A B OV E & B E YO N D
Tarra Provident works to bring discarded pets
into the country and into new homes.

New homes for
discarded pets
A lthough she’s allergic, Tarra Prov-
ident has always loved cats. The
2001 Mt. Lebanon High School
grad got into cat rescue while in
college at Bowling Green State University
in Ohio, where she started fostering strays
on campus. Fast forward to 2014, Provi-
dent was appalled by the number of strays
in her Brookline neighborhood, so she
got involved in TNR (trap, neuter, release).

Around that time, she became a co-found-
er of Pittsburgh CAT, a local volunteer cat
foster network with nearly 14,000 followers
on Facebook. Then last year, she started her
own group, Bridges from Kuwait, that would
impact the lives of cats around the world.

“I had seen something on Facebook. I
don’t remember exactly what it was, but
it sparked my interest,” said Provident. “I
learned about the Friday Market, which is a
big flea market in Kuwait. They sell animals
42 Mt. Lebanon Magazine | APRIL 2021
there. They often put them in bird cages,
many crammed in together. They’re not vac-
cinated, they’ve never been seen by a vet.

Feline leukemia is all over … when the ani-
mals get too sick to be sold, they stick them
in carriers or crates in a corner somewhere
people don’t see. And when they die, they
dump them out back.”
When she learned that many of these an-
imals are purebred, because they are mar-
keted as high-quality pets, she saw an op-
portunity to help.

“I realized we could get (these cats) homes
in about two seconds here,” said Provident.

She connected with Debbie Grant, a Unit-
ed Airlines flight attendant and founder of
Kitty Love Kuwait, based in Virginia, who
explained her rescue model. Provident then
started her own program, with the first cats
arriving in January 2020.

Here’s how it works: Provident uses a net-
work of animal rescuers based in Kuwait and
other countries, where animal shelters and
veterinary care are scarce. These contacts
have the room and the will to foster doz-
ens of animals—but they are happy to res-
cue more with Provident’s help. They go to
the market and convince the sellers to give
them the cats that are too sick to be sold.

Then Provident organizes transportation.

Because of pandemic-related
protocol changes for airlines, Provident has dealt
with many different situations. When she
first started, she organized “flight parents,”
people willing to fly to the United States
with the rescue cats, and they would check
in as many cats as they could handle—some-
times dozens. Now, U. S. Customs and Bor-
der Protection has tightened restrictions, so
she spends more money on brokerage fees
and she is limited to just three cats per flight
parent. Additionally, COVID restrictions
are tight in Kuwait, so she’s having trouble
finding people willing to leave the country,
meaning the cats now often travel in cargo,
without a flight parent.

“Now the cats are in pretty good condi-
tion because of the cost and with customs
being pretty particular. (My network) is care-
ful to send us ones that appear healthy,”
said Provident. “But in the past, when they
came with a flight parent, I saw lots of upper
respiratory infections, ringworm, many were
underweight … there are a lot of them that
have deformities from improper breeding.”
All of the cats must have vaccinations and a
veterinary health certificate before they may
enter the country.

Provident raises approximately $500 per
cat, through donations and adoption fees,
to cover travel and veterinary costs. She gets
the cats spayed/neutered and vaccinated
within a week of arrival, before connecting
them with their new families. Provident says
99 percent of the cats are adopted before
they arrive.

A special education teacher for Propel
East charter school during the day, Provident
dedicates her evenings and weekends to
Bridges from Kuwait and other local cat res-
cue projects. Lately, she’s been working on
obtaining nonprofit status for Bridges from
Kuwait—at the moment, it’s just a Facebook
page with a passionate base of followers.

“I often hear ‘I was about to go to a breed-
er, but then I found you,’” said Provident. “If
someone is looking for a Persian cat, they
aren’t going to a shelter, they are going
to a breeder. So we’re not taking homes
from the cat in the shelter down the road
… It’s the best of both worlds. People can
get the specific cat they want, and they can
still rescue.”
—KATIE WAGNER