Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Stovall.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I moved to Dallas in September 2008 from Manchester England. I am a Chartered Accountant and worked at KPMG and BDO in the UK before moving to Dallas. I am now a Partner at a National CPA firm leading our Consulting Practice. I started volunteering at local rescue by donating and help with adoptions. I then moved to a bigger rescue and started to help more. One of the ladies that I knew in rescue was moving away from Dallas and asked if I would take over. The rescue was in a bit of a mess so I started getting it in some order and that year we adopted out 350 cats in 2022.
I realized as a foster-based organization was limited by the number of fosters we had which limited the intake of cats and kittens and dependent of the photos provided by the fosters to get them adopted. So we decided that to adopt more cats we needed a facility to complete intake and be able to see the cats and kittens. Our idea was a Cat Cafe and boarding facility. We opened Whiskers and Soda Cat Cafe in March of 2023 and the intake facility in October 2023. In 2023 we adopted 653 cats.
In 2024, our intake was 1300 cats and kittens and we adopted 1003 cats and kittens in 2025. I still have a demanding job but have a great group of volunteers for A Voice for all Paws and many fosters that are still the life blood of what we do but we now have the ability to showcase many of our cats and kittens at Whiskers and Soda Cat Cafe.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Rescue is never a smooth road – it is emotionally and financially draining. Whiskers and Soda Cat Cafe was a dream but took a lot of planning – we had to find the right buildings and completely remodel the buildings. It was a long and expensive road but finally we were ready to open in March 2023.
Struggles included:
1. We ran out of money to remodel the second building and that had to wait for a few more months but we really needed that building to help with intake.
2. Finding the right people with cat knowledge, customer service experience, and that we could trust to keep the place clean and hire the right people.
3. Money – we had to pump money into the operating costs for the first year
4. Time – I work a C Suite type job and finding the time to ensure it ran well was hard
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Chartered Accountant from Manchester England – I have been in professional services all of my career as an Auditor, Technical Accountant and Consulting. I worked for KPMG and BDO in the UK, UHY and a national consulting firm – I set up my own Consulting firm which was acquired by Armanino Advisory LLP in November 2019 and now I am a Partner – I lead the Consulting Practice and am on the Operating Committee. I specialize in Back-office Transformation – solving companies accounting and finance problems. I am an exceptional leader, who works hard and understands people
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I am driven and don’t give up, even when I fail. People respond well to me and I am a great listener which means I have great Emotional Intelligence and people like to work with and for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.whiskersandsoda.com / www.avoiceforallpaws.com
