Joan Avent

In 2023, the year she turned 81, Joan Avent facilitated the adoption of nearly 700 kittens.

 She’s doing more than finding homes for kittens; she’s bringing happiness to their new owners. That, she says, is very rewarding.

 Joan retired at age 76 from her career as a clinical laboratory scientist, identifying markers for different types of leukemia. Not one to sit around, she soon found herself working even more hours as a volunteer for SpayMart’s Kitten Foster Program, volunteering six, sometimes seven, days a week.

  “After I retired, I started doing more and more rescue, and I never dreamed I would love it this much,” she says.

 Joan not only handles adoptions, she also manages the medical care of the kittens being fostered. She says sometimes it’s like detective work, trying to determine the conditions affecting an animal. The curiosity that drives that detective work is, in some ways, follows from her decades in the hospital lab uncovering the information physicians need to treat their patients.

Volunteering at her pace is a lot of work, but Joan says: “I’m enjoying life as much as I ever did…I love working with animals. They just want to be loved. They just want a chance.”