local heroes
CARING FOR CATS, CONNECTING WITH community
Poolesville Cats has turned a one-man mission into a community-wide rescue effort
by Jeff Sypeck
Poolesville Cats founder Richard Garner shares a moment with Greyson, a cat who’ s now enjoying a happy life after supporters helped pay for surgery for his broken humerus.
Richard Garner vividly remembers that evening in 2010. Coming home after a late night of painting ceiling tiles in a Metro substation, the longtime Poolesville resident faced at least a dozen pairs of gleaming eyes in the headlights of his truck as he approached his townhouse cul-de-sac.
“ At least half of them were sitting in the middle of Wootton Avenue,” he recalls.“ I now realize there must have been a nearby female in heat. But it was clear we had a cat problem.”
Garner had previously helped his brother trap cats for spaying and neutering out on the Eastern Shore, where the cat colonies brought there to protect grain from rodents had gotten out of control. Not inclined to wait for others to handle a problem in his own front yard, Garner began trapping his neighborhood’ s homeless cats. After having them spayed or neutered by local vets, he released them back into their familiar surroundings, where they could thrive without becoming fruitful and multiplying.
Garner did what he could, on his own time, largely at his own expense, for more than a decade. Appreciative neighbors pitched in to help pay the cost of spaying and neutering, while others, often total strangers, dropped off food and useful items at his home, especially after local realtor Vicki Capone set up a“ Poolesville Cats” Facebook page. Garner and his helpers were surprised by how quickly the community followed the page, and Garner is amused that his house became a destination for generous locals who bring him their extra cat food, cat toys, cages, and carriers.
36 plenty I autumn harvest 2026