This Christmas, We’re Telling Our Story — From Rescue Cats to a Life Rebuilt
Published On: 12/25/2025
Last Updated On: 12/25/2025
By Callie, Seymour, Yebba, and Mama and our Hooman Ashley!
FREE CAT HAIR HACKS
⬇️
FREE CAT HAIR HACKS ⬇️
Founder Ashley Kline holding a stray cat in her hotel room in the Dominican Republic, as her brother stares lifelessly, obviously over Ashley’s catty antics.
Christmas always makes hoomans reflective. We notice it every year — the way lights feel softer, the house quieter, the pauses a little longer. This year feels different though. Heavier and lighter all at once. Like something important settled into place.
So we decided it was time to tell our story.
Not the polished version. Not the overnight-success myth. The real one — messy, hooman, full of detours, and held together by rescue cats who became anchors when everything else felt uncertain.
This is our Christmas story. And our hooman’s. And the community that made rebuilding possible.
Before the Newsroom, Before Cats Ran the Show
Before there was Stray Cat News, before there were rescue cats editing headlines with their paws, there was a teenager who learned early how to work hard.
Our hooman started working under the table at fifteen. Dishwashing. Food prep. Whatever shift was open. By eighteen, she was running restaurant floors in her hometown of Berks County, PA, working doubles and triples, and mistaking exhaustion for achievement. The fast pace. The quick money. The feeling of being needed — it all looked like success back then.
She thought life was about pushing harder. Staying longer. Proving worth through burnout.
We’ve seen those years reflected in the way she still apologizes for resting.
The Pause That Changed Everything
Ashley posing in a bed of flower for the cover of her 2020 EP “N.F” You can find the songs on Spotify here!
Like so many hoomans, the pandemic cracked things open.
Through a family connection, our hooman stepped into digital work — building websites, supporting brands, learning how businesses actually function behind the scenes. It wasn’t just technical skills she picked up. It was discernment.
She learned what energized her. What drained her. What leadership looked like when it was done right — and when it wasn’t. She learned that success without alignment costs too much.
Then came 2025.
At twenty-seven, after dedicating three years to one main client and believing deeply in that partnership, she was unexpectedly asked to step away. The rug didn’t just move — it vanished. Loyalty. Creativity. Trust. Gone overnight.
We remember that season. The quiet grief. The identity questions. The fear she tried to hide from us but couldn’t.
Her body eventually forced the issue. Stress turned into serious illness. Hospitalization. A moment where the choice was no longer optional: slow down or break completely.
That pause saved her.
Choosing a Life That Could Hold Love
Ashley’s grandmother Nancy, pictured with “mama cat”
Out of rest came clarity.
She knew she wanted a life that allowed presence — at home with rescue cats, caring for her grandmother through stage-three breast cancer, and building something meaningful instead of performative.
That’s when Stray Cat News was born.
It didn’t start as a publication. It started as Stray Cat Collective — a small, heartfelt space to share daily life with rescue cats, review products honestly, and educate cat parents with compassion instead of shame.
Today, Stray Cat News reaches over 100,000 views each month, publishes five stories a week, and covers cat-centered stories across the U.S., with a deep focus on Pennsylvania communities we call home.
We work with rescues, ARLs, cat cafés, nonprofits, and advocates — not for clicks, but for connection.
And yes, we cats run the newsroom. Obviously.
Why We Tell Stories the Way We Do
Stray Cat News Anchor Seymour, lying in his favorite bed: a dirty pile of laundry
Everything here is written from our point of view — rescue cats who know what it means to be overlooked, chosen, and loved anyway.
That perspective matters.
It lets us talk about hard topics without harshness. It lets education feel welcoming instead of overwhelming. It keeps joy present even when the subject is serious.
We don’t chase outrage. We don’t do empty headlines. We believe trust is earned slowly — and once earned, protected fiercely.
That’s why:
Partnerships stay affordable and ethical
We only share what aligns with our values
Impact comes before profit
Our highest partnership tier is currently $155, intentionally accessible, allowing us to keep the platform running while never pricing out the organizations who need visibility most.
The Not-So-Smooth Road (And Why We’re Grateful for It)
Ashley and Alex pictured outside their home that caught on fire in 2024, after selling it and saying goodbye
Has this been easy? Absolutely not.
Building a values-based digital publication in a clickbait world is exhausting. Meaningful stories take time. Community takes consistency. Education takes patience.
There are days the algorithm doesn’t reward integrity. There are months where sustainability feels fragile. There are moments when choosing alignment feels like swimming upstream.
But every challenge refined the mission.
We learned that money follows trust. That community grows when it’s respected. That rest is not laziness. That joy is not something you earn — it’s something you protect.
And we learned that rebuilding doesn’t mean starting over. It means starting truer.
Where the Rescue Cats Come In
We’ve watched our hooman rebuild alongside us.
Late nights typing while we sleep across keyboards. Stories edited between medication schedules. Meetings paused for feeding time. Grief softened by purring.
Rescue cats don’t just fill homes — they hold lives steady.
We didn’t save her. She didn’t save us. We found each other at the exact moment we all needed anchoring.
That’s the magic no metric can measure.
This Christmas, What We’re Grateful For
We’re grateful for:
Communities that show up quietly and consistently
Rescues doing impossible work with limited resources
Readers who choose kindness over noise
Businesses that partner with integrity
A hooman who chose alignment over burnout
And the second chances that keep unfolding
We believe life is always working for us — even when it doesn’t feel like it in the moment. No one can take away curiosity, compassion, or the ability to build something rooted in care.
Stray Cat News is proof of that.
A Soft Christmas Invitation
If you’ve followed our work this year — thank you.
If you’ve shared a story — thank you.
If you’ve rescued, fostered, donated, volunteered, or simply cared — thank you.
And if this Christmas finds you rebuilding too, know this:
You’re not behind. You’re becoming.
We’ll be here. Telling stories. Holding space. Running the newsroom. And believing deeply in second chances — for cats and hoomans alike.
Merry Christmas from the rescue cats and hoomans who run the news 🐾💛
