After 24 years of dedicated service to the Keys’ feline community, Whiskers and Paws Forever founder Margie Schwartz will be retiring.
Schwartz, a beloved figure in the community, will leave the Keys to move out west, leaving behind a two-decade legacy of service and dedication.
“Hopefully these last three years of spaying and neutering over 3,000 dogs and cats (have) made an impact on the cat population,” wrote Schwartz in an announcement on Facebook. “More needs to be done and my hope is that this mission will continue.”
Schwartz’s more than two decades of hard work and commitment in working to spay, neuter and find foster families for feral and house cats supported the local environment with the attendant reduction of wild cats. Schwartz, whose organization was formerly known as Caring for Cats, is remembered by friends and colleagues at the Whiskers and Paws spay and neuter clinic for her passion, dedication and love of animals.
Within a year of moving to the Keys, Schwartz began work with the Helping Homeless through Friends of Felines spay/neuter organization. Upon its closure, Schwartz took initiative to open her own nonprofit, Caring for Cats, to continue the work of Helping Homeless.
“When she moved to the Keys, (Margie) noticed there were lots and lots of colonies of feral cats,” said Sue Baker Mason, who has volunteered alongside Margie Schwartz for years. “At the library, at the Trading Post, at Uncle Joe’s, she started taking a few kittens home. … She thought ‘I could do something more with this.’”
In January 2022, after a brief lapse wherein Schwartz worked to trap, transport and foster cats with an organization out of Marathon, she founded Whiskers and Paws Forever in Monroe County. For the last two years, Whiskers and Paws operated out of the Humane Society’s surgical suite.
In addition to helping stray cats, often acquired by local residents who would bring them to Whiskers and Paws, Schwartz and an extensive team of volunteer veterinarians and anesthesiologists worked to spay and neuter Humane Society animals. The organization also spayed and neutered foxes for Pawsitive Beginnings fox rescue.
Since the organization was founded, Whiskers and Paws Forever spayed and neutered nearly 3,000 cats and kittens and more than 300 dogs. Schwartz’s work reaches much further. Mason estimated that Schwartz has helped more than 10,000 cats. She has also worked to rehabilitate many felines suffering from a variety of injuries.
In October 2023, they assisted a pair of feral cats that had been struck by blow darts in a shocking act of cruelty. Alongside Schwartz’s steadfast leadership, Whiskers and Paws received generous help from volunteer veterinarians and community support.
“The change in the last 20 years I have seen (is) the feral cat population we once had was immense. Every Islamorada neighborhood was overrun,” said Mason, who has known Schwartz for 17 years.
Mason expounded on the sacrifices Schwartz had made in serving the Keys.
“She’s a little general with a heart of gold. In cases where kittens have come in with broken bones, she has used her own money to save or amputate their limbs. She’d never turn down a cat in need. … She’s an unsung hero.”
Whiskers and Paws Forever will be closing in February, and oncoming donations will be sent to a sanctuary in northern Florida which cares for cats deemed “unadoptable.” They held their last clinic on Jan. 24.
Schwartz’s retirement announcement on Facebook saw many from the community showering praises of her work in the community. Joy Martin, MarrVelous Pet Rescues president, said Schwartz’s nonprofit helped spay and neuter several MPR pups.
