- October 14, 2026
Randie Zimmerman rescues over 700 cats a year.
A massage therapist and personal trainer, Zimmerman volunteers with Concerned Citizens for Animal Welfare as their head trapper and works with the Ormond Beach Police Department's Animal Services division.
Since 2020, Zimmerman, of Ormond-by-the-Sea, has dedicated herself to helping address feral and abandoned cat populations through trap-neuter-return programs, working with local rescues and oftentimes funding medical care for the cats she helps out of her own pocket.
"My whole life revolves around it," Zimmerman said. "So I just work really hard. I do whatever fundraising I can for myself and other rescues."
Her rescue work began during the COVID-19 pandemic. She and a few friends used to meet at Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park and one day, they spotted a pregnant cat. They got her some food and Zimmerman started reaching out to rescues and animal control to see how the cat could be helped.
She was given information on what to do, but said no one she spoke with was in a position to help.
Then, the next time she went to go feed the pregnant cat, Zimmerman was met by a colony of six cats.
"Then as the kittens started arriving, I'm learning how to trap and everything, I'm getting the adults fixed," Zimmerman recalled. "Now I'm catching the kittens, rehoming the kittens. But it ended up there were 16 cats at that colony."
Peggy Jones became her first volunteer. They fed the cats every day until 2024, when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission ordered the cats be removed from the park. Zimmerman and Jones spent Christmas that year trapping the remaining members of the colony, of which there were six. Many cats in the colony died after they were hit by cars or due to medical issues complicated by Feline Immunodeficiency Virus.
They brought the cats to Zimmerman's house, where she had built enclosures, to determine which cats were adoptable and which weren't.
Jones died a year and a half ago, and Zimmerman now has her cat Yogi, one of the adoptable members of the Bicentennial colony.
"When she was dying ... she said, 'I have to tell you when you asked me to help you with the cats, it was the first time I ever felt like a part of anything in my life,'" Zimmerman recalled.
The majority of cats she traps are mothers and kittens. That's where rescues and animal control agencies need the most help, as trapping mother cats and their kittens can take hours. Sometimes, six to eight hours a day.
And Zimmerman knows there's no time to be wasted. Delaying rescuing kittens could mean that some won't make it due to the elements, cars or predators.
As a result, Zimmerman often rescues "bottle babies," or orphaned newborn kittens in need of round-the-clock feeding.
"I'm terrified of bottle babies," Zimmerman said.
That's where Tiny Tales Rescue comes in. Zimmerman met founder Amanda Witt at Cat Care Clinic in Ormond Beach, where Witt works as a technician. Zimmerman brings cats in to the clinic for medical care, both those she rescues personally and through CCFAW.
After learning that Witt fostered bottle babies, Zimmerman called her late one night asking for hel.
"Essentially, she gave me the first bottle baby for Tiny Tails Rescue," Witt said.
Sometimes people don't realize how much a community needs cat rescues and TNR programs, Witt said. There's so many cats that need help and the work they do isn't a hobby or a passion project — it's something they put a lot of themselves into, Witt said.
Zimmerman is no exception.
"The amount of cats that she rescues is insane and it only is making a dent, essentially," Witt said. "So we need more people like her for sure, and there is such a need for that too because the TNR programs are so important."
Witt officially founded Tiny Tales Rescue in November 2025. On Saturday, Ormond Beach Police Department hosted an adoption event for the local rescue. Three cats were adopted.
Zimmerman was among the volunteers helping at the event.
"She's like that go-to human," Witt said. "Not only does she do all the TNR stuff and saving all these cats, but she also is like a wealth of information. She will give advice if needed. She's just one of those humans that just wants to help."
The love of cats runs in Zimmerman's family. Her father used to run a car dealership in Boston, where she grew up. When he was seeking to expand the business, he began to buy homes surrounding the dealership. As people moved, they left their cats behind and her father and her aunt began caring for them.
"My father had a running tab with the Massachusetts Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, MSPCA, because he was paying for so many spays and neuters," Zimmerman said.
They ended up with about 30 cats on the property and her father left one house standing to provide them with shelter. When he sold his business about 10 years ago, he made it a condition of the sale that the new owner would not tear the house down until the last cat died of natural causes.
And the condition held. When the last cat died three years ago, the new owner called Zimmerman's father, who came out and buried the cat.
Rescue work can be tiring. What keeps Zimmerman going?
The friends that check in and encourage her to do the best she can, even as Zimmerman stretches herself thin, receiving calls at all hours of the days and nights from people seeking help. It never feels like she's doing enough, she said.
And then she looks at the faces of the cats and kittens she rescues.
"When you see the faces of these kittens, especially sick ones, when you know if it was another day they probably would have died, or if they do die, you know that they didn't die out on the pavement and run over at Dunkin' Donuts," Zimmerman said. "You know what I mean? So when you think about that, that keeps you going."
