Operation Git-Meow

02/17/2025

Update on the injured feral cat we rescued, he’s not actually feral! He was just in a lot of pain from his injury. He chirpy meows, he flops down showing off his belly, he purrs like crazy and rubs his big cheeks all over. He even allows kisses to his giant head.

He just had a 4th procedure, his wound is healing nicely. He doesn’t like his cone but it’s been going much better once he let us tug one over his head. He can’t get the soft cone over those chipmunk cheeks. So we will be posting him for adoption once he’s fully healed.

02/04/2025

Our hearts go out everyone living on base. Please know we’re thinking of you in these uncertain times.

We were able to donate many, many things as we cleaned out our building. Over the counter flea/tick preventatives, cages, carriers, and cat supplies. Also items like shelving and chairs we’d collected as we continued to grow. We loved our little building and truly made it into a beautiful veterinary clinic. We are still committed to the cats at GTMO if there’s ever a way for us to return.

For anyone with pets, it’s never a bad idea to be prepared no matter where in the world you live. Make sure you have vet records, that vaccines are up to date and microchips are registered. Remember if a small pet flies in cabin under a seat they need a soft carrier, any animal in cargo needs a hard plastic crate.

01/31/2025

With the recent news about Guantanamo Bay, we want to be clear that our work in other locations has not stopped. Though is with a heavy heart that we must announce our program on base at GTMO is on hold indefinitely. We are continuing to assist, rescue, foster, advocate and provide veterinary care for cats, their owners, and caretakers at other locations.

We don’t know what the future will hold, we hope one day we can return to GTMO and continue our veterinary care clinics on base. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this situation, residents and service members whose lives are in upheaval but also how this will reflect on our county.

Every living thing, humans or animals, deserves humane treatment. We hope that’s something everyone can agree on regardless of politics. We as a society are better than that, it’s about our integrity as a nation and maintaining our standards of decency.

01/29/2025

It’s interesting how an animal beloved in one place can be considered a pest in another. Culling programs don’t work, despite killing hundreds of thousands of animals. What’s worked better for farmers is training the iguanas not to come into their fields. But that takes time and care and it’s easier to say kill the problem away.

You cannot kill your way out of a problem. Admitting it isn’t working and you need help shows far more fortitude than continuing a program that‘a completely ineffective. We hope Taiwan can figure out a humane way to manage their overpopulation problem, I’m sure there are groups who’d be willing to help.

Taiwan plans to cull up to 120,000 green iguanas, with supporters urging humane methods to bring down the animal's population, which is wreaking havoc on the island's agricultural sector.

01/22/2025

This big boy Po***ck was living outside with a large wound on his side. It took 4 months to catch him and get him into treatment. It’s a serious injury and he doesn’t let anyone get close to him. We considered euthanasia, but he’s still got a lot of personality and life left in him and we want to try. After 2 hours in surgery cleaning and stitching up the wound, he’s doing well so far but has a long road to full recovery. He’s got a special type of breathable bandage stitched on that doesn’t require frequent changes. He’ll have to stay in a large dog crate for a few weeks so we can monitor the injury, limit movement, and put medication in his food. Or as he calls it, jailing and poisoning him.

Once he’s all healed up, he’ll return to living his best life outside in St. Kitts. This is more like a wildlife rehabilitation situation, he would be very unhappy forced to live inside as a pet. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t still receive humane treatment and care. We’re lucky we had a vet volunteer their time so the surgery was very low cost.

We’ll post updates as he continues to heal!

01/08/2025

Operation Git-Meow assisted nearly 450 animals in 2024! Through our veterinary care clinics, education, transport, rescue flights, and adoptions in GTMO, St. Kitts, and the DC area.

We wanted to thank everyone who has volunteered, donated, adopted, and helped us in so many ways this past year. We couldn’t do this without all of the support we’ve received.

12/03/2024

We’ve been busy this year, between our GTMO clinics, rescue flights, adoption program, and owner assistance work in St. Kitts we’ve helped almost 500 animals this year!

We recently had 2 foster kittens require sudden hospital and surgical bills totaling $7,000. Both are young, happy, and doing much better after this crucial care. We’re asking for donations to help offset these recent expenses.

Last month Scooter came down with a mystery virus and ongoing high fever, he’s recovered after his week long hospital stay with nonstop medications and fluids. Pebbles has a badly broken leg and is going into surgery today to repair the bone. Her leg will be fully back to normal in a few weeks after this expert surgery.

We’re committed to providing the care animals in our program need in addition to the high volume clinic work we do. This year we had 375 patients at our GTMO clinic, 50 on the rescue flight, and 60 more taken in for adoption or we assisted their owners with transport and vet care through our St. Kitts program. We appreciate and cannot thank you all enough for the constant support and donations that sustain our nonprofit.

