Life has changed at Puffy Paws

Posted by Nancy Guenther Chapman on November 25th, 2009 at 11:52 am,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Puffy Paws Kitty Haven owner Rick Kingston cud­dles one of his kitties.

Nan­nette Thode used to make weekly vis­its to Puffy Paws Kitty Haven; sit­ting on the sofa and pat­ting the cats was a form of ther­apy for the woman who lost her hus­band in June.

But that was before Sara­sota County told Puffy Paws owner Rick Kingston that he was in vio­la­tion of a code for­bid­ding home-based busi­nesses in his area.

“Now they’ve denied me that,” said Thode.

Kingston and his wife have been run­ning Puffy Paws Kitty Haven out of their home on Lake­view Lane for years. Approximately100 cats reside in the no-kill shel­ter, which was reg­is­tered and licensed with the Florida Depart­ment Of Agri­cul­ture & Con­sumer Ser­vices in 2006 and granted 501c3 (non-profit, tax-deductible) sta­tus in March. Kingston has adopted out 125 cats since early 2007 from his home on Lake­view Lane, but he can’t do that anymore.

“Only fam­ily and friends can come and go,” said Kingston. “There will be no open houses, no sur­ren­ders, no vol­un­teers, no signs. We’re OK with that. It puts a strain on me and my wife, but we’re will­ing to oper­ate in that manner.”

Sara­sota County Code Enforce­ment Offi­cer Bob Lep­ley informed the Kingstons of an anony­mous com­plaint in late Octo­ber. The cou­ple was given 30 days to com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions, which include not hav­ing cus­tomers com­ing and going from the house. If they don’t com­ply, the prop­erty owner – Kingston’s mother – will face fines.

“I don’t antic­i­pate it ever get­ting that far,” Lep­ley said. “They were very agree­able. … I think it will be resolved 100 percent.”

Although he imme­di­ately dis­con­tin­ued hav­ing vis­i­tors at his home, Kingston has been con­cerned about the the large trash bin sit­ting in his dri­ve­way, which he said might be the cause of the com­plaint. The bin was placed there sev­eral months ago to make the dis­posal of 2,100 pounds of cat lit­ter every week eas­ier on Waste Man­age­ment personnel.

“The code guy talked to my mom, told her that’s what did us in, that Dump­ster,” said Kingston.

“That’s not my issue,” said Lep­ley, who said he told Kingston that the bin gives the appear­ance that his home isn’t an ordi­nary one, that it’s a business.

“If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, gen­er­ally it’s a duck,” Lep­ley said.

Kingston is look­ing for a $500 dona­tion to cover the expense of hid­ing the bin.

He is still tak­ing in cats. Sur­ren­ders are done at Lov­ing Care Ani­mal Hos­pi­tal, 2011 Engle­wood Road.  Dona­tions can be made seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Puffy Paws Kitty Haven Dona­tion and Stor­age Cen­ter  located off San Case Drive on Woodgate Court. Kingston said that it’s to the right of  Wal­mart, and is iden­ti­fi­able by its strobe light and Free Stuff sign.

It costs $150 a day to meet the basic needs of the cats, he said. That includes 50 pounds of wet food, two 18-pound bags of dry food and 350 pounds of cat litter.

One dona­tion he can count on is $50 a week from Thode.

“They weren’t harm­ing any­body,” she said. “They keep the house neat and clean. … It’s the only char­ity I’ve heard of where all the dona­tions go to the ani­mals. It’s two peo­ple who have devoted them­selves to sav­ing cats.”

While the change has made life more dif­fi­cult for the Kingstons, their pri­mary con­cern is keep­ing the cats safe.

“It’s their haven, not The Haven now,” said Kingston.

Paffy Paws owner Rick Kingston thinks his recently arrived trash bin might have spurred the anony­mous complaint.

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One response to “Life has changed at Puffy Paws”

1. Saturday Noos » Cat Blogosphere

   11 / 13 / 2010
   12:45 pm

   […] Puffy Paws Kitty Haven really needs dona­tions. (Face­book Page, Back­ground Story on Sara­sota Code) […]

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