From fostering kittens to adopting senior cats, these stars are using their platforms to advocate for animal welfare.
Nina Dobrev
The Vampire Diaries star adores her cat, Jama-Lynx, but that doesn’t stop her from helping other felines in need. While in Bulgaria, she recently worked to find homes for two stray kittens she encountered.
Lea Michele
The Glee actress, a proud rescue cat mom to Sheila, even helped her co-star Heather Morris adopt a cat of her own.
Carrie Ann Inaba
The Dancing with the Stars judge is a dedicated animal advocate, sharing her home with six cats—Squeaker, Taz, Zeus, Mia, Bubble, and Miley. As part of a rescue network, she has fostered countless others. “I go to bed crying sometimes because you can’t save them all,” she told PEOPLE. “But we try, and I feel good about that.”
Chris Colfer
The Glee actor adopted an 8-year-old, slightly overweight cat named Brian from California’s West Valley Animal Shelter. “It was heartbreaking to see so many sweet animals needing homes,” he tweeted. “Please think about rescuing!”
Whoopi Goldberg
After a kitten named Vinny survived being thrown from a car on New York’s Verrazano Bridge, he appeared on The View—and stole Goldberg’s heart. He now lives with her and her other cat, Oliver.
Ian Somerhalder
The Vampire Diaries star’s feline family is as unique as they come. “One is a feral cat from Hawaii who grew up in the jungle, another is a rescue from a dungeon in New York, and the other’s from Canada,” he told PEOPLE.
Kate Walsh
The Private Practice star has two dogs and two rescue cats, Pablo and Billy. “I love them all equally but in different ways, like my children… err, I mean cats,” she joked on Twitter.
Denise Richards
The actress has opened her home to numerous rescue animals, including a gray-striped kitten named Freddy, who required bottle-feeding when she took him in.
Jenna Fischer
When two kittens were found on the set of The Office in 2009, the actress stepped in as their foster mom.
Jesse Eisenberg
The actor fosters cats to balance out the guilt he feels from his busy career. “The more movies I do, the more guilty I feel—and the more cats I need to get to alleviate that guilt,” he told Conan O’Brien in 2010.
Teri Polo
While filming Man Up!, Polo adopted three rescue kittens—Lily, Linus, and Thomas—after learning their mother had been killed by a coyote.
Angus T. Jones
The Two and a Half Men star fell in love with a playful 4-week-old kitten named Mascot after a friend found him and his siblings abandoned in a box.
These celebrities prove that rescue pets make the most loving companions—and their advocacy helps shine a light on the importance of adoption.
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