Colony Cats of Birmingham TNR Team for Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue

02/14/2025

Our sweet feline leukemia positive kitty Olive is living it up in her foster home! Shes already gaining weight. Look how pretty she is 🥰

02/14/2025

This well written post gives you an idea on our thought process when it comes to spaying a pregnant cat. This is our opinion as a TNR team and no one else’s. The things we have seen and could have prevented if that cat was just spayed 💔 Sometimes we have to do the hard thing to save more lives.

What convinced me to spay pregnant cats?

When I began my journey into TNR, of course I immediately encountered a pregnant cat. And when I looked for help from the local cat rescue organization, they let me know they could take her in and spay her.

Like many people who have not been involved in cat Rescue, I was horrified. Weren't we out here trying to save their lives? How could we talk about spaying a pregnant cat?

Another woman had seen me setting traps and working hard to trap this elusive cat, and when she found out I was talking to the group who would spay this cat she said oh I can take her, let me take her. I'll let her have her babies and I'll work on finding them homes.

I did catch the cat, and I arranged to bring her to this woman's home. When I got there, the smell of cat urine was overpowering. Walking into the house it appeared clean - but all the furniture was covered in plastic, and there were cats everywhere. Dozens of cats.

We walked into a different room where this very kind lady wanted to just open the carrier and let this shy newly trapped pregnant cat loose in this house with dozens of other cats. I didn't want to offend her, but I could see this was not saving this cat. There's no way I could leave that cat. And so I looked at her and said “you know, I can leave this cat, but I had another offer of a home for her, and they would keep her as their own cat. Would you mind if I gave her to them?”

Yes, I lied. In my defense, I will say I lied out of kindness, because the only reason this woman offered to take the cat was because she was going to be spayed. She didn't need another cat, she didn’t want another cat, and she definitely didn't need a litter of kittens. And, as soon as she knew, there was another home available, she was happy to let her go.

That year, our local shelter was euthanizing 40 healthy tame kittens a week. 40. Healthy, tame, already born kittens.

I took the cat to the cat Rescue; they kept her and she was spayed and adopted out. That cat's life mattered - and she got a home. And I saved several kittens, because by spaying this cat before she had kittens, already born kittens who may have been euthanized got into homes.

Every time I took on a new TNR situation and saw kittens in the bushes -sick kittens, dying kittens, feral kittens - I became more comfortable with spaying every cat I trapped. Every time I saw or heard of a pregnant cat with complications - pyometra, mastitis, complicated births which would have ended in death for the cat without intervention - I became a strong advocate of spay them all. I only hope others who find pregnant cats can put aside the emotional response, look at the reality of Rescue, and know, spaying those pregnant cats save lives.

02/13/2025

I got to tell Harry the good news! He has a foster home! Thank you everyone who has donated towards their vet bill. They are both completely covered. Harry and Olivia will be spayed and neutered tomorrow and then their new journey begins. And that means 4/6 of the dumped crew will have safe spots to land. An update on Gracie and Renee will come this weekend.

02/11/2025

Hey everyone! We are looking for a couple of volunteers to help us respond to emails and messages. Being tech savvy is not a requirement, but you would need to be able to navigate Google docs and sheets, Facebook messaging, Discord, and Gmail. Making phone calls is not a requirement either, but if you are comfortable doing that we can discuss parameters in more detail. Our hope is for the volunteers to spend a few hours a week looking over requests and emails, communicating them with our team, and respond in a timely manner. It is not a difficult job, but just a little more than our team can handle alone right now. If you're interested in helping please send us an email at [email protected]!

02/11/2025

Alright guys, in order to get Olivia and Harry off of the streets and into a foster home we need funds to cover their vetting! We need to raise at least $100 per cat. If you can help us pave the way to their happy ever after please donate using our links below! Thank you!

PayPal:

Venmo:

Cashapp: $colonycatsbham

Any check or cash donations can be made out to Kitty Kat Haven and Rescue and dropped off at Kitty Kat Haven in Hoover.

02/10/2025

Sitting with Olivia this afternoon. Sweet love bites, some great biscuits, and pawing at me until I pet her more. Luckily we do have a foster for Olivia! She’s going to be grabbed tomorrow and spayed. Then off to finding her forever family 🥰

02/10/2025

We haven’t had anyone step up to foster our sweet dumped cats. Olivia and her friends/family will be grabbed tonight and fixed tomorrow. If we can’t find fosters they’ll go back outside and we will continue caring for them. It’s not ideal, but we have run out of any space to put kitties completely.

02/08/2025

02/08/2025

Here are three of the four other kitties who have been abandoned. Olivia is the long hair calico. She’s a big talker and super sweet. We are pretty sure she is littermates with Chappell and Sabrina. Gracie is the little tabby/calico mix. She has a twin who isn’t pictured that we named Renee. Both of these girls seem like teenagers. So, we guess they’re between six months to a year old. The big tabby boy is Harry! Harry is also a big talker and lover. He’s the first to come up to you for pets. He prefers them over food.

Our plan is to have them all fixed this upcoming week. We would love to have foster homes for them to go to so we don’t have to put them back outside. Please message us if you could help. These sweet cats don’t belong outside. Seeing Chappell and Sabrina inside you can tell that’s where they spent the majority of their life before being dumped like trash.

