“I was a volunteer at the SF SPCA and did a bit of kitten fostering for them. ” said Toni Sestak of her early years in kitten rescue. “Then one day out of curiosity I visited our city shelter, San Francisco Animal Care and Control (SFACC), and discovered that their kittens really needed help.”
In 1998, Because of Toni’s chance visit to SFACC, she learned that they did not have a kitten foster program. Sadly, many underage kittens brought into their shelter did not survive.
Right then and there Toni moved her volunteer commitment to SFACC.
Underage kittens need a safe place to grow until they are big enough (2 lbs) and healthy enough to go up for adoption. They need to be socialized to people. They need vaccination shots, and sometimes medicines. And the tiniest ones (bottle-feeders) need to be fed with a little baby bottle 4 to 6 times a day.
In her first year at SFACC, it was mainly Toni and a handful of volunteers, doing as much as they could. But each year Toni enlisted more volunteers. In 2003, she organized her group into Toni’s Kitty Rescue and received her nonprofit status.
In 2023, Toni’s Kitty Rescue became independent from SFACC and successfully launched its own adoption program. Today, TKR finds forever homes for 250 – 300 kittens a year — and that number continues to grow!
Founder Toni Sestak
If you add it all up, Toni Sestak has personally fostered over 2000 kittens!
Hard to believe, unless you’ve seen slim 5’3″ Toni during kitten season. She walks distances easily with a 15-20 lb. cat carrier packed with her foster kittens in each hand.
During kitten season – from late April to early November – Toni is busy almost non-stop. She advises fosters on care and concerns, meets with prospective fosters, bottle feeds tiny kittens, buys and orders kitten care supplies. And that’s just a slow morning.
Born and raised in California, Toni grew up around cats, dogs, all sorts of animals. Her mom was crazy for cats.
But she didn’t begin fostering kittens until her cat passed away in 1995. By then she had been longtime married to Tom Sestak, raised 5 children (eight grandkids and counting!), and lived most of her life in San Francisco where she now resides.
Toni is also an advocate for helping feral cats. She works closely with other local TNR advocates.