11/01/2024

Dot and Dash are a dynamic duo. Their favorite place to sleep is on your legs or cuddled up togedher. Preferably both! Dot is the friendliest girl, she really wants attention and uses her head to nudge your phone away for more petting. Dash is always entertaining, he’s very playful and has the loudest purr.

They get along great with other cats, dogs, and children. The bonded pair are about 6 months old, spayed and neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and negative for FeLV and FIV.

10/21/2024

We have a lot of excess merch especially in sizes L, XL and above! We won’t be getting more of these so limited edition! We’re trying to get as much as we can sold so we can do at cost pricing as we prepare for our big building move this week! We’re hoping to have another rescue flight and another free veterinary care clinic in early 2025.

Please share this post, we can ship items and they’re available on base also.

We’ve had almost 900 patients at our 4 clinics and have flown off 150 cats through our 4 rescue flights. Cats both for adoption and pets reunited with their families as it’s complex to get animals off base on military flights.

Thank you all so much for the donations it’s truly helped cover the costs of the move. We run solely off of volunteer donations and grants provided by SPCA International. It’s a lot of fundraising for a small group with big dreams!

10/14/2024

We need help raising funds to offset costs of moving! We’re switching clinic buildings on base at GTMO next week which will cost about $2,500 between hotel, flights to DC and GTMO, rental truck, gas, meals, and other assorted expenses. We’re hoping to raise some funds through another merchandise sale on base, online orders, and donations.

If anyone is interested in donating or purchasing some t-shirts, hats, hoodies, pins, patches, or challenge coins on or off base send us a message! We’ll be at the NEX on Sunday the 20th. Any little bit helps!

09/17/2024

Trying to gauge interest in Operation Git-Meow’s next order of shirts for a NEX sale on October 13th as we really need to fundraise for a spring clinic. These are dry fit t-shirts.

We’ve got a lot of the tan t-shirts and long sleeve UV shirts in L, XL, and XXL. If you’d be interested, could you send a message so we have an idea of how many shirts to order? We were planning to order mostly Small and Medium since we’re mostly out of those sizes in other styles. If you can’t make the sale we can still get you any items you’d like!

09/02/2024

For anyone on base with kittens, please note anyone who was too small to be fixed at our last clinic is now ready to start reproducing. A colony can double in size in just 6 months, and continue exponentially. Breeding season in a hot climate is continuous, there’s no slow down during the winter months.

If you have kittens or cats you were hoping to bring in, you can try to reach out to base vet clinic to schedule surgeries at full cost. It’s $200 for a spay, additional costs for vaccines, microchips, and parasite prevention. They will mate with their parents, siblings, and relatives, inbreeding can cause additional health complications.

We won’t be able to hold another clinic any sooner than April 2025. Even if a new building is found before then, we’re only allowed to fly Space Available, and there’s not enough space for our team during other months.

08/30/2024

We have some very unfortunate news, we have to cancel our October clinic.

Issues have arisen with use of our clinic building and housing. We’ve spoken to the base to try and resolve these issues, but we couldn’t do so in time for this clinic. They want to work with us however we understand it’s a Naval base and many other priorities come before Git-Meow.

We’ll need assistance from residents in October to move all of our equipment to a new location. We’ve been able to treat almost 900 animals in 2 years and we’ve flown off 100 animals with Wings of Rescue. This project has only been possible due to the hard work and dedication of the GTMO community and we sincerely thank everyone who’s supported us along the way.

07/30/2024

Our NEX sale is this Sunday August 4th from 12pm-3pm!

We have new UV long sleeve shirts, hoodies, t-shirts, challenge coins, baseball caps, insulated cups, car magnets, patches, koozies, and pins!

We operate on donations, grants, and merchandise sales to fully fund these clinics at no cost to the government.

07/20/2024

Operation Git-Meow is hoping to do another NEX sale on base soon, we have new UV shirts!

We wanted to make sure everyone knows, ZERO government money is used for our program. We are 100% funded by donations, the merchandise sales, and grants. We’ve spayed/neutered over 650 cats and another 200 have come through for vaccines, microchips and other service. A few dogs too!

We truly appreciate all of the support we’ve had from the community on base and off base!

07/03/2024

All merch is now back in stock! We’ll be sending most of it to Gtmo for any folks on base who’d like to buy some. If anyone off base would like to order just let us know your sizing and we can mail out through USPS! We’re low tech but we appreciate all the support. These sales have truly sustained the clinics and have been our main source of funding!

06/22/2024

We’re awaiting our restock shipment of t shirts and hoodies and hats, but we also just got in these new design UV long sleeve shirts! Look good and feel good protected from the sun while helping support our free vet clinic program.

06/03/2024

We have merch! Hoodies, t-shirts, baseball caps, challenge coins, pins, patches, car magnets, and can koozies! We can ship items to anyone off base. Shirts and hoodies also have the flag on the right sleeve. We have some logo t-shirts in olive green also.

We’re very grateful for the support on base at the NEX sale yesterday! If you’re on base and missed the sale you can still get items just send us a message.