Second Annual Cocktails & Furrytails Fundraiser Supports Save a Stray

The second annual Cocktails & Furrytails fundraiser filled the newly renovated Steeple in downtown Mobile on Oct. 6, running from 6 to 9 p.m. and drawing animal lovers of all ages to support Save a Stray, the Mobile-area rescue founded in 2012 that has placed more than 3,000 pets through adoption and transport programs. The evening combined live music, catering, and a spirited silent auction in one of downtown’s most distinctive event spaces, and organizers said the turnout topped last year’s inaugural effort.

Save a Stray President Stephanie Eads-Williamson said the event met its goal of covering 25 percent of the organization’s operating costs, and she described hopes of reaching 50 percent with just two fundraisers a year. For a rescue that operates on donations rather than government contracts, a single successful night can underwrite months of veterinary bills, food, and transport fees. Proceeds from the event pay for vet care, food, and two children’s programs the rescue runs alongside its adoption work.

The venue contributed its own sense of occasion. The Steeple, a former church building converted into an event venue in downtown Mobile, recently completed renovations and now offers its historic sanctuary space for weddings, concerts, and benefits. The Cocktails & Furrytails celebration made full use of the building, from the main floor to the sound system, and the setting gave the fundraiser a warmth that hotel ballrooms rarely match.

Bay Gourmet catered a buffet featuring Creamy Creole Chicken and Marinated Shrimp, a menu that leaned into the Gulf Coast flavors the city is known for. Musician Marcus Elizondo performed on the Steeple’s new sound system, providing live entertainment through the evening. Guests bid in a silent auction that let them vote with their wallets on a playful question: which side of the house rules Mobile, “Dog Town” or “Kitty City.” The friendly dog-versus-cat rivalry gave bidders a reason to keep circulating past the auction tables all night.

A Rescue Built on Volunteers

Save a Stray operates as a volunteer-driven rescue, and the organization used the evening to make its needs known beyond the checkbook. The group is seeking volunteers to foster animals in their homes and to help with classes for at-risk youth, programs that pair animal care with mentorship. Foster homes are the lifeblood of rescues without a shelter facility, since every animal placed in a temporary home frees up capacity to pull another from the streets or from municipal intake.

The rescue’s history gives its supporters reason to believe in the model. Founded in 2012, Save a Stray has placed more than 3,000 pets through adoption and transport in just over a decade, an average of hundreds of animals a year. Transport programs move adoptable pets to regions of the country where demand for shelter animals outstrips local supply, a practice that has become a lifeline for Southern rescues facing persistent overpopulation. Adoption programs keep other animals in the local community, matching them with Mobile-area families.

The organization also addresses the city’s persistent pet overpopulation problem through spay-neuter programs, which remain the only long-term solution to the cycle that fills streets and shelters with unwanted litters. Every dollar raised through events like Cocktails & Furrytails stretches further when it prevents the next generation of strays from ever being born, which is why the rescue treats sterilization work as central to its mission rather than an afterthought.

Mobile’s stray problem is longstanding. Like many port cities across the South, Mobile has battled roaming dog and cat populations for generations, and municipal animal services have historically operated with limited resources. Community rescues like Save a Stray fill the gap, taking in animals that would otherwise have nowhere to go, nursing them through medical treatment, and screening adopters to make sure placements stick. The work is unglamorous and continuous, funded largely by people who attended events like this one.

An Event That Doubled as a Reunion

Fundraisers like this one serve a second purpose that organizers openly value: they gather the rescue’s community in one room. Foster families, adopters, donors, and volunteers rarely see each other except online, and an evening at the Steeple gives them a chance to swap stories about the animals they have saved. Those connections matter operationally as well as socially, because rescues run on word of mouth for everything from finding foster homes to locating lost pets to recruiting the next wave of volunteers.

The all-ages turnout was itself notable. Events supporting animal welfare tend to draw a broad demographic, from young couples with their first adopted dog to retirees who have fostered dozens of animals over the years. Families brought children who will grow up seeing animal rescue as an ordinary part of civic life, which is precisely the cultural shift organizations like Save a Stray are working toward. The two children’s programs the rescue funds extend that outreach directly, teaching young people humane treatment and responsibility around animals.

The choice of the Steeple as a venue also connected the fundraiser to downtown Mobile’s ongoing revival of historic buildings. The city’s older churches, many of them architectural landmarks, have found new life in recent years as event spaces, performance halls, and community gathering places when their original congregations move on. Putting such a building back into regular use preserves both the structure and the neighborhood’s character, and the renovated facility’s new sound system made it a natural fit for an evening of live music and auctions.

Bay Gourmet’s catering reinforced the local flavor of the night. The Mobile caterer’s menu of Creamy Creole Chicken and Marinated Shrimp reflected the city’s culinary identity, where Creole and Gulf seafood traditions run deep. Fundraisers that showcase local food businesses rather than national chains keep more of each event’s spending in the community, an approach that fits with the rescue’s grassroots character.

What Comes Next for Save a Stray

With the event’s success behind them, organizers are looking ahead to the second of the year’s two fundraisers and the possibility that the pair could eventually cover half of operating costs. That stability would allow the rescue to plan further ahead — scheduling more spay-neuter clinics, taking on more transport legs, and expanding the children’s programs — instead of reacting month to month to whatever animals arrive. Eads-Williamson’s framing of the goal made clear that the organization sees fundraising not as an annual scramble but as a sustainable business model built on two strong events.

For residents who missed the event, the rescue’s needs remain immediate. Foster homes are required year-round, since animals arrive regardless of the fundraising calendar. Volunteers for the at-risk youth classes represent a different kind of commitment, one that combines animal care with youth mentorship and that the organization treats as central to its mission of changing how the community treats its animals. Donations of vet care, food, and money remain welcome between events.

The bigger picture is one Mobile shares with communities across the Gulf South. Pet overpopulation is a solvable problem, but only through the combination of accessible spay-neuter services, functioning adoption networks, transport partnerships with regions that need adoptable animals, and a public that understands the cost of unmanaged breeding. Save a Stray’s dozen years and 3,000-plus placements show what a determined volunteer organization can accomplish against those odds.

The second Cocktails & Furrytails demonstrated that the community is willing to show up for that work when given a festive occasion to do so. With a renovated downtown venue, a popular local caterer, live music, and an auction that let dog people and cat people battle it out for bragging rights, the event gave supporters a night worth remembering while funding the unglamorous essentials — vet visits, pet food, and prevention programs — that keep the rescue running. The animals, as always, provided the reason; the packed floor at the Steeple provided the means.

The evening also highlighted how far the rescue’s network reaches. Attendees included families who adopted from Save a Stray years ago and returned to support the next generation of animals, along with newcomers who learned about the organization for the first time through the event’s promotion. Each new donor and volunteer represents capacity the rescue did not have before, and organizations in this field measure their growth as much in people as in dollars raised.

Community support has practical consequences that extend past the rescue itself. Every animal adopted locally frees space and resources at municipal shelters, every stray sterilized reduces the complaints and hazards that fall on neighborhood residents, and every child who learns humane treatment through one of the rescue’s programs carries that lesson into adulthood. The 25 percent of operating costs covered by this one night translates directly into those downstream effects across Mobile neighborhoods.

Organizers urged anyone interested in fostering, volunteering with the youth classes, or contributing between fundraisers to reach out to Save a Stray directly. With two successful years behind it, Cocktails & Furrytails has established itself as a fixture on Mobile’s fall benefit calendar, and the rescue’s supporters are already counting on the tradition continuing next October at the Steeple.