Stray Cat TNR

14/12/2024

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

14/12/2024

How Kirsten turns 2️⃣ appointments into 6️⃣ is beyond me, but I'm not going to argue with her - she's getting it done! 🎉🎉

She assisted Kasey with the last cat in her colony 🙌🏼, trapped 4️⃣ roaming cats from around the area and helped Chris with his friendly stray male. 😻

👉🏽All in all a GREAT week for changing lives.

14/12/2024

And, most importantly!! If you feed, please try to spay and neuter the animals or reach out to your community for assistance if you are not able to. It prevents more unowned animals from being in the same situation. 💙

“I take pictures of stray cats in hopes to touch your souls and inspire you to feed your local cats” (link in the comments)

13/12/2024

Oh how I wish people understood these unneutered tom cats. 😤

We’ve helped Connie in the past and she’s done a lot of the work herself getting strays to the vet or injured cats to the humane society! 👏🏻👏🏻Most recently she called about a tom cat that had attacked (and injured 😿) 2️⃣ of her fixed outdoor pets. She called Animal Control who told her TNR was best. While Connie knows about TNR, she really just wanted this cat gone and who can blame her when he has injured her cats?

But, I explained that TNR was best as neutering should help his aggression issues. She still wasn’t all about it, but it was the only option she was left with so she trapped him today and Kirsten was able to pick him up. 🚗

After Kirsten got him home, she realized that he loved pets! He was just a misunderstood friendly guy. 😻♥️

If you’ll remember, we adopted “Simon” after a similar situation where he was taken in as a nuisance cat and was bullying someone’s pets for food. Simon is now the sweetest house cat there ever was! He’s our “welcome wagon” to new, shy cats. I suspect the same thing may be true of this nameless guy.

We need to get him neutered next week, but then would love to find someone to give this fellow a chance at being a real pet so we don’t have to return him outdoors to Connie’s.

Seems everyone wants every friendly cat 🐈 to be adopted into an indoor home, but guess what, that can’t happen unless there is a home willing to take them in.

If you have questions or might be interested, shoot us a message!

13/12/2024

I feel this. 😹🥔

12/12/2024

Who WANTS to see litter after litter after litter of homeless kittens? 🚫

The kitten crisis is not going away on its own. And it can overwhelm anyone. It's a VICIOUS cycle ♻️... for you, for trappers, for shelters, for angry neighbors. Cats breed faster than any of us can save them.

The cycle ends with US!
WE are the only ones who can help!
WE are the reason for the problem to start with!
As a cat loving community, WE have got to educate more and do as much as we are able.

There's only one answer and it's up to all of us to make sure it happens.

11/12/2024

We got a new cat tree because, well - Black Friday deals! 🤑

SOMEONE, who shall remain nameless, was a bit impatient while I was trying to put this together. He’ll try to convince you he was “helping”, but he wasn’t. 😹

11/12/2024

It’s possible Kirsten has been trapping and transporting ➕ picking up and releasing faster than I can keep up with!

She picked up a friendly and trapped a feral for Monday that have already been returned! ✅

While trapping at a public location a few weeks ago, Kirsten randomly met Robin, a caretaker we have helped in the past. Robin alerted her of another location needing attention. Kirsten trapped there early in the day Tuesday and then went to pick up Kasey’s big catch (last of her colony!) later that 🚗 evening. Those two are at the vet now! 🙌🏼

And THEN she tacked on 2️⃣ more kitties from a location she found out about recently. They will head to the vet tomorrow!

And they will all have better lives because of Kirsten’s collaboration with her community. 😻

11/12/2024

A fellow TNR group in Idaho needs our help‼️ I know our educated followers will not let them down.

Here is an excerpt of the message I received:
"I am with a non-profit group that helps our community with TNR. One of our members recently told Animal Control that we are helping our city of Mountain Home in Idaho with TNR. In return, we are told we are breaking the law and must stop. We will fight this in front of our City Council on January 14th.

Do you have studies/statistics from reputable sources with successful TNR programs? Numbers: Where does it show the number of cats declining? You can bet that the city probably has numbers that explain why TNR does not work."

If you have statistics from your own organization or information/ideas you think could be good talking points as they prepare to meet with their City Council, please leave them in the comments.

