Meet Deanna Knoth | Director of Purrfect Additions and Feline Behaviorist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Deanna Knoth and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Deanna, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
Purrfect Additions is a 501c3 nonprofit that came to fruition in September of 2020, After years of working in vet clinics and the county shelter, I saw first hand that we did not have near as much support as we needed to help cats with health issues, behavioral issues, or who needed an adjustment period to recover from sickness, trauma, fear, etc. Purrfect Additions focuses on care of special needs cats, cats with health issues like seizures, diabetes, upper respiratory symptoms, hospice, and socialization of feral kittens etc. We help cats heal and recover, place them in foster homes, keep them from euthanasia, with the ultimate goal to adopt them to forever homes,

Volunteer and foster-based, we are privately run. We run solely on donations from the public.

We help the community by helping the cats who need a little extra love, medical attention, or safety, by finding caring foster homes that are willing to nurse them to health and give them shelter with the goal of finding their perfect forever homes. Otherwise, without us and many other local organizations, most of these cats might not survive.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I wanted to start with even though Purrfect Additions was my vision, we would not exist without our team and all of our supporters. Our board members are our backbone and all heavily involved with the day to day and we all foster. I don’t think there will ever be enough cat rescues, until everyone who takes in an animal is a responsible pet owner and the whole world is educated on what they can do to help our animal friends. We’re all needed. The Dayton rescue community works together and relies on each other for a lot. Purrfect Additions tries to focus mainly on the more special needs cats. I am very proud of the fact that I have a good working relationship with several local county shelters, and am contacted when they have special needs cats facing health or behavior issues that they are unable to keep. When I was working in the shelter, euthanasia was unfortunately the only option for some of the cats with more severe health or behavioral issues. We also work diligently to pair them with the right homes.

My passion is helping special needs cats. Working with the cats behaviorally or medically getting them to the proper vet, or medication, or surgeon that shelters just don’t have access to. Educating the community on the importance of spay/neuter and helping families to understand that taking in animals is a fifteen or twenty year commitment and ensuring they know proper needs and care for their feline friend. I also personally work with owners whose cats are having behavioral issues, working through their challenges in order to keep them in the home, which helps them to form a new better relationship with their human, so we don’t have to rehome them.

We wouldn’t be here today without the support from fosters, volunteers, donors, friends, family, or our vets helping me learn and working with us to best support our kitties in the rescue. I have met so many wonderful people along this journey and some will forever be part of my life. I do work a full time job outside of the rescue and feline behavior clients; luckily my full-time job is very understanding when it comes to the rescue and I need to take time off for vet appointment. We even have two of our foster kitties there at most times. I rely heavily on the team to help when I am unavailable. When they say rescue is a way of life, it couldn’t be more true. I never know what my next call or text might be, maybe an update from an adopted who is so in love with their baby from us, or it could be an emergency that requires attention immediately. This is where the team we’ve built and are continually building comes in. Can one of our fosters take them in? If we are full, can another rescue I’m in contact with take them? Or, who can drop everything to go to the emergency vet? One of the biggest challenges is when we are full and cannot take a new kitty in, it sucks. We don’t want to say, “We cant help,” but it is necessary for us to have a foster home or funds to take on another life.

Our Dayton area community has played a major role in helping us thrive, whether it be donating, hosting events, or both. We’ve been shown amazing support. We have been lucky enough to have many local places host us for adoption events and have made some wonderful connections through these events and found homes for many kitties. We are an all-foster based rescue, meaning all our felines live in our fosters’ homes with them, as part of their families, until they find their purrfect furrever family, except one or two of our kitties which can be found at Feeders Pet Supply in Fairborn, which has been a great step in getting them to their furrever home. Our events require a lot of planning and coordinating, but with the connections we’ve made we are able to have many unique fundraisers. Including Tats 4 Cats flash tattoo event biannually hosted by Rebel Rebel with some very talented artists, who volunteer their time to help us raise funds for our kitties and give people some great tattoos. Another partnership is with Gem City Burlesque for an annual event we call Purrlesque, hosted at Star City Brewing in Miamisburg. You can often find us in the Oregon District for summer events, and we’ve started to work with Vandalia Rec to be at some of their events, one of which was kitten yoga and so much fun. We are also partnered with Hollywood Feed on Far Hills and have adoption events there often.

The rescue world is challenging for anyone, but the reward of being able to save lives outweighs all the challenges. I would love for everyone to be able to feel what we do when we get to save a life and then watch them thrive and grow in their furrever family. You can foster if you have the compassion, a little space for them, and all the love. Reach out to you local rescue organization and see how you can help.

I am most excited about getting save a life, and helping to get them to the point of adoption. I could not do this without our fosters, and their willingness to volunteer and learn. Almost all of us work full time jobs. The rescue doesn’t exist without families volunteering to get cats to vet appointments and help them recover from their illnesses.

It has not been an easy road. There are so many challenges, and so many heartbreaks. There are times I have to say, ‘no,’ I can’t help. There are so many stories I could tell. In the end it is always worth it for the cats that we save. It’s a Purrfect Furrever.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There’s so many places!

Day 1
A few stops in the Oregon District for some brunch shopping
Trolley Stop
Heart Mercantile
Luna
Clash
A Gem City Burlesque Performance

Day 2
Gem City Catfe for some coffee and kitty cuddles
find a local metro park trail to walk or ride bikes as there are so many good ones in the Dayton area

Day 3
A day in Yellow Springs hiking, dining, shopping, and definitely Stoney Creek Garden Center

Day 4
Kayaking in one of the local rivers
Dinner at Lucky’s Taproom and Eatery

Day 5
Ghostlight for coffee
Dayton Art Institute
Lily’s for dinner

Day 6
Carmichael’s for dinner and then off to
Star City Brewing for a Brickys Comedy Night

Day 7
Brixx Ice Company Followed by a Dragon’s baseball game

And if were being honest, probably every one of the vet clinics we work with, mostly unintentionally, as I’m usually at the vet’s at least 2x a week for one reason or another

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to shout out all of our fosters, volunteers, and donors, all of the veterinarians and vet clinics who help us with our mission, and especially Batta Cats, a local Trap, Neuter, and Release 501c3 organization run by Leslie Batta, that we work with very closely. We couldn’t be Purrfect Additions without them.

Website: https://purrfectadditions.org

Instagram: @purrfectadditionsinc

Facebook: https://Facebook.com/purrfectadditions