Carolynn’s brother, the Rev. Clayton Chittim, of Blue Springs, cut the ribbon on her family’s behalf after christening the new area with a blessing to honor her sister’s love of animals.
May 24, 2021
Significant legacy gift improves shelter facilities for cats
Leslie Sharp feels certain her late aunt, Carolynn Chittim, would love the new wing dedicated in her honor at the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri, which held a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 21.
“She would just bring her chair and sit right here and let the cats all crawl on her,” Sharp said of “Carolynn’s Kitty Corner,” an expansion that will enable the Humane Society to house more cats as well as enrich their lives while they are there. The two-phased project renovated the existing cat area with “condos” that separate the living areas from the litter boxes and added “suites” where several cats can live together in more spacious settings with climbing towers, windows, toys and soft bedding.
Several small rooms function as multi-cat “suites” in the new wing to allow more freedom of movement for cats.
The project was made possible by Chittim’s significant estate gift to the CFO for the benefit of the Humane Society, a no-kill shelter north of Springfield that provides health-care, adoption, education and fostering services for cats and dogs. Chittim was a retired nurse-anesthesiologist who befriended, fed and took in cats and dogs for years at her home in Springfield’s Rountree neighborhood.
“She was saving animals just pretty much her whole life,” said Karen Foutch, development director for the Humane Society, as the new wing was dedicated. “It is such an amazing thing she did for us at the shelter.”
Carolynn’s extended family traveled to Springfield for the dedication and hoisted her photo with pride in the outcome of her planned gift that created the new wing.
Most animals spend a few weeks to months at the no-kill shelter waiting for their “forever” homes, depending on their adoptability due to age, health and behavior.
