When Siri Zwemke started her search 10 years ago for a Siamese cat to adopt, the teacher of hearing-impaired students had no idea that her quest would lead to a new vocation.

Now, some 5,400 Siamese adoptions later, the founder and CPS (“chief pooper scooper”) of Siamese Cat Rescue Center and her husband, Darrell, spend their days managing the organization and caring for up to 25 cats at the small shelter located on their Locust Dale, Va., property.

Siamese are among the most popular of pedigreed cats. Their fans describe them as intelligent, interactive and demanding. Siamese are endlessly curious jokesters that have been known to figure out how to turn on faucets, open cabinets, play fetch, walk on leash, watch TV with interest, and find ingenious hideouts. They love their people with a passion.

Nicknamed “meezers,” Siamese originated in Thailand, which was formerly known as Siam. Thus, when Siamese were first imported into Great Britain in the late 19th century, they were called Royal Cats of Siam.

Their voice is unforgettable. Siamese are known as “talkers” who are not shy about delivering their opinions. To some, it’s annoying, but they’re obviously not fans of the breed.

“To those of us who love that deep meezer mrrrow, there is no sweeter sound,” says Susan Rego of Canton, N.C., who has adopted two cats from the Siamese Cat Rescue Center.

Besides having charming personalities, Siamese are gorgeous. They have classic blue eyes and striking markings, or points, on their ears, face, tail and feet that stand out against their fawn-colored bodies.

Finding Siamese in Shelters 
Not surprisingly, cats that form such a strong bond with their people don’t do well when they land in shelters as a result of a human’s death, divorce or separation for some other reason.

“Siamese in particular are very smart and need mental stimulation,” Zwemke says. “Usually they’ve lost someone they were close to, and they get angry and express themselves in Siamese four-letter words.”

People are often surprised to learn that the popular cats can be found in shelters. When Becca Franzen of New York was ready to get a cat, she thought that acquiring a Siamese would require buying one from a breeder. She wanted to give a home to a cat that really needed one, so at the prodding of her fiancé, she did an Internet search.

“I typed in Siamese Cat Adoption, and the rest is history,” Franzen says. “Up came numerous links, the first and closest of which was SCRC.”

Zwemke, too, had been shocked when she found out how many Siamese needed homes. In her search for a cat to adopt, she’d contacted numerous shelters, and they all started calling her back and offering their Siamese.

She ultimately adopted a Siamese from a woman in Topeka, Kan., who had her own small rescue group. Then, Zwemke asked the woman for advice on how to help the Siamese in her area.

“I just jumped in,” Zwemke recalls.

Her background as a teacher helped. Being organized, setting protocols, communicating clearly, making decisions and getting teams together were all crucial to getting SCRC up and running.

The Internet was invaluable as well and is what brought Zwemke’s husband, Darrell, into the picture. Before he retired, Darrell was a programmer and project manager. When Zwemke met Darrell, he lived in Utah and ran the Siamese Internet Cat Club. Zwemke needed a more interactive Web site and was referred to him. Their work together blossomed into marriage.

Volunteers came via the Internet, too, as well as from their pool of adopters. Now 200 active volunteers, plus another 400 who work on an as-needed basis, are invaluable in keeping the organization running.

Rego is one of them. She’s a regional coordinator for North and South Carolina, a position that involves responding to e-mail messages regarding Siamese in need throughout the Carolinas. Rego also arranges foster homes for incoming cats and provides support, supervision and training to foster parents and other volunteers. She even arranges transportation for incoming cats going to foster homes and for adopted cats going to new homes.

The transport system grew out of Zwemke’s experience adopting a Siamese from the rescue group in Topeka. The logistics of getting the cat to Virginia from Kansas spawned the idea for the “Meezer Express,” a bucket-brigade system of drivers who pick up cats and pass them on to other drivers until they reach their destination.

“I just kept being put in contact with different people in different places over the Internet until we had a team of people to transport that first cat,” Zwemke says. “I held onto those people’s names and thought ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if we could transport cats whenever we needed?’”

Franzen, a volunteer driver for the Meezer Express, describes it as a well-oiled machine. “When an adoption takes place, a Meezer Express coordinator plots the route from point A to point B and sends out an SOS to all volunteer drivers along that route,” she says. “The trip is perfectly coordinated, down to the exact route, meeting points, directions, exact time of rendezvous, contact information, vehicle makes, models and colors, license plate numbers, and information on the animal being transported.”