Thank you for supporting TNR!! 😻

11/12/2024

Kasey had started her little colony back in October trapping 2️⃣ kitties. Life got in the way, as it often does, but Kasey didn’t get discouraged! We sent Kirsten out to help her try to finish up and 3️⃣ more kitties got fixed last week.

Kasey only had one cat left but he was missing in action for days so we thought he may have moved on since the ladies got spayed, but he showed up last evening and she got him!! 🙌🏼👏🏻

I love this video Kasey shared with us. If you’ve ever trapped before you know this “YES!” feeling. Congrats Kasey and thank you for working so hard to make sure all these kitties were taken care of! ❤️🐈

And with the close of this trap, COLONY COMPLETE!

08/12/2024

Are you one of those people…
..who sees sad animal posts and wonders why there are so many? 😞
..who sees a stray cat outside in the cold and wonders why someone can’t come pick that cat up and find it somewhere warm to live? 💔
..who looks at the shelter and wonders why they have so many cats/kittens available for adoption ALL THE TIME? 🤯
..who thinks animal welfare organizations are not doing their job well enough? 🙄
..who cannot stand the thought of cats or kittens being euthanized at a shelter? 😡
..who sees strays/ferals in your neighborhood and just want to see them in a better place? 😿

All good questions and all come from a place of compassion.❣️

BUT, if you answered yes to any of these questions, ✨Y✨O✨U✨ need to volunteer in some capacity! You cannot expect change from others that you are not willing to participate in yourself. 🤔

It is impossible for people to understand all the challenges that rescues and shelters face unless they have worked in it. It is easy to sit behind a computer ⌨️ and make assumptions about why something isn’t getting done. It is eye-opening 👀 to get in there and actually witness all the work that IS being done, day and night, by such a small number of staff and volunteers. Hats off to all of you special people! 🤩

I guarantee if you volunteer a small amount of your time with a shelter or rescue, you will not only get the answer to these questions, but a greater understanding of the challenges.

Stop 🛑 seeing the problems and wondering “why”. Start participating to help fix them. ✅ Do it. Make time. For your love of the animals. ❤️

07/12/2024

☝️

07/12/2024

There is no better material to use inside your winter shelter than straw!

Thank you for caring for community cats. 😻

07/12/2024

Kirsten keeps chugging along 🚕 doing transports and overnights - all the leg work. She helped Kasey get three of her crew done this week and she only has 1️⃣ left! 😸 Thankful she was willing to work with us, even through challenging times for the betterment of the kitties. 🫶🏽

Ashley got the last 2️⃣ appointments for this week to get her two fellas neutered. Hopefully, it will help the spraying problem so that everyone can have a happier life!

06/12/2024

It may just be “shelter medicine”, but I, for one, will always praise them!! 🙌🏼 They do AMAZING things for unowned pets every single day. And, I’m pretty sure TT would agree with me. ❤️

4️⃣ weeks after his abscessed wound was clipped, cleaned and sutured, he’s back in one piece!

He has remained sweet as pie throughout the process.

Not only did they medically help TT recover but, in order to help me through some family medical issues, they offered to house him at their facility during the days they were open. A staff member even volunteered to take TT over the holiday while I had a short stay at the hospital.

LIFE SAVERS and I can’t thank them enough for helping myself and TT through this. 🫶🏼

06/12/2024

Is this cat feral?
How do you know?

06/12/2024

Did you know?!

All outdoor cats are not feral.

05/12/2024

In my absence (due to family medical reasons), Kirsten has picked up all the slack!! 🙏🏼 She's been trapping, overnighting, transporting, picking up friendlies, coordinating with caretakers - the works! I couldn't be more grateful that Stray Cat has been able to continue assisting during this time. 😻

Yesterday, we assisted Ashley with 2️⃣ males she took in who have reached "that age" - where they begin to spray! 👎🏼 No one wants to deal with that. And if you neuter EARLY, you might not ever have to. Hopefully, it will take care of the problem for these two (and Ashley)!

Kirsten was also able to pick up 3️⃣ of Kasey's kitties as well. Kasey had already started on her bunch herself, but now finds herself without a car to finish things up. Kirsten was more than happy to assist with the transport. One headed to the Clinic yesterday and two 🚗 hitched a free ride with Kirsten to Blue Ridge Animal League this morning. 👏🏼