenty of attention from the Favinis, to be sure. Both are retired from Boeing, so they spend their days caring for abandoned animals; Jean spends hours on the phone networking with other shelters and potential owners who can see the pets available for adoption on the Oasis Website.

The animals get plenty of care, too. All of the cats at Oasis are spayed or neutered, tested for leukemia and FIV, vaccinated and wormed.

The couple is planning to help even more animals in the future.

A covered outside area was damaged in windstorm last week and is currently bring reconstructed. They are also putting in a larger dog area so they can take a few more dogs.

Recently they took a 10-year-old cocker spaniel who was dropped off at the Spokane shelter by its owners. They were on their way to pick up a new puppy from a breeder.

“That just broke my heart. So we brought the cocker spaniel here to live out its remaining time,” she said.

Favini said that while she has been criticized in the past for tracking pets from other shelters, she said it’s simply a matter of saving their lives. And she said she always refers to other shelters on Whidbey Island before offering to help.

Favini recently took in six kittens from Clinton. The kitten’s mom and her little gray furballs were apparently on the move when the mom was hit and killed by a car on Cultus Bay Road.

Someone found the kittens, just 3 or 4 weeks old, trying to nurse on their dead mom.

Favini came to the rescue and took the kittens home. Since then, she’s found each kitten a new home.

Around her office, 15 or so cats keep her company while she is working. Siam, a large Siamese, lounges in front of her computer.

Miracle, a 20-pound solid black cat that Favini nursed backed to health from liver disease, lounges in a chair next to the desk.

“He weighed 4 pounds. Look at him now, he is on a diet,” Favini said.

Besides her regular trips to PetSmart, Favini places many of her strays through the Website Petfinder.com.

The Favinis began saving unwanted animals in 2000 and became a nonprofit organization with a board of directors in 2002.

Oasis depends on donations for its funding. PetSmart gives them bags of pet food that are damaged during shipment, and Robben Jones, a Clinton veterinarian, helps with the medical care.

“We receive matching funds every year from Microsoft. But mostly we depend on donations,” she said.

Besides donations, they are always looking for volunteers to help care for the animals, as well as foster families when they are overcrowded, and drivers to pick up animals at other locations.

For more information about the pets available for adoption, call Oasis for Animals at 321-4142 or visit OasisForAnimals.org.