Many people associate Las Vegas with world-class entertainment, but few consider their cats when looking for things to do in the area. If you look past the flashing lights and tourist attractions, you’ll discover that Las Vegas can be a pet lover’s paradise!

Volunteer Opportunities

Las Vegas is home to over a dozen cat and pet shelters, all of which need help from volunteers, donors, and cat lovers like you. Here are three notable shelters that have done amazing things to help Vegas’s cat population.

The Animal Foundation

Volunteers are the lifeblood of The Animal Foundation in Las Vegas. This shelter is the highest-volume shelter in the nation, and last year they saved over 25,000 animals. This mega-shelter relies heavily on volunteers like you to help.

The Animal Foundation offers a year-round low-cost vet clinic to help get pets spayed, neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. If you’d like to volunteer, you must be 18 or older, or volunteer with a parent if you’re over 12. You can help in many ways, but our favorite volunteer opportunity is to sign up as a socialization volunteer — AKA Cat Companion. That sounds right up our alley!

Homeward Bound Cat Adoptions

Volunteer opportunities abound at Homeward Bound Cat Adoptions. Without kind-hearted people like you, their 5,000+ cats and kittens wouldn’t have found their forever homes. This shelter is proud to be cage-free, allowing their cats and kittens to roam, socialize, and enjoy their lives in ways caged animals cannot.

If you’re over 14, there are loads of volunteer opportunities waiting for you: you can help clean up the shelter, play with the kitties, administer medications, or perform data entry for the shelter. They’re even looking for a graphic designer to help boost their site!

Silver Whiskers Feline Rescue

Everybody loves kittens. Even dog people find them irresistible! But what about the senior and special needs cats that need homes? Silver Whiskers is a non-profit organization that provides and finds homes for friendly, loving cats that many would consider unadoptable. You can help these senior felines with a monetary donation to help support their medical bills, or, if you’d like to make a big difference in these no-longer-kittens’ lives, you can apply to be a foster. Take care of these loving cats while they wait for adoption, or provide a warm lap to hospice cats in their final days. They will thank you with purrs and loving headbutts.

Adoption Events

Looking to bring home your new family member? Check out the adoption centers and events in Vegas.

Maddie’s Pet Project Adoption Days

Maddie’s Pet Adoption Days will be held from October 15th through 16th. This recurrent event covers all adoption costs, thanks to the Dave and Cheryl Duffield Foundation, a vibrant organization that supports shelter animals in Nevada.

Vets for Abandoned Pets

Vets for Abandoned Pets (VFAP) works hard to conduct trap neuter return programs in Las Vegas while helping young adoptable cats and kittens find their forever homes. Most feral cats are unadoptable, but a few would make wonderful pets! This volunteer-powered group has taken 3,000 cats off the streets and found their forever homes. The brick and mortar location is currently closed to the public due to covid-19, but you may make an appointment to visit an adoptable cat at their center.

Virtual Events

Petco Love Stories

Do you look at your shelter cat and wonder who rescued who? If you love your cat and she loves you, too, tell your origin story to Petco! From now until September 19th, 2021, submit your adoption story to Petco Love Stories for a chance to win up to $100,000 for your cat’s shelter. Submit a photo and a short piece about how your cat changed your life for the better. This is a nation-wide event, but if you got your cat from one of Vegas’s many cat rescues, you can do a world of good for the cats in this area.

Fun with Felines

Rescued Treasures Cat Cafe

You love cats, right? Of course you do! You simply must check out Rescued Treasures Cat Cafe, Vegas’s first cat cafe and extension of PALnv (Protecting Animal Life Nevada). This fabulous lounge cares for cats and kittens until they land their forever homes. In the meantime, you and the cats can enjoy fun activities like chess, poker, card games, yoga, and more.

There are usually 10-12 cats and kittens waiting for adoption and ready to snuggle while you enjoy light refreshments. Play with the kitties, enjoy free wifi, and have a snack while you support a good cause!

