Board member and kitten foster mom, Briggitte has had a lifelong love for animals and has been active within the animal rescue community since she was in her late teens. She was the volunteer organizer for a Texas farm animal rescue, has rescued Sea Turtles as part of Turtle Island Restoration Networks Galveston Island sea turtle patrol, and was the organizer of a successful effort to ban animal acts in Westchester County circuses, which became legislation in 2020. Her home acts as a satellite nursery for K&B where Briggitte and her husband Wesley foster some of Kittens & Barbells smallest intakes.
Co-founder and board member, Donovan, plays a vital role in the day to day tasks in taking care of our 30+ rescue cats and kittens. His love for cats is so big that despite being allergic to cats, he lives with up to 50 cats and kittens at a time! He is a powerlifter, bodybuilder, and photographer/videographer. Donovan takes all of our beautiful photos and videos of our charitable merch and rescues. He is a pro kitten bottle feeder and makes the deepest connections with our senior rescues. He has mastered feeding 40 cats in under 30 minutes!
Our co-founder Katherine aka Katie, has been passionate about animals as long as she can remember. She began rescuing animals as a small child from baby birds fallen from their nests to hamsters and snails. Katie owns and operates a pet sitting/dog walking business where she gets to care for many of K&B’s alumni while their parents are away. She began helping local NYC cat rescue groups with rescues and fostering until she started Kittens and Barbells Rescue with Donovan. She is trained in caring for neonatal kittens, tube and bottle feeding, administering medications and TNR certified. Her love of animals is ever growing and she hopes to be able to rescue and rehabilitate all kinds of animals in the future.