Tree House Animal Foundation buys Furry Friends Foundation

It’s official…finally.

After months of negotiation, second-guessing and extricating legal red-tape, Tree House Animal Foundation finalized its sale of the Furry Friends Foundation’s North Ashland Avenue location Friday.

“We are all relieved and very excited,” Furry Friends shelter manager Linda Schifferdecker said. “This sale is nothing but positive.”

Tree House Executive Director Dave de Funiak confirmed that the sale became official Friday, to the delight of both adoption agencies.

“This was a situation where Tree House could step up and not allow a Chicago shelter to fall in the hands of a developer who would turn the land into condos,” de Funiak said. “We have a lot of ideas with what we want to do with our new space.”

Furry Friends has sheltered dogs and cats for adoption in Bucktown for nine years. In August, the foundation’s board of trustees surprised employees and volunteers with a decision to close all operations by October. Given the shelter’s economic struggles, the board told its volunteers that all animals must find new homes by the end of October.

According to Schifferdecker, the announcement sent members of the junior executive board of Furry Friends—who ran day-to-day operations—into a panic, furious that their roles would be eliminated and scared that the shelter’s dogs and cats would have nowhere to go. Last Oct. 12, board members took matters into their own hands, taking the remaining dogs into their own custody, stealing cages and supplies from the shelter, cleaning out the building of adoption information and eventually shutting down the Web site, www.furryfriendsfoundation.com.

When news broke that Tree House Animal Foundation had agreed to buy out the shelter last Nov. 2, it appeared as though a crisis had been averted. Tree House agreed to take all 47 of Furry Friends’ remaining cats, and adoptions would continue seamlessly.

However, the sale hit a snag when building inspections revealed structural problems. Additionally, zoning laws required Tree House to receive a new permit to adopt animals from the facility. Consequently, Furry Friends has continued to operate with a skeleton crew since November—without most of its resources.

“It has been a major struggle,” Schifferdecker said. “What the junior board did . . . was vindictive and sad. Not giving us access to continue the Web site was an ego thing and has hurt the cats, because we have not [been able to] publicize ourselves very well.”

De Funiak did not blame either organization for the sale’s delay but did admit that the two sides had different time-frame priorities.

“Both parties had a different sense of urgency,” de Funiak said. “The [Furry Friends] trustees wanted to finalize things as soon as possible. We didn’t have the same sense of urgency, as long as the animals were being taken care of.”

The sale finally came together during the past month when the Florence Fitzgerald foundation, named after Furry Friends’ original founder, came to an agreement with Tree House to help pay for building renovations. Tree House obtained the necessary shelter license for the Bucktown property and will now proceed on making major renovations to the facility’s first floor. While Furry Friends adopted both dogs and cats, Tree House is strictly a shelter for felines.

“We are a non-profit organization, so we needed to be prudent with huge financial investments,” de Funiak said. “We were very cautious, but I think both sides feel that we came to a fair price in the end.”

Tree House has agreed to keep all volunteers from Furry Friends to help with the transition. One of these volunteers, Bucktown resident Julia Chosy, 31, is relieved that animals will continue to be nurtured under new leadership.

“Tree House has extended a warm welcome to everyone,” Chosy said.

De Funiak confirmed Tree House will preserve one of Furry Friends’ trademarks—an open-air, cageless area with toys and structures for cats to roam at will.

“The second floor is gorgeous,” Schifferdecker said. “It’s so much fun for the cats.”

The future of the North Ashland Avenue building appears bright. Tree House hopes to use the first floor to develop a spay and neutering clinic for its cats, a potentially novel resource for the organization. Tree House has also recently hired a development assistant to aid Development Director Jennifer Schlueter in trying to find a home for the nearly 40 cats currently waiting for adoption at the site.

“We also hope to empower our numerous volunteers to take ownership of the adoption process, including promoting the program,” de Funiak said.

Tree House plans to hold open houses every other weekend from 12 to 4 p.m. in coming weeks to generate buzz about its takeover.

If interested in adopting a cat or volunteering, contact Tree House at 773-784-5488.