REAL Cruzan Cats

03/03/2025

Join us for an Evening of Compassion & Cuisine at Feather Leaf Inn April 12! Details and updates from R.E.A.L. Cruzan Cats https://mailchi.mp/97ef748400b5/feather-leaf-inn-dinner-april-12-news-from-real-cruzan-cats

03/03/2025

Thanks to St. Croix Animal Welfare Center executive director LaToya Petty, we learned this past week that none of the animal rescue / shelter contracts have been signed by the VI Department of Agriculture. We all sent our signed contracts back to them in late October and early November, but none were counter-signed / executed by VIDA. So none of us, territory wide, have received any payments. We rely on our grant from VIDA in order to be able to pay for all of the spays and neuters of un- owned cats on St. Croix. We are currently owed $22,500 for 2025, and as a small organization, not having this funding drastically reduces what we can do. We need your help to keep going, right now we are trying to trap as many cats as possible to get them TNVRed ahead of kitten season. We have been doing a lot over the past year and a half, and we are seeing fewer kittens this winter as a result - but that can change very quickly if we don’t keep up. Help us by making a donation today. None of these services are free. We pay for TNVR both at the AWC and at Progressive Veterinary Hospital.  https://www.realcruzancats.org/

PLEASE SHARE! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!

The USVI Government has failed to execute contracts with animal rescues across the territory. As of this moment, the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center, the St. Thomas Humane Society, the Animal Care Center of St. John, Ruff Start, and REAL Cruzan Cats have not received their much-needed funding. Animal shelters across the territory are in danger of closing their doors.

On September 30, 2024 the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center’s contract with the USVI Government expired. Their pleas for a new contract were met with silence. When communication opened, the USVI Government indicated their plan to significantly decrease the Department of Agriculture’s funding which would have a direct detrimental effect on animal welfare. It took the help of vocal advocates, both locally and in the states to get the attention of Government House. The USVI Government was bombarded with phone calls, emails, and letters. Within weeks, the USVI Government “awarded” SCAWC with a $175,000 grant for general operations and a $50,000 grant for a spay/neuter program on October 22, 2024. Sadly, those funds were never received.

Despite receiving confirmation from the USVI Government that their signed contracts were received, the contracts were never executed. The first payment of the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center’s awarded grant was due on December 1, 2024. The payment never arrived. On January 1, 2025 the first payment of SCAWC’s spay/neuter grant for the amount of $25,000 was due. The payment never arrived.

After months of unanswered emails and voicemails, St. Croix Animal Welfare Center’s Executive Director, LaToya Petty went in person to Department of Agriculture on February 24, 2025 and learned that St. Croix Animal Welfare Center’s contact at the Department of Agriculture was no longer active within the Department. This is when Ms. Petty was informed that St. Croix Animal Welfare Center’s contracts were never executed. Right away, Ms. Petty contacted the Humane Society of St. Thomas, the Animal Care Center of St. John, Ruff Start, and Real Cruzan Cats and inquired if any of the other animal rescues in the territory received their government funding or an executed contract. None of the animal rescues in the USVI have an executed contract with USVI government, nor have they received government funding.

On Friday, February 28, 2025 Ms. Petty and Becca Hughson, Director of Public Relations and Marketing for the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center met with Administrator Samuel Sanes. Administrator Sanes was shocked to learn the USVI Government failed to execute contracts for animal rescues across the territory. Administrator Sanes assured St. Croix Animal Welfare Center that he would work to get contracts executed and funding dispersed. On March 1, 2025 Sanes alerted Ms. Petty and Ms. Hughson that he reached out to the USVI Commissioner of Finance, Kevin McCurdy but did not receive an answer. Administrator Sanes assured Ms. Petty and Ms. Hughson that he was meeting with Commissioner McCurdy on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 on St. Thomas and would speak with him in person about this issue.

The second USVI Government funding payment toward the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center’s general operations grant was due on March 1, 2025. Despite emails and phone calls, there seems to be no headway regarding the matter of funding animal rescues across the territory.

We are asking you, begging you to help us. We want to reestablish our open-door policy for the unwanted and abandoned pets of St. Croix. We want to provide free services to our community. If you would like to donate to support animal rescues across the territory, please click these links:
https://stcroixawc.org/donate
https://humanesocietystthomas.org
www.stjohnanimalcarecenter.com/donate
https://ruffstartstx.org/donate
www.realcruzancats.org

If you would like to volunteer to help the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center, please email us at [email protected]. If you would like to help us MAKE SOME NOISE please call and email all of our government leaders.

