Eileen Haag, President and Founder
Eileen Haag has been an animal lover since a small child but cats have always been her passion. In 2013 she began volunteering at her local county animal shelter with her daughter Morgan. Eileen was astounded at the volume of stray kittens and cats that the local shelter took in on a daily basis. She saw an endless cycle of indiscriminate cat breeding and unwanted cats and kittens. There were very few solutions available. She kept thinking “someone has to do something about this”. She quickly realized that she was that “someone”. Bastrop CATS was born from this vision.
Eileen went about recruiting a team of like-minded volunteers who wanted to effect positive change for our community cat populations. In 2015, Eileen was honored with the Point of Light award from the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce “for unselfish service to the Bastrop community ”. She was also honored during International Women’s Day by Ten Thousand Villages of Austin in 2015 for her efforts to spay and neuter community cats. Eileen continues to work full time as a Registered Nurse of over 20 years.
Terrie Lynn Bach, Fund-raising Director
Terrie Lynn Bach started doing TNR before it was even called Trap-Neuter-Return. Homeless stray cats always seemed to find her. In the early 1980’s she was feeding and catching stray cats in the trailer park where she lived and getting them fixed at her local veterinarian. Long before Petco had an adoption program, she could often be found most Saturdays at the brand new Petco store with kittens for adoption. Terrie Lynn has always had tremendous love and passion for cats of all colors and stripes.
As a professional artist, cats have always been a favorite subject for Terrie Lynn, first painted in oils and watercolors, airbrush painted on clothing and for the past 27 years in intarsia wood sculptures and stained glass. Forever fascinated with their beauty and expressiveness, she continues to find fresh inspiration from living with her multitude of cats. Her art business is even named in their royal honor, Cat Dancing Creations.
Late one cold January night in 2013, Terrie Lynn saw a plea on Facebook for a black cat at the Bastrop Shelter that had a huge swelling around her eye, was super skinny and sick. It broke her heart. The next day she was on the phone making arrangements with Eileen Haag to get the cat called Baycon from the shelter. Terrie Lynn immediately renamed her India. A visit to the vet revealed India had cancer. Terrie Lynn adopted her and gave India several months of love and care before she died.
India brought Terrie Lynn and Eileen together, a cat partnership that has led to the care and growing of Bastrop CATS Anonymous TNR Society into what it is today.