Juno the Klepto Kat - Giving Tuesday and Giving Back

Remember the story of Juno the Klepto Kat from Carpinteria, renown for cleaning up her neighborhood, running for honorary mayor, collaborating on found art piece titled “Gathered Things,” winning the People’s Choice Award at the Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center, featured multiple times on KEYT News, in print and online publications & making the news front page, meows heard on NPR Affiliate KCLU Radio, seen on Animal Zone TV, and online blogs internationally?

Well, she’s back and she has a different kind of gift that she is giving. After two and half years of almost 1100 gathered things, Juno the Klepto Kat has decided to give back what she has taken! This time she is using the number of collected rags that she has dragged home so far and her family’s plan is to donate $1 for each gathered rag to the ASAP Animal Shelter Assistant Program in Santa Barbara County, for their Giving Tuesday campaign.

In September, Connie Geston, (Juno’s owner) was invited to lunch to meet with Alana Yañez, Executive Director, Amy Marshall, Development Consultant, and their marketing team for ASAP to discuss how they could help their fundraising efforts for the shelter. The shelter has been working on a 50k fundraiser goal and talked about ways to collaborate, promote, and have Juno act as an ambassador, during their campaign.

Connie Geston meets with Alana Yañez, Executive Director, Marketing Team & Amy Marshall, Development Consultant

Let’s “drag” back to 2019 when she was first discovered of her act of gift-giving adventures. Juno began to gather things and bring them home as gifts. Almost daily in her Carpinteria neighborhood, her collection grew; gloves, rags, trash, toys, and clothing, everything but the kitchen sink! Most recently, her rag collection has seemed to be her latest fancy of gift-giving. This year she has dragged home almost 100 rags beating her 2020 record of 95, bringing the all-around total of her rag collection to over 200. Calculate that into dollars, that’s over $200 that they will be donating on Nov 30th for Giving Tuesday.

“She’s become sort of a celebrity with even her victims amused by her antics, with social media accounts highlighting her activities”, KCLU Radio (NPR Affiliate). What better way to give back than to use her “celebrity” status as an ambassador for the shelter. Juno and her family also hope to do something special with the art piece to raise more funds ASAP and as a simple reminder that everyone has something to give in their purrfect way!

Connie Geston with her daughter, Cecilia James, who painted Juno’s portrait.

Juno encourages everyone on Giving Tuesday to make a donation so that they can continue to help save the lives of homeless kittens and cats in Santa Barbara County for years to come. And on November 30 ASAP will be starting the day off with a Facebook fundraiser “Breakfast with Basil” from 5 am-8 am PST. This jump start on Giving Tuesday will help ASAP receive additional matching dollars from Facebook!

To donate visit https://www.asapcats.org/donations.html or https://fb.me/e/1kgtzrAv8 to donate to other organizations visit https://www.givingtuesday.org