McGee Cat Ranch: The Peak of Cat Living
Last week, Abbie McGee drove two hours to Catawba County Animal Shelter, the back of her SUV loaded with kitten crates covered in pee pads.
She spent that same morning discovering tapeworms in one of her litterboxes, and after she picked up fifteen kittens from the shelter, she returned home to an evening filled with strangers coming to her house for curbside adoptions.
McGee is the sole operator of McGee Cat Ranch, an in-home cat rescue in Apex, North Carolina. Her self-funded sanctuary takes up the multiple rooms, floors and porches in the family’s two-story brick colonial. At any time there are upwards of 30 cats in and around the house, some feral, some injured, some gravely ill, and some likely to be adopted that very day.
“I’m fortunate enough that my husband really loves me,” said McGee. Jason McGee is a Vice President at IBM and helps to finance the ranch when times are tight.
Over twenty percent of cats in North Carolina shelters are euthanized every year, creating one of the highest feline euthanasia rates in the country. Local shelters are underfunded and out of space, and rural areas in particular have low rates of spays and neuters.
“Don’t search kill rates in the United States, you will hit pictures,” said McGee. “I saw one that had cats stacked up in the hallway after they had been euthanized, and when you’re like me, and this is your life’s work, I look at the line of cats and think how each one of them had an amazing personality. I cried for two weeks.”
Almost every day, McGee posts a quick picture on Instagram with a cat closeup, and soon her phone is flooded with texts saying, “I want this one,” or “Do you have any white ones?.” For her adult adoptees, sometimes adoptions can be slower, but the kittens always go quick.
“I have a waitlist of about 20 people right now and they all want kittens,” said McGee.”
With high demand McGee is able to arrange adoptions almost daily. Many cats experience ranch life only for a few days or weeks, however McGee has a soft spot for taking in the less desirables.
Spouting off a few McGee said, “I just took in Chappie, Chappie’s an old man. He was run down, and I thought, he's old, so he should just come hang out in the cat shelter. Then I got four semi-ferals. They're never going to be adopted out. And then somebody brought me three kittens and said they were friendly. They're not friendly. They’re going to require some work.”
Socializing feral cats can take years, if ever, for ferals to become ready for a home environment. McGee does get some help from volunteers , although COVID-19 has made her volunteer base dwindle.
Lyndie Neal volunteered to help McGee after adopting two cats herself.
“I’m a neat freak,” said Neal, “I love cleaning, and every day here I get to do new cleaning tasks.”
McGee always had an affinity for litters. Being one of eight kids herself, her mom was never surprised by the Cat Ranch because the family cats always slept with Abbie McGee. She aspired to be a doctor, but when plans changed McGee didn’t pause to fill her purpose through felines.
One day McGee told a shelter that instead of euthanizing the cats that they didn’t have space for, to give them to her. In those moments she didn’t know she would start a rescue, only that she needed to rescue to help her sleep at night.
While McGee’s love for cats brings them to her home, the rest of the family only tolerates the intrusion.
“I hate cats,” said Sydney McGee, Abbie McGee’s 20-year-old daughter, “I’m allergic to them.” Sydney and the rest of the family have tried to coax McGee to scale down the operations.
“She always says that she's trying to take the numbers down. But I mean, she's been saying that for years.” said Sydney, “Half the time there's cats in my bathroom, in their bathroom. They're everywhere.”
Why would three McGee’s live with a tribe of felines that they detest? The first word that came to mind when Sydney thought of her mom was, generous. “My mom literally drives me crazy, but she has the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever know in my life.”
