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HWY 79 Feral Cat Project
April 17th, 2003 we trapped our first cat for the HWY 79 Project. He was a tuxedo, with eyes as wide as saucers. He became Tuxie and has grown from the six month old kitten to a handsome young adult, neutered and vaccinated.
It all began when I stopped in to the local Wag-a-Bag to get a soda one night. Of course, there they were, several cats dumpster diving, looking for that morsel of food to fill their empty bellies. Being a good cat person and always having cat food in my car, I fed them and they ate heartily.
I tried to forget about them all the next day. I had other colonies to attend to and I did not want to get started on another one! But their faces stayed with me and their cries kept nagging at me until at dusk I found myself again at the Wag-a-Bag, carting along not just the dry food, but some yummy canned food too...to get on their good side!
I was hooked.
I told my friend Tara about them and since they were close to our other colonies, we took turns feeding them. We knew we would need to start trapping them so we ventured further, locating their primary nesting area. It happened to be a small church on several acres. I think our eyes both lit up at the same time! If you had to be a feral cat, this was prime real estate. Country living in the City. Very few predators, lots of hiding places and best of all, a cat friendly church congregation and neighborhood. After talking with Sondra, a church member and cat lover, we found they had been feeding the cats for years, but did not know about TNR. Each spring they agonized over the countless kittens being born and were concerned about the rising number of cats in the Church area.
It was a perfect match. They knew about the cats, had accepted and cared for them and Shadow Cats knew about TNR, and the benefits the cats would reap from it.
We all decided we would take on this massive project. Kara, Carol and Megan and Denise committed to feeding the cats each day. We estimated 75-100 cats. This was going to take some time and money! Shadow Cats went to work fundraising for this project. We asked everyone for money to spay and neuter, and many caring people came through for these cats.
We just spayed our sixtieth cat last week with funds raised for the HWY 79 Ferals. We believe we have TNR'd all of the cats in this area, but we won't know for sure until this Spring. I hope we do not see even one litter of kittens! But, if we do, you can bet, we will be out there with our traps.
Each cat we trapped, spayed, neutered, vaccinated and left with an ear notch had a special place in our hearts. As each cat entered the trap, we knew how their lives would improve. We also knew the neighborhood would benefit from our efforts and that eventually there would be fewer cats, and that the ones that were there, would be healthy, non-reproducing, vaccinated cats.
TNR is a humane alternative to the present day system of killing cats simply because they have been born wild. If you want to learn more about implementing TNR in your neighborhood, please give us a call and we will tell you how to get started!
Shadow Cat trappers Lisa and Elizabeth already have their sights set on another large colony of unaltered cats just waiting to meet the inside of their traps!
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