About LapCats

Lapcats was founded in April 2005 by Sacramento County Shelter volunteers Barbara Doty and Kim Dahl. When Barbara moved to Sacramento from San Diego (with a brief 7 year stay in Rio Rancho New Mexico), she was searching for a way to help animals and came upon the Sacramento County Shelter by accident. A neighbor was looking to BUY a dog and Barbara suggested SAVING a dog by adopting from the local shelter. She started searching the web and found a dog that fit the criteria the neighbor was looking for and when she inquired about the dog, it just so happened he was a foster puppy with Sac County Animal Care. Barbara and the foster mom discussed the animal crisis in Sacramento and Barbara wanted to help so the foster suggested she visit the County Pound because it was in DIRE need of help.

It took every ounce of courage for Barbara to step into a county pound without breaking down in tears. There were drop boxes outside the facility where people could dump their animals 24/7 with no guilt or recourse. The shelter was falling apart. Volunteers were scarce and the staff was disheartened-just going through the motions day by day of housing animals, adopting a few but having to euthanize the rest. The facility couldn't keep them healthy and couldn't house the number of animals coming through the doors. There was no vet. There was no money. It was awful.

With 2 year old twins at home and another in elementary school, Barbara visited the shelter weekly both with the kids and without. She used her background in photography to shoot pictures of the animals, give them each a name (instead of a number), write a brief bio about them and try to work with area rescues to get them out alive. Sadly with the numbers coming in most of those animals she spent hours upon hours uploading to the web were destroyed. Their owners only had 3 days to find their lost pets and if they weren't claimed and weren't adopted quickly, there was no other alternative.

She scheduled a meeting with the shelter director to ask what they did with cats who came down with URI (upper respiratory infection) the equivalent of the human cold. The answer was they were euthanized, destroyed, killed. Barbara asked WHY and the answer was shocking-"we don't have the money, time, or resources to treat them." There were simply too many animals coming in and not enough homes. People were not spaying and neutering and the shelter didn't have the resources to help them. Barbara knew she had to do something and that's when she approached Kim Dahl who was the volunteer coordinator at the time. Together they were determined to help as many cats as humanly possible.

When Barbara and Kim first started their efforts, there was no name for the organization, no mission statement, it was just 2 women fostering a few cats on their own and trying to adopt them into homes. In 2004, Petsmart was opening a new store in Elk Grove. Barbara and Kim approached the district manager and asked if they could work with Petsmart to house some of the County cats in the store but unfortunately, there was another group already in the store. Months later they received a phone call from that district manager asking to meet about forming a partnership with Petsmart. They wanted to have cats available for people to walk in and "adopt" or basically "buy." Barbara and Kim said NO WAY. They didn't want to "sell" animals and they wanted to be able to screen adopters. They also wanted to make the right match for each cat and each family which required being part of the process from start to finish. This was a new concept to Petsmart since historically their stores always allowed their associates to "adopt" the animals without any sort of protocol in place. But they wanted to give it try and let Barbara and Kim work their magic!

In April 2005, LapCats entered into a partnership with PetSmart that lasted 19 years. It allowed us to establish our own adoption venue, have an organized volunteer base, a small but effective foster program, great fundraising efforts, and established a community presence. In 2025, we established a new partnership with Pet Food Express and hold monthly adoption events at their Land Park location.

Cats in our program are in foster care for as long as they need until they get adopted! They get extra exposure on the LapCats website, at offsite adoption events, and on the LapCats Rescue Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages. All of our cats get LOTS of extra TLC living in our homes like our own pets. They receive any medical care necessary to get them adoption ready. We do MANY dentals, blood work, surgeries, and provide special food to cats on prescription diets. We take in FIV+ cats, and those who may be blind, deaf, or 3-legged. We have treated over 25 cats with FIP, a fatal feline disease that has become more prevalent post COVID.

LapCats used to focus primarily on older or shy cats who had little to no chance of adoption in shelters but now that shelters around the country have limited or NO intake for cats, the need for rescue has become more great. Our community members have nowhere to turn for the cats/kittens they are finding on the streets.

We make a promise to EVERY cat we take in, to not only give them the BEST care. but to find them the BEST homes where they will be loved and cherished forever. QUALITY over QUANTITY. LapCats supports approximately 200 cats a year and has adopted over 7100 cats and kittens (as of 4/2026) since 2005!

Saving One Cat at a Time Through Education and Community Support 
Lapcats is a non-profit organization 501(c)(3)

#47-3066321

info@lapcats.org