Housing Facilities

St. Francis Animal Sanctuary (SFAS) houses more than 200 cats and 200 dogs. There are three main housing facilities for our rescued animals: Diana Daly's Haven (a.k.a. the Dog Barn), large outdoor pens, and Kitty Village. The plans for Kitty Village were kindly shared by Best Friends. They are the same plans used for Best Friends Benton House. The Dog Barn began life as a pole barn.

 

Diana Daly's Haven (Dog Barn)

In the fall of 2002, Londi Moore supervised the conversion of a pole barn into a dog barn. The Dog Barn was completed in the winter of 2002, just before Diana Daly, our tireless volunteer, passed away after a long battle with cancer. We dedicated the barn to her memory.
The Dog Barn has ample workspace for food preparation at the northwest end which serves as the base of operations for the daily work of feeding and caring for the dogs. Ten outdoor dog yards were also completed that winter, connecting into the kennels within the dog barn.

An early spring view looking northeast at the completed Dog Barn.

 

 

Kitty Village

Kitty Village was financed by a grant from the McDonough Foundation. Construction began in the spring of 2004 and  was built in the area between the Dog Barn and the Director’s Cottage. During our Hurricane Katrina rescue and shelter operations, Kitty Village served as "operations headquarters".

 

Kitty Village's main building has four separate rooms with attached, screened porches.

 

Elvis' Room houses most of our special needs cats. Elvis (pictured here to the left), the namesake for the room, is neurologically impaired, yet full of personality. He generously shares his room with many blind or physically-challenged cats.

 

Big Babies Room is home to some of our most affectionate cats. The cats believe that anyone that walks into this room is there to play and cuddle with them. These cats can usually be found relaxing indoors, enjoying the air conditioned room and comfy daybed.

 

Julius's Room is home to our famous Julius, "co-author" of the SFAS newsletter section, “Animals Alive". Julius (pictured here to the left) appeared at the sanctuary one cold night and wouldn’t leave the front gate. Now, Julius shares his room with most of our black cats and orange cats.

 

Our fourth room, our Semi-Feral Room, is dedicated strictly to a previously existing  semi-feral colony of rescued cats. They have their own screened porch where most of them love to hang out, usually climbing up into the rafters!!!