SIDE QUEST: Send ALL of your photos of abandoned, stray, and injured animals to our government leaders. Every time they open their inbox, we want them to see what their lack of action is doing to the most vulnerable in the territory.

Governor Bryan
Richard Motta, Communications Director
[email protected]
340-773-1404

Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett
340-778-5900
www.plaskett.house.gov/contact

Click HERE for the current list of USVI Senators and their contact information: https://legvi.org/senator/

Humane Society of St. Thomas USVI Animal Care Center of St. John Ruff Start STX REAL Cruzan Cats

02/03/2025

Adopt now Beans and/or Evie! Beans (tabby) is sweet, affectionate, super outgoing, tough… just has a huge personality. Evie (marble print) is very snuggly, champion biscuit maker, a good fetcher, and a bit chatty.
They both are very playful and athletic. They love all toys and don’t seem to have favorites. They are rescued from St Croix USVI BUT NOW IN FOSTER CARE IN NEW ENGLAND! visit realcruzancats.org to apply for adoption.

27/02/2025

Happy Birthday to Suzanne of NJ! A few months ago she adopted Disco, a kitten with Cerebral Hypoplasia, rescued from St Croix USVI. To celebrate this special day, her friend Regis made a donation to REAL CRUZAN CATS. If you would like to celebrate with Disco we welcome more donations! And if you would like to celebrate a special person you can make a donation in their honor. Congrats Suzanne and thx for adopting

27/02/2025

Happy Birthday to Suzanne of NJ! A few months ago she adopted Disco, a kitten with Cerebral Hypoplasia, rescued from St Croix USVI. To celebrate this special day, her friend Regis made a donation to REAL CRUZAN CATS. If you would like to celebrate with Disco we welcome more donations! And if you would like to celebrate a special person you can make a donation in their honor. Congrats Suzanne and thx for adopting!

26/02/2025

Eartha is a sweet and cuddly 11-month old female living in New England AND IS STILL WAITING TO BE ADOPTED! She loves to sleep up beside you, craves head scratches and loves the smell of waffles! eartha comes with a brother, Sammy, who is a playful sweet guy! Visit realcruzancats.org to learn more and apply to adopt this dynamic duo

25/02/2025

🐾 TNVR Saves Lives! 🐾

So far in 2025, R.E.A.L. Cruzan Cats has TNVRed 80 cats—that’s an average of 3 cats every 2 days! 🐱✂️ Each cat that gets trapped, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and returned (or adopted!) means fewer kittens born into hardship and a healthier, more stable cat community on our island.

Our work doesn’t stop, and we need your help to keep going! Every TNVR costs on average $60 per cat, and with so many more cats needing to be fixed, your support makes a real difference.

Our partner clinic St. Croix Animal Welfare Center is offering HALF PRICE SPAY/NEUTER for the first 2 weeks of March. Let's help make this a hugely successful effort by donating, volunteering, and spreading the word!

Together, we can make St. Croix a better place for our island cats. 💛

25/02/2025

Our little friend from the lagoon is home with his new family! His name is now Gilligan since he was stuck at the lagoon. He’s still so thin and weak, but with the love of his new family, we know he’ll grow big and strong! We are so grateful to Progressive Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Ariel Baumann for your wonderful care! As always, donations needed - his hospitalization cost almost $1000, but did literally save this little angel’s life. Thank you! 🙏 ❤️‍🩹🐈

http://www.realcruzancats.org/

25/02/2025

Sammy is a sweet and playful 11-month old male living in New England AND IS STILL WAITING TO BE ADOPTED! He loves to sleep cuddled up beside you and follows us everywhere. He loves his “bird on a string” too. Sammy comes with a sister, Eartha, who is a sweetheart too! Visit realcruzancats.org to learn more and apply to adopt this dynamic duo!

