About Us
Spirits Place is a non-profit organization in St. Albans, Maine dedicated to caring for feral and community cats, and compassionately sheltering homeless, abandoned, or abused cats in preparation for adoption. Our founding team has over 40 years of experience successfully managing healthy cat colonies, delivering spay/neuter help with partners, and educating the public to improve knowledge and understanding about the humane, life-saving treatment of cats, in hopes that someday, every cat will be cared for, loved and wanted. We mostly serve communities in Somerset, Piscataquis, and Penobscot counties.
Volunteer Talks
“I feel important and like I matter in someone's life. When I get to feed the cats, I feel like it’s my job!”
– Rhylee
Our Vision
Spirits Place, a uniquely free, peaceful, and natural environment, is a leading community engagement educational resource where animals, humans, and nature come together in a safe refuge to experience and strengthen the vital animal-human bond; to learn the importance of caring for animals through thick and thin; and to be productive and respectful, so that everyone feels wanted.
We seek to achieve excellence as a leader in animal welfare and innovative sheltering in our region; to be a creative, community resource for people to learn more about caring for their companion animals; and provide experiential and outreach education, resources, and awareness on the plight of feral and community cats, in order to elevate their status in areas where they are disregarded or cruelly abused. We envision a time when there are no abandoned, homeless or overpopulated pets, that euthanasia is only rarely used to alleviate suffering from a terminal illness, and that every cat has a loving home.
Our Mission
Spirits Place engages grassroots compassion, education, and creativity to elevate animal welfare and quality of life in our community by promoting and assisting in the spaying/neutering, medical care, and compassionate management of stray, abandoned, feral, and community cats. We assist under-served families with spay/neuter, veterinary care, humane education and resources to help them retain their pets: provide shelter and temporary foster care as needed: find loving homes for adoptable animals in our care: and provide longer-term space for animals that may not be ready for adoption and find themselves homeless for a variety of reasons. Our philosophy is that while not everyone can find a home, everyone can have a life.
Our Values
Spirits Place believes in freedom, compassion and creativity, and that every being has an intrinsic purpose and deserves to be treated with kindness and respect.We believe in animal sentience and individuality, and putting a face to this. We validate and accept who one is in the present, and encourage and support the best one can be in the future, be that a cat or a human. We work with our neighbors and partners to create healthier cats and communities, and effect a valuable impact regionally to serve under-resourced citizens.
What sets Spirits Place apart is our focus on the rescue, support and successful socialization of cats who are allowed to roam freely in our countryside shelter. This, we observe, not only significantly improves their natural quality of life, and of community members who visit and volunteer, but also enhances better matches for adoption and pet retention. Our philosophy is that not everyone can have a home but everyone can have a life.