An imaginative cat mom, fosterer, and social media whiz, Kayla Delcoure, created an ameowzing way to highlight cats up for adoption. It lists them like cars for sale at an imaginary car dealership called “Catvana.” The cats had funny names inspired by cars, with their make and model, like “the 2015 Furcedes” and “the 2022 Catillac.” Funny descriptions of cats could include things like “four-paw-drive, “stain resistant,” “seat heater,” and “orange two-tone exterior.” Some cats had their “Catfax” page with additional funny details and a tab for “Furnancing.”

The slogan for Catvana: “They don’t come from vending machines, but they do love boxes.”

But Kayla’s favorite was for the “2023 Mini Pooper,” a compact kitten model named Mr. Goodbar.

“His listing was the last one I needed to create and I knew I wanted it to be something adorable and relative to his size,” she told NPR. “I happen to own and adore a Mini Cooper and I knew the ‘mini’ part would fit him perfectly, so that’s what I went with!”

The funny ad quickly caught national attention and drew focus to the volunteer rescue, Pippi’s Place Pet Rescue, in Lawrenceville, Georgia (northeast of Atlanta). Quickly, many of the featured models “sold out” and adopted, including one adoption all the way from Ontario, Canada! With kitten season on the way, the rescuers expect “many new models to arrive at the showroom soon.”

As you can see, there are two models who still need a home in the Atlanta area.

We’ve also began working on the story of Kayla’s often wacky rescued cats, including Gizmo, a fluffy orange oddball, with thousands of TikTok fans. Kayla adopted Gizmo from Pippi’s Place in 2020, and now she’s helping the rescuers find homes for more cats and kittens with her social media savvy. Her Catvana ad caught national attention, featured in NPR, Bored Panda, PetHelpful, and now Cole and Marmalade!

As Jenn pointed out, the real car retailer Carvana loved the idea of Catvana and invited Kayla and Pippi’s Place director Vicki to their car vending machine in Atlanta. They gave the rescuers a $4K donation and pet supplies delivered through the car-size vending machine!

Even better, Kayla’s rescue cats, Gizmo and Bruce, were there for the experience. Bruce and Vicki inserted a magic coin, and the vending machine came down with a check for the rescue.

So, where did the idea for Catvana come from? Kayla modestly described how it came about to NPR:

“My inspiration for CatVana is humorously uneventful. My husband has been wanting to buy a truck for months and occasionally brings me his phone to show me the listings. On Tuesday morning while I was brainstorming cute ways to display all nine of Pippi’s Place’s available cats in one post, my husband walked into my office to show me a truck listing. My brain was only half left with the cat work I was doing, so when I saw the year, make, and model of the cars, I thought it would be cheeky to make a post showing the cats as if they were cars. I pulled up the actual CatVana website and modeled the multiple cat listing page off their car search. While I was doing that, different amusing descriptions kept popping up in my head, like the ‘four-paw-drive’, ‘rear air vent’, and the rest of them, so I went ahead and made the individual listings as well.”

Now, Pippi’s Place features ‘the proud creators of Catvana” on their social media. It’s such a fun idea, and we hope it continues to help them find homes for cats for years to come!

As a wonderful bonus, a kind anonymous person helped Kayla get Catvana.org redirected to Pippi’s Place Pet Rescue. She was surprised to find this out when investigating obtaining the domain for Catvana, which could have cost thousands (see video below).