Caboodle Ranch

He looks like the Pied Piper as he walks along carrying a bag of cat food, many felines trailing behind and beside him.

But Craig Grant, owner of a cat sanctuary in Lee, FL area is no such character, but a savior for abandoned cats who are taken in by the kind-hearted man that recently got approval for his cat haven to be a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Called Caboodle Ranch, it is a sanctuary for abandoned cats that is growing along with its feline population.

On one particular day a four-legged friend takes in the view on top of a cabin, part of the Cat Nip Inn on the Madison County property.

Grant, 59, originally from the posh Ponte Vedra community in Florida, has taken a former pine tree farm and made it into a rescue site for cats.

"Craig Grant, the former building maintenance contractor who founded the sanctuary 'where cats aren't treated like animals,' three-and-a-half years ago with just 22 furry friends, now has about 200 of them that make up what county officials jokingly call the Grant Herd," said writer Jessie-Lynne Kerr. "This year Grant bought an adjacent five acres so the ranch now covers 30 acres with 21,000 natural scratching posts (pine trees)."

Grant's carpentry skills came in handy when the sanctuary expanded.

He no longer commutes to Jacksonville from the ranch to go to work, according to Kerr.

The cats have some unusual names, too, like Itchy, the Village People, Meatball, Big Red, and Fluffy Butt, to name a few.

But there are plenty of newcomers, writes Kerr.

A drinking pond was made full of fresh spring water that comes from a wooden waterwheel.

A playpen for kittens is aptly called the Cathouse Outhouse.

Creatively made are the catwalks leading up to tree houses and hay-cushioned lean-tos providing shelter.

"Grant has cut a second road into the ranch that leads to a new reception center, a portable building where newcomers are examined and quarantined for four weeks until they get used to the ranch,"wrote Kerr. "On the other side of the ranch up Berry Patch Lane lined with blackberry bushes are the kennels where ill cats get extra care until they are restored to health."

Several cat lovers have become volunteers at the ranch and they are always in need of volunteers and donations.

Grant's daughter, Cyndi Wolfe of Jacksonville, keeps the website up to date.

For more information, go to caboodleranch.com.