Animal rescue awarded national grant

Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 28, 2026

Clear Creek Cat Rescue, serving Southcentral Alaska from Houston to Homer, was recently awarded a grant by a leading national animal welfare organization to support their ongoing work.

According to a March 16 press release, CCCR was selected by the Best Friends Animal Society from a pool of 320 applicants to receive the competitive Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence grant, which funds euthanasia reduction initiatives. The awarded funds, totalling $12,500, will support the rescue’s Barn Cat Project, through which CCCR intends to divert at least 45 cats and kittens from the Kenai Animal Shelter.

“This Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence grant means that we can save more cats’ lives,” Kelleigh Orthmann, CCCR volunteer, grant administrator and board secretary, said in the release. “Some of the cats that are diverted from the Kenai Animal Shelter cannot be socialized and are adopted out through our Barn Cat Project. These valuable family members help keep Alaska’s barns and outbuildings rodent-free.”

Orthmann said in a separate interview last Thursday that this is the second grant CCCR has received from Best Friends that will further support the partnership between the rescue and Kenai Animal Shelter. They received their first award, the Best Friends “Save Them All” grant, in 2025.

The Kenai Animal Shelter is a recognized no-kill shelter, a spokesperson said last Wednesday, but they sometimes receive cats into their care that are “behaviorally challenged” and linger at the shelter due to a lack of interest in adoption by the public. Sometimes they are able to socialize challenging cats, as in one recent case, but the shelter’s partnership with CCCR allows behaviorally challenged cats to be rehomed in an environment where they can be healthy and happy.

“It’s a growing partnership to try to get these cats better outcomes,” Orthmann said. “We get all the cats fixed, chipped and vaccinated with the money that we get from this grant.”

Two recent examples Orthmann shared are Jessie and Monty, feral cats that CCCR received from the Kenai Animal Shelter in November 2024.

“They contacted us to come pick them up because they were too spicy for the staff to handle,” Orthmann said. “Efforts to socialize them were unsuccessful. They were paired up and adopted in Wasilla to help control rodents in a goat shed. To my knowledge, they are still doing a great job!”

The No-Kill Excellence grant program is administered by the Best Friends Animal Society and funded by the Rachael Ray Foundation, geared towards helping animals in need, according to the release. The Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, founded in 1984, is dedicated to making the entire U.S. “no-kill” and partners with more than 5,500 shelters and rescue organizations in running lifesaving facilities and programs nationwide.

CCCR is one of 53 shelters and rescues across the U.S. to be awarded the Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence or Rachael Ray Save Them All grants in 2026. The total awarded grants are projected to help over 19,000 dogs and cats, according to the release.

Learn more about Clear Creek Cat Rescue and their work, including the Barn Cat Project, at clearcreekcatrescue.org/.

Learn more about the Best Friends Animal Society at bestfriends.org/.