Rescued Treasures even offers children’s birthday parties, so your cat loving kiddo can book the whole cafe for up to 15 friends! Even better, adults can join in on the fun, too. Reserve your birthday party at Rescued Treasures — these spots are sure to fill up.

Tired of Zoom calls being interrupted by cats, dogs, and kids? Maybe it’s time to try some in-person office meetings. No need to give up the feline interruption, though! Take your conference to the cat cafe where cats and kittens will distract you from your work while you enjoy snacks and drinks. No guarantees that you’ll get much work done.

Check out our full guide of Cat Cafes in Nevada.

Events for Pet Professionals

Las Vegas has long been known as a hub for professional conferences and trade shows. The pet and petcare industries are no strangers to The Strip.

SuperZoo

If you’re part of a pet care or pet supply company and haven’t heard of SuperZoo, you are really missing out.

SuperZoo is the biggest pet industry trade show — period. Originally called the Annual Western Wholesale Pet Supply Association, this show has been in existence since 1950. It was originally based in California, but in 2004, moved to Las Vegas to help boost attendance. Now, over 3,000 businesses visit the show every year. This year’s tradeshow will be held at Mandalay Bay Convention Center on August 17th through 19th and will include vendors and booths for retail companies, but also grooming contests, education, and new product showcases, and more. If you’re part of a pet care company, this networking event belongs at the top of your list.

ASPCA Cornell Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Conference (virtual)

ASPCA Cornell Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Conference is for veterinarians, pet care providers, and other animal welfare professionals. On July 9th through 11th, attend virtual talks by experts in the field, learning opportunities, and more. Medical talks will explore everything from new medical techniques, animal care, and even kitten triage techniques. For non-veterinarians, shelter professionals and animal welfare companies can learn about connecting with volunteers and how to promote their adoptable animals.

Best Friends National Conference (virtual)

The virtual Best Friends National Conference on June 23rd and 24th will connect animal welfare professionals and experts, providing quality workshops and talks. This one is open to the public, but is geared toward animal organizations, animal control, veterinarians, and other professionals. This popular event is great for networking with other professional animal lovers!

Past events

Kitten Season Online Auction

TNR, or trap-neuter-release, is super important in Las Vegas and elsewhere. This humane process helps control the feral cat population and improve the ecosystem by reducing these non-native predators. Last May’s Kitten Season online auction helped support the trap neuter return program, which cuts down the number of feral kittens born in the area. The auction may be over, but you can always volunteer to help with the TNR program by trapping feral cats and taking them to the veterinarian to be fixed.

CATurday Fun Fest

Homeward Bound Cat Adoptions held their very first CATurday Fun Fest on May 1st with cooperation with Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas. The festival included activities, education, music, food trucks, raffles, and lots more feline fun. This festival was a huge hit, so let’s hope it was the first of many! The huge festival has come and gone, but you can still help Homeward Bound Cat Adoptions with a monetary donation or shop from their wishlists to help support their cats.

Honorable Mention

“Cats”

So you’ve volunteered at the shelter all day, visited the cat cafe, and networked with industry professionals at SuperZoo. What better way to cap off your busy kitty day than with a Broadway play? See CATS!

This record-breaking Boadway show will be coming to The Smith Center in October for one week only. This timeless musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber reveals a new and musical world of colorful Jellicle Cats with big personalities and lots of fur. Costumes are designed by John Napier of Les Miserables and the choreography is directed by Hamilton’s Andy Blankenbuehler for a refreshed version of this almost 40-year old show.

The Comforted Kitty – In-Home Cat Care You Can Trust.

There are so many amazing things to take advantage of in the Las Vegas area, but we all have things that come up or far-off destinations we want to visit. When you need to leave home, don’t worry about boarding your cat or bribing friends to help out. Let your cats stay at home under the care of loving and professional cat sitters. The Comforted Kitty provides unmatch cat sitting in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas. Give us a call and take advantage of our new client offer- One FREE Sitting on Your First Request.