If you are like me, you receive a LOT of emails asking for Giving Tuesday donations. There are so many great organizations doing good things for animals. These groups all need help because most of them don't receive any government money and rely on private grants and/or individuals and corporate matching programs. I started working with feral cats over 20 years ago, when I saw how marginalized and underserved they were. The Feral Cat Spay & Neuter Project hosted only one clinic a month back then so trappers had to seek out any other option they could if they didn't have enough reservations to cover the number of cats they had trapped. In addition to the FCSNP's incredible growth and sustained commitment to providing S/N surgery to all cats, other very low cost options exist now that didn't back then. Feral cats are finally having their day, and large scale trap/neuter/return programs are in effect is so many more communities than they were 20 years ago. Most folks now understand that feral cats have a place as community cats, and removing and killing them is not the solution.
Feral and semi-feral cats still "fall through the cracks" sometimes, in that they are not adoptable in traditional shelter settings and many barn cat placement programs are overfull with available cats. (Please do not adopt friendly cats and certainly not kittens to employ as mousers in your barn - take in cats with no other options!) Cats who would have been perfectly fine to live out their lives in their manages colony find themselves displaced due to development, or new owners purchasing property with existing feline residents. Many of these kitties will never be lap cats, or even cats who can be petted. But they can and do have high quality lives of their own design. We value these kitties as individuals.
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men. – Alice Walker
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| Chase, truly equipped to live outside. He was trapped but not returned to his site as there was no caretaker. |
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| Tiny Sasha when she first arrived. At 5 lbs, she had a litter of kittens who didn't survive. She came from an overcrowded hoarding situation where none of the kitties were altered. |
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| Grace, as viewed through the window. Her colony site is under development. |
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| Eva, a gentle "semi-feral." Her colony site is in peril and the kind person who cared for the kitties was forced to leave because he was homeless. |