02/08/2025

Chappell Roan is the sweetest baby! She’s definitely decompressed in her foster home. She has the biggest purr. Our vet couldn’t even hear her heartbeat becuase of how loud her purrbox was. She estimated Chappell and Sabrina to be between one and two years old. How could anyone just toss them out like trash? They have four more family members outside. We would love to find them places to go as well. They’re just as sweet and beautiful. I’ll include their pictures and names in a separate post. I’ll never understand how anyone could do this. We have confirmed they all were abandoned at this point. If you’re interested in fostering one of the kitties who are still outside (or adopting or fostering to adopt) please send us a message!

02/08/2025

It’s been too long since we have shared a Roebuck colony post! So, look at these sweet babies soaking up sunshine and enjoying the warmer weather ☀️

02/07/2025

I know you guys saw our new additions this week- Chappell Roan and Sabrina. Well, they were found at our OG colony which happens to be an apartment complex. We have talked to so many residents who have confirmed our suspicions. They are not owned, they were dumped. We found out Sabrina had kittens (whole different story) so we went back out looking for them. Instead of finding them, we found THREE more calico cats and a tabby. All sweet and gorgeous, like Olivia below. Like Chappell Roan and Sabrina, they are NOT owned. This makes a total of ten, yes TEN, dumped cats in one apartment complex in less than six months. We have no idea how to prevent this, but something has to give. Where do we find room and adopters for this many friendly cats who don’t belong outside? And how can you be so crappy as to leave your cats behind when you could literally take them to a shelter. They’d stand a better chance than being let loose where people walk their dogs off leash, speed through, and coyotes wander. I’ll never get that state of mind.

02/06/2025

Briar’s first “family” kicked her out when she became pregnant. She faithfully slept on their doormat for weeks, hoping to be let back in.

That was last July. Fast forward to today and my nickname for her is Queen B because this is a girl who knows her worth. She is descended from royalty and elevates the status of my whole house simply with her presence! Briar loves getting pets and attention, but she also loves sitting in her window and watching the world around her. She is the perfect mix of affectionate, but independent.

Now, here’s the challenge. Since Briar is a royal, she doesn’t understand why she should have to interact with the peasants (AKA, other cats and dogs). Because of this, Briar’s ideal home is one without other pets. We know this is a big ask so if you do have a very sweet and calm cat or dog and are interested in Briar, I’d be happy to talk to you about what that could look like.

Briar is available for adoption through Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue ❤️

02/04/2025

🎶 H-O-T-T-O-G-O
Purr n' meow n' and touch your toes
Raise your paws, now body roll
Stretch it out, we're hot to go!
What's it take to get your number?
What's it take to bring me home?
Hurry up, it's time for supper
Order up, I'm hot to go! 🎶

Meet Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. These two beautiful girls were found roaming around an apartment complex for several weeks, possibly more. No one has claimed either of them and neither of them were microchipped. We assume they are either stray cats or were intentionally dumped, but we are looking for their humans just in case someone is missing one or both of them. They will be vetted and spayed, and if no owner is found, we would love to find them the loving furever homes they deserve!

In order to vet them, we need to raise $100 each. Please help us help them!

Here's how you can donate:

Venmo:

CashApp: $colonycatsbham

PayPal: (please note it's for Colony Cats)

02/04/2025

Neuter your ex this Valentine's Day!!! For a $25 donation, we will name one of the feral cats we trap after your ex and take them to get neutered or spayed! Donation information is below. You can email the name you'd like us to use along with a screenshot of your donation confirmation to [email protected] and we will post their picture on our page!

02/04/2025

It is not that relocation of feral cats cannot be done, but it is not an easy or always successful task. Let's take a closer look at the obstacles:

TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOR:
Feral cats form strong bonds with their territory and may attempt to travel long distances to return to their original home, putting them at risk of injury or death during the journey. There is a chance they will run away from their new location even if suitable acclimation was carried out. If there was no acclimation process, you can almost guarantee it.

STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE:
You will have to keep the kitty confined long enough so he can learn that this is his new home and you are the new feeder. This process is highly stressful for cats, especially since they are not socialized to humans and may not understand what is happening. It is also stressful for the human trying to care for the cat.

VACUUM EFFECT:
If cats are removed from an area, it is said that new cats will quickly move in to fill the space, meaning relocation does not actually reduce the population.

POTENTIAL FOR HARM IN NEW ENVIRONMENT:
A relocated cat may not be familiar with the new area's predators, food sources, or shelter options, increasing their risk of injury or starvation.

ETHICAL CONCERNS:
Many animal welfare organizations consider relocating feral cats as inhumane due to the potential for significant stress and danger to the animals.

🔸 What can you do instead? 🔸

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN (TNR):
This method involves trapping feral cats, sterilizing them, vaccinating them, ear-tipping for identification, and then returning them to their original location.

PROVIDE FOOD AND SHELTER:
If you are concerned about a feral cat population, consider providing food and shelter in a designated area to help manage their numbers and reduce conflicts.

02/04/2025

Ten cats trapped last night across three of our project 🎉

02/04/2025

We are doing a big trap tonight at several projects! The first is our original colony that started it all. We have caught three dumped females. All stunningly beautiful and seemingly super sweet babies. We know they aren’t feral because of how well maintained and monitored this colony is. So, now we are stuck with what do we do with them? The Haven is full and gearing up for kitten season. There is quite literally no where for them to go except back out. And they are not thriving outside. We need a whole separate location for our poor dumped TNR cats 😩😩😩