One of the challenges SCRC faces is the high price of gasoline. It is increasingly difficult to find volunteers to drive the sometimes 8- to 10-hour stretches that a delivery requires.

Finding and keeping volunteers is important, too, which is why volunteer recruitment is a priority. Training programs exist for each volunteer position, whether it’s intake, interviewing, transporting, community outreach, fundraising or fostering.

Foster homes are always needed, and fostering is one of the toughest volunteer jobs, Zwemke says. Besides providing homes for Siamese until they’re placed, foster parents work with intake evaluators and transporters to help ensure that the cats are placed in the right home and arrive safely.

In Branford, Fla., volunteer Teresa Rider is regional coordinator and foster lead. She trains foster volunteers using reading materials, training tapes and an in-depth interview. “I mentor new fosters when they receive their first foster cat until they get the hang of it,” she says. “Everyone works together to support new foster parents.”

Volunteer turnover is a fact of life for any nonprofit group, but SCRC’s professional management helps the organization retain volunteers. The sense of satisfaction from the work also helps to motivate volunteers.

“My life has changed from being involved in rescue,” Rider says. “It’s restored my faith in people.”

A Full-Time Job
The day Zwemke stood in front of her class trying to tell a story in sign language but couldn’t keep her eyes open, she realized her rescue work had become a full-time job. Getting up at 4 a.m. to feed and medicate 20 cats, driving an hour to work and teaching all day, and then driving home and caring for the cats in the evening just wasn’t possible anymore. It was time to switch careers.

The change has been rewarding, Zwemke says, but rescue work has its share of challenges. It’s difficult to take time off for a vacation, and finding, creating and managing volunteer teams from a distance isn’t always easy. An annual training conference helps to provide face-to-face meeting opportunities. About 100 volunteers from around the country attend the two-day program.

“We provide the food and workshops,” Zwemke says. “We have veterinarians who come in and do training. One year we had an animal behaviorist. It’s a lot to ask volunteers to come all this way for the weekend, but they come and say it’s worth it.”

SCRC is active in 15 to 20 states, primarily in the eastern third of the country, where the rescue oversees 75 certified foster homes. The rescue also works closely with other Siamese rescue organizations in California, Colorado and Texas. The goal is to place as many cats as possible each year in wonderful homes, and that means Siamese taken in for adoption must meet certain criteria for appearance, temperament, health and age.

“Obviously, cats have to look somewhat Siamese, and they have to be nice cats,” Zwemke says. “We have to be able to handle them at the evaluation, and they cannot have obvious chronic or terminal medical conditions to help ensure they are adoptable.”

The program accepts kittens and cats up to 15 years of age. Siamese often live into their late teens or early 20s, so about 20 percent of the program is set aside for senior meezers, cats older than 10 years of age.

The Siamese rescue can’t take every cat, but does its best to offer options.

A rehoming coordinator counsels people who need to place a cat to help them find solutions.

“We don’t just say, ‘No.’ We try to give options,” Darrell Zwemke explains.

Once a cat is accepted, the matchmaking begins. Placing the right cat with the right person is taken seriously. Evaluators and foster parents study a cat’s personality, behavior, habits, emotional baggage, and health, so they can choose the adopter who best meets the cat’s needs — and whose needs are met by that cat. Potential adopters are quizzed about lifestyle, personality, household environment, other pets, children, experience with Siamese, and more.

“We have a lot of hoops that we put applicants through because we want to see that they’re serious,” Zwemke says.

Mentoring continues after the adoption. Volunteers check in with adopters at regular intervals to make sure all is going well and offer advice as needed. Help continues even years later. Zwemke tells the story of a kitten adopted four years ago that recently developed a polyp the size of a lemon in his Eustachian tube.

“The surgery was going to cost $2,000 to $3,000 in the D.C. area, where the adopter lives, so we suggested she contact our veterinarians here for competitive pricing, which she did,” says Zwemke. “The cat ended up staying with us for a week. It was a touch-and-go situation for four or five days, but he pulled through and did great.”

Though their prior careers were important in their lives, the Zwemkes agree that their work at Siamese Cat Rescue Center is their greatest accomplishment.

“This is the thing we’ve done in our lives that’s made a difference,” says Zwemke. ©