Kathy Carmichael is a born caregiver - from her first career as a flight attendant to her current volunteer position as foster mom to endless numbers of orphaned and abandoned cats. For over a quarter century and across state lines, she has been the local go-to person when a cat needs a safe place to go.

The following interview was conducted at Carmichael's home in Post Falls.

When did you start fostering cats?

Back in the mid-1980s, I was living on Orcas Island (Wash.) and there was no animal shelter there. A group of us put together fundraisers to garner money for the construction of a shelter and luckily we had some very affluent residents on Orcas. The shelter, however, didn't get finished until about 2003, and I'd moved to Idaho by then. Before the shelter, it was very much like the way it is here today in Post Falls, where there are several of us volunteers fostering cats.

Who was your first guest-cat?

That would have been Zelda. I saw her several times on the road when I was out driving and after the third time, I just stopped and picked her up. I made inquiries to ask if she belonged to anyone and people said, "No, she's just hanging out."

When I brought her home, my husband said, "Nice work, Kathy, it's a pregnant cat." I totally disagreed and said, "No way. She just eats a lot."

And then suddenly we had three new kittens. Zelda herself was adopted out by a lovely couple from Seattle.

After you moved to Post Falls, was it long before you started fostering here in Idaho?

I took a year off, but I knew it would be inevitable that I would start taking in cats again. It seems like they just show up.

Around that time, I made the acquaintance of Claudia Guevara - who, together with a animal control police officer in Post Falls, put together River City Pet Rescue. This is not a shelter and it's not a 501c3. What it is is a group of volunteers who care for stray cats and dogs in their homes.

How do cats know where to find you and how many have you fostered?

It's a gradual thing and it's really amazing. I think there's a network among homeless animals. They just seem to find their way to caring people. There are many, many homeless animals out there.

In 2010, I fostered 25 cats; in 2011 that number was 38. Now 2012 was a slow year - and I only had 18.

So far this year I've had 13 fosters.

How did you go from Zelda to becoming a fulltime foster cat parent?

It can happen if you have the space available to house them and, certainly, if you have resources enough to give them what they need. What they need is food, amusement, toys and attention.

Attention means sitting with them - letting them sit on you. It also means letting them lay on your chest when you're laying down, giving them lots of stroking and lots of interaction with toys that require another person to help them play with it.

I think the human interaction is really the most important part. It's from that that they learn to trust and they learn to be social.

Have you had to socialize unsocialized cats?

Socialization involves a great deal of time and patience.

Sometimes they can be aggressive - but that's because they're frightened, not because they're mean. They often haven't had contact with humans and they're afraid.

Food is generally the key to teaching them to trust a person. When they're eating, you keep stroking them.

Have you been bitten?

(Laughs) Oh my, yes. My tetanus shot is current.

How do you successfully introduce new cats to the older residents?

When I get a brand new foster, I don't know how it will react to my existing family. I basically isolate that cat in one of my cat condos until everybody has a chance to get to know each other's scent and they've all sniffed each other through the condo and done all the hissing they're going to do.

That confinement lasts maybe two days upon which time they are released under my supervision to watch how everybody reacts to everybody else. We've had some fights, but rarely. Sometimes intervention is just the word "no" spoken very seriously.

Do you name your foster cats?

Some cats name themselves. Whenever someone tells me they're going to change the name of a cat they've adopted from me - one I've already named - I say, "good," because T.S. Eliot told us cats should have many names and that some of them are known only to themselves.

Do you get separation anxiety when one of your cats is adopted?

Yes. Definitely.

It's a mixture of sadness at my loss and happiness for the animal going to what you know is a fine home.

How can you be sure it will be a "fine home?"

I have a pretty strict sniff test for those who come to me wanting to adopt one of my fosters. I can usually tell right away how cat savvy they are. The most recent of my adopting families proved to be exceedingly knowledgeable about how to introduce my foster to their two resident cats. Because of their knowledge, that introduction process went exceedingly well.

Whenever I place one of my foster cats, I try to extract a promise that they (the adoptive family) won't declaw the cat. I also tell them that if the adoption doesn't work out over time, I'd like them to bring the cat back to me.

What keeps you doing this year after year?

The love of animals and the realization that they are totally dependent on humans - that they don't have a voice. You can give them a voice by working to find them the best home possible. I usually start (the placement process) with the River City Pet Rescue website.

Is there currently an animal shelter in Post Falls?

The Post Falls Police do have some limited space for dogs, but they do not take in cats. Other than that, it's the Kootenai Humane Society in Hayden or Second Chance in Coeur d'Alene. After that, I think you have to head to Washington State.

How does your husband feel about your work?

He's been very supportive of me. Occasionally I'll hear about the expense involved, but mostly I hear him commending me to other people because I do this.

What is the financial end of fostering?

I ask a minimum adoption fee of $25, which doesn't cover my expenses, but it does buy some food. If I accumulate enough of these fees, it will also buy some veterinary care.

From time to time, there will be low cost spay and neuter funds available at certain veterinarians and, when the money becomes available, RCPR tries to find those clinics.

Personally, I don't know what my annual cost is - I wouldn't even know how to guess at it.

Tell me a cat story with a happy ending.

OK. One day River City Pet Rescue got a call from a woman who said a cat with a broken leg had shown up near the high school and that she couldn't possibly afford the veterinary expense. I went to evaluate the situation and saw that the cat had what I thought were puncture wounds in each of its front legs. It could still walk, though.

I took the cat from the woman and a couple of days later I got it to the vet, who told me that those weren't puncture wounds at all. What she said was, "I can feel pellets in there and I believe this cat has been shot."

The way the pellets were distributed it said to me that what had happened was that the cat had been shot and then, when she'd turned to run, she'd been shot again.

I had her with me four months before she got adopted.

What do you say to people about the way they relate to animals?

Remember that you are totally responsible - that animals can't care for themselves. When you make the commitment to bring an animal into your life, you need to be committed to that animal.

And what about those people who have abandoned their animals?

There is a special place in another life for you.

For information on River City Pet Rescue: 777-7297 or http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/rcpr.html

SNAPSHOT

Kathy Carmichael

Age: 65

Family: Husband, Bob, daughters, Keely and Karen. "Other than that, it's cats."

Favorite book: "Gone with the Wind"

Hobbies: Reading novels and cooking

Favorite movie: "2001: A Space Odyssey"

Favorite food: Cheeses - all of them

Quality you admire most in a friend: Honesty