Hello, and welcome.

My path to Purrmont began far from Vermont. For over a decade, I devoted myself to feline welfare in Armenia, where the need was great and the help was scarce. I saw countless cats discarded and forgotten, living short, disease-ridden lives in dumpsters and on the streets.

So I set out to change what I could: rescuing and rehabilitating strays and kittens, providing medical care, food, and shelter, and bottle-feeding newborns through the night. But the most important work was changing minds: running community programs to dispel superstition, soften fear into compassion, and help people see cats as the loving household companions they are.

When I returned to the United States, I brought two adopted cats with me: Phen (short for Phenomenon) and his feisty little sidekick, Ender. I kept the mission alive as a long-term foster parent, opening my home to vulnerable cats so they could heal, socialize, and learn to trust before meeting their furrever families.

On December 10, 2023, our house burned down, and we lost Phen and Ender.

Phen had come to me as a two-month-old kitten, nearly dead, and he became my best friend, by my side through cancer treatments and years of recovery across our nine years together. Ender was the goofy, fun-loving one, the one who always kept us in stitches. Their absence left a quiet that is hard to put into words.

In time, and with care, healing came. Quiet visits to the Springfield and Lucy Mackenzie Humane Societies slowly reawakened the calling I had carried for so long.

In September 2024, Vagus Hacker joined our family. He brought the joy back, a daily reminder of the quiet, healing power of a cat's purr.

In honor of Phen and Ender, I opened Purrmont Cat Café in 2025, a warm, loving place to keep advocating for cats, to give them somewhere to truly thrive, and to help them find furrever homes of their own.

Every coffee you order and every minute you spend with the cats supports that mission.