Meet The Team
Founder, Director
Nancy Bowes
Nancy has one rule: no cat left behind. With over ten years experience rescuing cats from hopeless situations, working and volunteering in shelters and vet clinics in roles such as adoptions manager and veterinary assistant, Nancy has varied experience and the chutzpah to dive into this new journey. With Old Acquaintance Rescue, Nancy is bridging the gap in current animal rescue to help the most high-risk cats; senior, medical needs and behaviorally complex.
Vice President
Jessica Zafonte, Esq.
Jessica has been running animal rescue organizations and involved in cat rescue her entire adult life. She is the founder and director of the nonprofit They All Want to Life, which focuses on abandoned domestic animals including ducks, pigeons, and, of course, cats. Jessica has particular expertise in TNR, socializing feral kittens, ringworm kittens, and anxiety and other behavior disorders in cats. She has fostered and adopted out hundreds of cats and kittens, each of whom maintains a special place in her heart. Some of her greatest pleasures in life include kissing cats on the lips, a cat having a solid poop after chronic diarrhea, and getting updates from adopters years later. Jessica would love to see a world without animal cruelty or speciesism, where all animals command respect and are allowed to live out their lives in peace and comfort. Jessica is also an attorney who focuses on intellectual property disputes and lives in New York City with her husband, toddler, and a carousel of foster animals of all species.
Secretary
Angela DeRosa
Angela joins OAR Cats with years of experience in cat rescue, boots on the ground style! She also acts as one of our amazing foster homes and helps market adoptable cats and vet adoption applications to help find the purrfect match for cats in our care.
Treasurer
Matthew Guida
Matt is an accountant who joins OAR Cats as our Treasurer and official beard of the finance team. Matt balances our books so we can balance all the cats in our care. He's the reason we know how much money we can spend on vet bills and cat food. When he's not reconciling the books, Matt is likely reconciling that we have too many foster cats, again.
Volunteer Web and Tech Support
Andrew Guida
Be it horses, dogs, or cats, this man can scoop poop. Andrew is married to OAR Cats founder, Nancy Bowes. He graciously volunteers his time and knowledge as a computer programmer to help maintain our website and various web forms. Andrew has always been an animal lover, starting out with one cat, Cecil, when he met Nancy. Together, they now have 5 personal rescue cats, 4 horses, 1 dog, a parrot, tortoise and terrarium of hermit crabs. Andrew is an invaluable volunteer and caretaker of all the foster pets that come through the house while awaiting their forever homes.