“I was born in Dayton and grew up downtown for the first ten year of my life,” Bellinger said. “I lived briefly in California, which is where a large part of my love of animals came from.”
In Los Angeles, Bellinger got a taste of social justice since both parents were involved in the medical field. Her dad was a paramedic and her mom — a nurse — and Bellinger said she was constantly exposed to different programs and “safety nets” for people and the animals they loved.
“I grew up entrenched in how we can help make everyone’s lives better,” Bellinger said.
In 1996, her parents unfortunately divorced, and she and her mom moved back to Ohio — to New Carlisle — to be close to her grandparents. Living out in the country exposed her to living with and raising many types of animals.
“As a teenager, I fell into wanting to help people because I was dealing with some mental health issues myself,” Bellinger said. “I really felt this is how I connected with people.”
Bellinger began to think about a career in psychology and hoped to work as a victim’s advocate. She earned an associate’s degree from Sinclair and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wright State University. She immediately started working as a therapist with children on the autism spectrum.
“I was always gravitating more toward animals during the traumatic periods of my life,” Bellinger said. “I found comfort in animals. I have a deep love for them that started then and continues to this day. They need a voice since they can’t speak for themselves.”
On the side, Bellinger was donating to and volunteering at local animal shelters and rescues. She did things like picking up dog food to deliver to other cities during natural disasters and fostering sick and injured pets.
“One of my cats passed away in 2021,” Bellinger said. “I heard about the Gem City Catfé and asked my husband Chris if we could just go love on some cats. We went to see this new place and a cat sat down in front of us and seemed to be saying ‘you’re mine.’”
That cat had a congenital heart defect that had already taken the life of another cat Bellinger had loved. But since she already had medication and knew how to take care of this condition, she wanted to give him a home. She and her husband became fosters for the organization.
The goal of the Gem City Café is to foster interactions between cats and people within a casual, expectation free environment. It is home to more than a dozen adoptable cats that come from their rescue partner, Gem City Kitties. In October of 2021, Gem City Kitties was opening a veterinary clinic, and they needed someone to work a few weekends a month.
Bellinger was excited to apply.
“I had always worked in vet offices, even as I moved around,” Bellinger said. “I already had a lot of experience when they hired me.”
As the year went on, Bellinger applied for other positions in the organization and in October of 2023, she became the program manager for Gem City Kitties full-time.
Now, she oversees adoptions and intakes and runs events. She is also the office coordinator for the veterinary practice and does whatever work is needed.
“Working in rescue is exhausting,” Bellinger said. “It is nice to have a lot of different things to do but I really do have a lot of love for rescuing animals.”
Gem City Kitties and the veterinary practice in Trotwood are working to be resources so people can have access to low-cost vaccines and basic medical care for their pets. Though the Catfé is not officially part of the nonprofit, they house and care for the cats from Gem City Kitties.
“The Catfé is unique in that it is a place where people can go and have coffee and snacks in a cat-free area,” Bellinger said. “They can go in and sit and do work and they can also go in and interact with the cats in their glass-enclosed area.”
Bellinger said she loves her job and the company, which focuses on both the mental health of people in the community and especially its own employees, who are working hard to fulfill the mission of creating a more compassionate community for cats and saving as many as they can.
“We are all such animal lovers that we often forget about ourselves,” Bellinger said. “My boss is very firm that we take time to care for ourselves and take time off when needed. All rescues are doing everything they can, but we are doing something different because we are setting ourselves up to help all cats for the long-haul.”
MORE DETAILS
For more info, log on to gemcitykitties.org.
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