Who are we?
Founder
Summer Dolder
A cat lover all her life, Makin' Biscuits NYC Founder Summer Dolder earned her MSW from the University of Denver before moving to to Sunnyside, Queens, where she discovered her passion for animal welfare while working as a cat volunteer for Animal Care Center of NYC.
After joining the ACC full time in 2013, Summer spent the next 6 years working to increase the number of lives saved in the shelter system while overseeing programs designed to improve community access to initiatives such as pet pantries and veterinary care in order to help prevent owner surrenders of their pets.
Combining her social work expertise with her love of animals, Summer increasingly focused on finding ways to keep families and pets together. After taking on Director of Operations roles at some of the most challenging shelter systems in the country, Summer noticed that animals often entered the shelter system due to systemic challenges impacting the entire community: housing insecurity, cost of living, lack of accessible veterinary care and lack of pet-friendly emergency support services.
Driven by this understanding and her deeply held belief that pet ownership should be accessible to all, Summer turned her attention back to her local community and launched Makin' Biscuits NYC in February 2026.
Today, she and her team of volunteers work throughout Queens to foster, adopt, connect people to pet care resources, and help preserve the bonds of community members and their cats.
How Makin' Biscuits was formed
Makin’ Biscuits Rescue was born out of a desire to support pet owners and adopters within the NYC community. As an animal welfare professional, our founder saw the increasing need for support for pet owners and adopters within our community. Existing organizations struggled to meet the demand for support and resources in our community, and it was clear that additional services were needed.
Recognizing that all organizations have constraints based on resources, Makin’ Biscuits Rescue was formed to help fill some of the gaps seen within our community. The need for continued lifesaving from our city shelter, increased support needed for cat owners, rehoming services, and accessibility to adoption services with post-adoption support were just a few of the key goals Makin’ Biscuits Rescue is committed to achieving for their community.
With community and donor support, Makin’ Biscuits Rescue hopes to grow their programs to continue to meet the needs of their community, including obtaining a physical adoption space to allow us an area to welcome the NYC community.
What drives us?
Compassion- We lead with assuming positive intent and appreciate that access to caring for a companion animal doesn’t look the same for everyone. We are here to listen and support our community through creative problem-solving in collaboration with those seeking support.
Community- We value people and animals equally. Human connections and positive interactions with neighbors are a core ingredient for Makin’ Biscuits. We celebrate pet owners and their families, and we seek opportunities to create new families with the support they need.
Cats- We are committed to ensuring cat lifesaving is a priority in our community through innovative programs and services that serve people and pets. Cats create healthier communities for people and we aim to ensure cats in our community have positive placement opportunities.
Together we are strengthening community and celebrating cats through collaborative rescue.