Despite the heavy snow fall, almost 100 cat lovers attended Hearts to Homes Feline Rescue and Sanctuary’s seventh annual Comedy Show and “Pawsta” Dinner fundraiser on Saturday, February 8, 2025.
During the event, guests had an opportunity to shop from local vendors and partake in a silent auction for one or more of the nearly 54 pet-themed items. From blankets to treat baskets, decor and more, there were plenty of items up for grab.
After a hearty dinner of pizza, pasta, salad, garlic bread and dessert, guests settled in for the comedy portion of the event.
Chris Jarvie once again returned as the show’s host, kicking it off with several jokes of his own and by interacting with guests before introducing Robert and Rina Beckham to the stage for their feline-related comedy set.
Following the husband and wife duo was Cedric Newman and later, David Green.
Both of the comedians had guests laughing out loud with their play-on-word and punny routines.
Timmy Boyle, known for his work as the host of the “The Circuit” comedy tour, headlined the show. The comedian had the audience in stitches with his family-friendly and relatable comedy routine.
With guests having gotten their fill of laughter, Jarvie returned to the stage to close out the evening, asking the guests to drive safe, and announcing the winners of the silent auction items.
Overall, Pat Kawamoto, Chair and Managing Director of Hearts to Homes, said that she was pleased with Saturday’s turnout.
“It’s interesting because in all the years we’ve done this, we’ve never had a snowstorm like that. The comedians were all coming from out of town so we were worried about the snow, but they all made it which was just wonderful. We got a lot of compliments on the comedians this year so we were all very happy with how everything turned out.” she said. “I also just have to thank all the supporters, volunteers and our sponsors for everything they’ve done because this means a lot to us. We’ve been very fortunate to have the support of the community and we’re just so thankful… we really are blessed to have everyone’s generosity.”
Hearts to Homes was first started in 2016 after Kawamoto and her husband had begun fostering animals and soon realized that the volume of stray cats was far too great.
Now nearly a decade later, Hearts to Homes works alongside between 40 to 60 volunteers and foster homes to help care for the 125 to 150 cats that the rescue has at any given time.
Kawamoto said that at Hearts to Homes, they to try to achieve three things: find loving ‘forever’ homes for stray and abandoned cats and kittens; help colony caretakers to feed and put community or colony cats through the “Trap Neuter Return to Field” (TNR) program; and help families with spay, neuter and vaccinations when they cannot afford it.
“In 2024, Hearts to Homes spayed and neutered 321 cats and we vetted another 80 cats as well,” she said. “[Unfortunately,] adoptions were down and we adopted out about 200 cats.”
Kawamoto added that the volunteer-run organization hosts the event every year in order to help to raise monetary funds that are necessary to be able to provide care for the rescue’s various felines and their needs.
“Our big goal is to spay and neuter as many cats as we can, but we also vet them before they go anywhere. When we bring in these cats, a lot of the time it’s not just a standard vaccination, a lot of them are often very sick and so we deal with those illnesses and injuries too,” she said. “Our veterinary costs are about $200,000 a year and so I would say 90 per cent of the money we raise goes towards that, and then we spend another five per cent on food, litter and that kind of stuff. Then because we are a registered charity and we have some administrative costs, the other five per cent of whatever we raise goes to that. So with those types of costs, this is definitely an important fundraising event for us.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
