Owning a pet store in Jim Thorpe, Susan Yaich quickly found out she would be the go-to place when someone wanted to drop off a kitten or cat they found or no longer wanted.

The dire need for somewhere to house the stray cat population prompted her, along with Linda Rex, Jean Sargent and Denise Sebelin, to start the Carbon County Friends of Animals.

Since then, Yaich has devoted countless volunteer hours to making sure the nonprofit organization can run like a well-oiled machine.

“It started with the original shelter in Nesquehoning, but at the time, there was only space allotted for 40 cats,” Yaich said. “We met that quota very quickly and relocated the cats back to Jim Thorpe. We were next to Denise’s flower shop, Deezine’s Flowers, until we moved to the West 13th Street location in 2015. At the time we moved there, we had 154 cats.”

Though most of her time is taken up at the shelter, Yaich previously volunteered in Allentown at the low-cost spay and neuter clinic. She was also involved with the Carbon County Animal Response Team.

When the Pazzazz Kennel caught on fire in 2009, she volunteered running dogs to the veterinarian.

“Some of the dogs, and they were mainly chow chows there, had escaped and they were up on the turnpike,” Yaich said. “I had to go up on the turnpike and catch these dogs, which were already frightened. They’re great dogs, but they aren’t always good with strangers, so I was just praying they wouldn’t attack me.”

In another incident, a woman was breeding dogs at a Harrity Road location and Yaich was part of a team called in by the state police to help.

“There were actually 104 Labrador retrievers there and that turned into an eight or nine day thing,” she said. “The SPCA from Philadelphia came up to take the majority of them. I took some and placed them for adoption. It was an ordeal.”

While the cat shelter in Carbon County does have a few paid staff, Yaich said, it relies heavily on volunteers, such as herself. As is the case for many nonprofit organizations, finding that volunteer help has been a grind. COVID-19 put another strain on the shelter because, unlike some other types of businesses, it couldn’t just close its doors.

“We still have to feed 200-plus cats and clean them,” Yaich said. “You can’t stop doing any of that just because of COVID-19.”

The community has been very generous when it comes to fundraisers and similar activities, but there are still many volunteer opportunities available on a day-to-day basis at the shelter.

“There are different things that people can do,” Yaich said. “There’s always the rooms that need to be cleaned, litter boxes need to be cleaned, the cats need to be fed. There’s a ton of laundry every day. So, you can come up if you wanted to volunteer and pick your time and what you’d like to do. Anything would be a help at this time.”

With the stray cat population still high, she said the organization is in “crisis mode.”

“If we don’t get help soon, I really don’t know what we’re going to do,” Yaich said. “I don’t want to be forced into closing. I would have to call the ASPCA in Philadelphia, and see if they could come and take all of the cats. And then what would happen to them? That’s my greatest worry.”