24/02/2025

Meet Merlin! Our friend Raquel picked him up at the Lagoon last week (yes he's the 4th kitten we've taken in from there in 2 weeks... 😔) Renee Petrillo & Michael took him in and thankfully, this little guy is doing great! He's happy, healthy, and already halfway through his quarantine. He's super playful and super cuddly. And he has a little beard 😹 He's about 1.5 pounds right now, so he'll be available for adoption in a few weeks once he can be neutered. 🩶

22/02/2025

On Tuesday, we got a message that there was a very sick kitten at Altona lagoon. He was skinny and barely moving. Renee & Michael went over and found him right away, and rushed him to Progressive Veterinary Hospital. Dr. Baumann tested him for FIV/FeLV (negative) and ran some bloodwork, and found that he was severely anemic. She asked if she could try a blood transfusion. We agreed, let's try to save him, and by Wednesday he was eating and had a bit more pep. He isn't completely out of the woods yet but he's doing much better, and we have a home for him on island once he is stable enough to leave the hospital. But this is our second big hospitalization this week alone, and kitten season is ramping up fast - this is why we need donations. Help us help them... Please chip in if you can. ❤️‍🩹

22/02/2025

Teeny is HOME! She's reunited with her brother Itty Bitty and she's doing great! Her heart is enlarged, she had to have 2 sets of imaging and we are still waiting to hear the report from the cardiologist. We don't know what made her so sick, but we are very grateful to Dr. Baumann for getting her through. WE DESPERATELY NEED FUNDS! Saving her cost $1300. Please donate to help us cover this bill if you can. Thank you so much for your ongoing support. 🙏Our donation page is http://www.realcruzancats.org/

21/02/2025

Congrats to Alma Ann and Benoit! They are adopted! And these Frederiksted downtown rescues are staying together! Thats right, foster mom Kate ended up adopting them. IF YOU ARE READY TO ADOPT AS WELL…we have a bonded pair ready right now. Check out Sammy & Eartha!

16/02/2025

Adoption fees reduced for this bonded pair! Adopt Sammy & Eartha. They are 11month old siblings rescued from St Croix USVI. Now in New England in foster care. They LOVE TO CUDDLE at night, good with kids, Eartha likes to jump into open arms, Sammy loves chasing feathers on strings, they are just the best! Visit realcruzancats.org to apply for adoption at reduced fees to $200

15/02/2025

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT! We have a high-volume spay/neuter vet joining us for the first two weeks of March and we want to capitalize on this opportunity to really make a difference in our community! From March 1st - March 15th we will be taking as many spay/neuter appointments as possible, AND we’ll be offering spay/neuter services for 50% off!

Appointments are required! Please call 340-778-1651 to make an appointment. Please note, all appointments require a $25 refundable deposit. All no-call no-show appointments will forfeit their deposit.

14/02/2025

UPDATE: Little Teeny is doing well, but she is still in the hospital. But she's eating and drinking and her spirit is strong! We are hoping she'll be able to go back to her foster family this week, please send her love and luck to get through this!!

💖 A Valentine’s Day Plea for a Tiny Heart in Need 💖

This Valentine’s Day, we’re asking for your love and support to help a very special little kitten, Teeny. This sweet 6-week-old baby came into our care recently, but she is now fighting for her life at Progressive Veterinary Hospital. She’s having trouble breathing, and the vets believe she may have an enlarged heart—but we are doing everything we can to save her.

She’s tiny but strong, and with the right care, she has a chance at a beautiful life. She’s out of the oxygen cage (a good sign) but still breathing abnormally. Thankfully, she’s bright, eating, and drinking. Doctors Canton and Baumann are keeping her through the weekend while they seek another specialist to interpret her imaging. We need your help to cover her ongoing hospitalization and treatment.

💌 Will you be her Valentine? Any amount—no matter how small—can make a life-saving difference. Please consider donating to help this little one get the care she needs.

🐾 Ways to Help:
💝 Donate via http://www.realcruzancats.org/
💝 Send via Venmo () Paypal ([email protected])
💝 Share this post to spread the word!

Your love saves lives. Let’s give this tiny heart a chance to keep beating. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! ❤️🐾

13/02/2025

Woohoo we are so happy to announce that bonded buddies were ADOPTED TOGETHER! Rugby, Baxter & Jet all get to stay together thanks to the Barry Family of New Hampshire. All were rescued from St Croix separately but came together in foster care and got along so beautifully. Thanks to our foster families in USVI and New England for doing an amazing job. Congrats Barry Family!

11/02/2025

Adopt Sammy & Eartha! Black kittens rock! Especially when they are rescued from US Virgin Islands at 1 month old, now living in foster care so they have learned how to love, play and be a humans BFF! Bonus Eartha loves waffles and will help you eat them! They are in New England, only available together but FEES ARE REDUCED SO WE CAN FIND THEM A HOME! Visit realcruzancats.org SHARE PLEASE!