Our Story

Hi there! My name is Kari Oettel, and I am the Founder and primary caretaker at Sour Patch Kitties Rescue & Rehab. I have been an animal lover since birth and my dream has always been to help animals. 

SPK's story begins back in 2019, when I was 21 years old. My parents were going through a nasty divorce, and we were forced to move out of the home I grew up in. We moved from the country to a rental home in a congested city. Within the first few days of moving in, we noticed stray cats everywhere. None of these cats would let us approach them though.

 A few days later, while playing with my dog in the backyard, I heard scurrying in the weeds next door.  I looked over the fence to see three skinny kittens with severely infected eyes and snotty noses. I knew they needed help, but I couldn't catch them! My mother and I started to google search and figure out how to help these cats. That is when we learned about TNR. We purchased some live traps and went to work. I worked as a Vet Assistant at the time so I knew I would be able to get them medical care if I could get them caught. Eventually we caught all three and nursed them back to health. 

They were extremely feral at first, scratching, biting, hissing and spitting at us. For some reason, that made us want to try even harder for them. First they were sour, but then they were sweet. My mom started to call them our Sour Patch Kitties. We adopted them all out to great homes and felt very accomplished, until we found more. 

We found three abandoned adult cats at the recycling center, so we TNR'd them as well. Word got around that we were trapping and fixing these cats, and we started to have multiple people contact us. More cats were found at the local high school, we TNR'd them and found homes for them too. 

It was around this time that I knew I wanted to follow this dream of mine and Sour Patch Kitties Rescue & Rehab was born! I made a personal blog page on Facebook and started to post the cats we rescued and their stories. The Facebook page gained attention and before I knew it, I was being contacted almost every day about cats and kittens that needed help. I worked at the Vet Clinic and was even being contacted there for help. 

Fast Forward to 2022, I run this rescue primarily on my own, out of my home.  I have incredible donors and supporters and a small number of amazing volunteers that make this dream possible. Our county Animal Control refers clients to me when they have feral cat problems, or when they need help with stray cats. Our community is greatly overwhelmed by homeless cats and the extra help is extremely needed. We are currently awaiting approval for SPK to become a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Our ultimate and current goal is to purchase property to build a sanctuary/facility on so that we are able to assist our community in a bigger way. We hope to educate the public on the importance of spay and neuter for all animals.