New Facility For Cat Adoptions In St. Pete Opening This Summer

It’s always a hard decision when it comes to finding the right pet. Whether you’re a dog or cat person, there’s a lot that goes into finding the one that connects with you. This July, Friends of Strays Animal Shelter is opening a brand new facility for cat adoptions in St. Pete.

Friends of Strays is St. Petersburg’s oldest no-kill animal shelter and is bringing a brand new facility just for cats called The Cat Box. The Cat Box is located at 3105 46th Ave. N just a block away from their current shelter.

Friends of Strays Board Chair Mo Eppley said, “We are incredibly excited to open a new space just for our cats. For more than forty years, our staff and volunteers have done their very best with our current space. I think it speaks to their dedication to the wellbeing of the animals in our care, and to our reputation in the community, that we have been able to grow. This is great news for the dogs and cats in our care.”

The Cat Box is going to be completely separated from the dogs. This will give the cats a quieter, calm, and more cat-friendly environment where they can wait to be adopted.

This new facility for cat adoptions in St. Pete will not only increase their capacity and the cats quality of life but also allow for different environments for different types of cats to live in. The Friends of Strays are hosting a grand opening celebration at 10 AM on July 1 at The Cat Box to ring in the newest facility for cat adoptions in St. Pete.

The Cat Box is the first of three phases of renovations for the soon-to-be Schwartz Family Adoption Campus at the Friends of Strays. Soon, the Milkey Bone Dog House will begin renovations next door to The Cat Box, in 2025. Once the two buildings are complete, the current Friends of Stray's shelter building will transition into a medical, intake, foster, and trap-neuter-vaccinate-return program.

All of the adoptable pets at the Friends of Strays are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, dewormed, and microchipped. They are a nonprofit organization so all of the adoption fees go back to the animals.

If you would like to learn more about Friends of Strays, visit their website. You can find pets up for adoption here, as well as more information about adoption. 

There are a lot of things to consider when moving to the Tampa Bay area. Affordability, night life, walkability, safety, etc. Maybe you're thinking of moving from Hillsborough to Pinellas or from out of state and now all that's left to pick is the area. Well, these are the best neighborhoods in St. Pete, according to locals.

We were browsing on the St. Pete reddit thread the other day when someone was curious about the perks and positive experiences of different neighborhoods in St. Pete. Local redditors weren't afraid to voice their opinions. What's nice is it seems like most of the chatter was positive, which is a pretty rare thing to see when talking about how Tampa/St. Pete has changed over the years.

Locals and transplants can find common ground on why Tampa is such a great place to live. There are lots of reasons why people save all year just to visit. The year-round warm weather is a big selling point for those relocating from colder states. We have some of the best beaches in the country, a melting pot of foodie culture, soon to have a stellar baseball stadium and across the bridge we have championship winning sports teams.

Of course, with all major cities, you'll run into a few cons as well. Many complain about growing homeless population, cost of living, HOA's among others.

Before we get into the best neighborhoods in St. Pete (according to locals), we need to include these honorary mentions. These are great neighborhoods that a few people pointed out in the reddit thread:

This was the most common St. Pete neighborhood shouted out on the reddit thread. But not for the reasons you may think. Everyone seems to love this area because of all the peacocks grazing around the lake.

Driftwood, located on Big Bayou just south of 22nd Avenue South. Many homes in the neighborhood were designed during the 1930s-40s and still remain. They have a very tropical features with jungle-like landscaping. We hope they never start to govern the overgrown greenery because that's what makes the area so special.

Historic Old Northeast is just a stone throw away to Downtown St. Pete and includes the North Shore Park. It claims to have 3,000 historic buildings within its boundaries. The area also borders Coffee Pot Bay, famous for its resident manatees. Some redditors also mentioned this is the neighborhood to check out during the holidays because they go all out. But again, good luck finding a house that sells less for $1 million in this area.

Centrally located but not too loud/busy. Residents say there's more space and larger lots than Old Northeast and Euclid, less expensive than Crescent Heights, no flood zone, and just a 6 minute bike ride to the water and a 10 minute bike ride to northeast park by Vinoy.

This was the first residential subdivision in Downtown St. Pete. It's filled with a wide variety of architectural styles like Bungalow, Prairie, Foursquare, Craftsman, Mediterranean Revival, Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, and Tudor Revival.