Owner's Biographies
Mike Nocket
Mike and his wife Susan are the owners of Evergreen Cat Lodge. Mike was born in Wantagh, New York in 1953 but lived in California for much of his life before moving to Colorado in 2006. Mike holds a B.S. in Engineering from California State University, Northridge. Mike began his career at Rockwell International’s Rocketdyne Division where he oversaw the implementation of Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology and championed its application to the design of rocket engines, including the Space Shuttle Main Engine program. Mike later moved to Rockwell’s corporate offices where he served as Director, IT Architecture and Technology. After 19 years at Rockwell International, Mike joined E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto, California as Director, Technology Architecture and Shared Services. Six years later, Mike left Gallo and moved to Evergreen, Colorado where he and Susan broke from the corporate world and founded Evergreen Cat Lodge.
Susan Nocket
Susan was born in Medford, Massachusetts, but like Mike she spent most of her adult life in California. Susan began her career at Redken, a manufacturer of hair care products. As fate would have it, Rocketdyne was located just across the street and Susan left Redken and joined Rocketdyne where she met her future husband, Mike. When Mike transferred to Rockwell’s corporate office, Susan returned to the cosmetics industry as Manager, Sales Administration for Pacific World – a manufacturer of nail care products.
While Mike and Susan have been lifelong cat lovers, it wasn’t until moving to Modesto, CA that Susan became very involved in feline rescue as a volunteer for Any Feline Rescue. At times, Susan had over 90 rescue cats in her care. During her years of involvement in the rescue program, Susan placed many hundreds of abandoned and/or feral cats into loving homes. It was during this time that Susan developed her deep affection for bottle-fed kittens, which require feeding every 4 hours around the clock, and other special needs cats. Upon moving to Evergreen, CO Susan became very active in the Evergreen Animal Protective League’s (EAPL) cat program. In fact, when designing the cat lodge, Susan made sure to include a special room just for EAPL’s special needs cats.
Fun Fact: To increase community awareness of its activities, EAPL hosted a booth at the 2008 Big Chili Cook-off in Evergreen, CO. Mike was the red chili chef and his chili won first place!
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