Starlit's Strays TNR

01/03/2025

Don't forget to get your entries in for our Lottery Bouquet! Your donations will go directly to helping Starlit's Strays TNR kitties!

Today is World Spay Day and since our mission is spay/neuter, what a purrfect day to open up the raffle for our lottery bouquet!

We were generously donated $150 of lottery tickets and are raffling them to help with community cat colony care, cat/kitten food, medical costs, and all the expenses that come with TNR (trap, neuter, return).

Included in the bouquet is $150 worth of lottery scratchers, some cute kitty kicker toys, a spay/neuter magnet, and a TNR decal! The raffle closes at 1:00pm Tuesday, March 11th and we will draw for a winner at 5pm Tuesday, March 11th!

$10 donation = 1 entry
$15 donation = 5 entries
$20 donation = 10 entries

Please make sure your name for the drawing is noted however you choose to donate. Facebook donations always come through as anonymous so make sure to let us know if you donate that way. If you want to mail a check, send us a message and we can give you our mailing address! If you win the raffle, we can ship to you, in Missouri only.

Paypal:
https://www.paypal.me/StarlitsStraysTNR

Venmo:
https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2577434855604224619&created=1740523808

25/02/2025

Today is World Spay Day and since our mission is spay/neuter, what a purrfect day to open up the raffle for our lottery bouquet!

We were generously donated $150 of lottery tickets and are raffling them to help with community cat colony care, cat/kitten food, medical costs, and all the expenses that come with TNR (trap, neuter, return).

Included in the bouquet is $150 worth of lottery scratchers, some cute kitty kicker toys, a spay/neuter magnet, and a TNR decal! The raffle closes at 1:00pm Tuesday, March 11th and we will draw for a winner at 5pm Tuesday, March 11th!

$10 donation = 1 entry
$15 donation = 5 entries
$20 donation = 10 entries

Please make sure your name for the drawing is noted however you choose to donate. Facebook donations always come through as anonymous so make sure to let us know if you donate that way. If you want to mail a check, send us a message and we can give you our mailing address! If you win the raffle, we can ship to you, in Missouri only.

Paypal:
https://www.paypal.me/StarlitsStraysTNR

Venmo:
https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2577434855604224619&created=1740523808

22/02/2025

Thank you so much to everyone who sent kitten food, we are putting it to good use! Our newest kitten is Ditto!

We were contacted by a business where we'd found 2 juveniles a couple months ago, a kitten had showed up and was trying to get into the dumpster to find food. No one in that area feeds cats so we were very worried. We tried to trap her as the big storm approached but she she was hiding and didn't come back to the dumpster before it hit.

We left food out during the storm but there were no paw prints the following day, we were so worried she was buried in 8 inches of snow or frozen with the negative temps we had.

The day after the storm we were finally able to set a trap and catch her! Not only is she very small/starved, but likely got to the business by hitching a ride under a car. She has a burn on one side of her face/eye that luckily already looks to be healing.
She is a scaredy-cat and will take some time to get used to people but luckily seems to like gentle pets! We also think she prefers the warm puppy tent she is in vs. -6 degrees and snow she somehow survived in! She has horrible diarrhea we are tackling as well, so its amazing she survived out there at all. Thank you for supporting kittens like Ditto with food donations!!

13/02/2025

We lasted about a week and a half without kittens, that was the extent of non-kitten season for us I guess! With our new group of kittens, from a colony we are working to TNR, and our longterm/hospice kitties that eat kitten food, we have run out! If anyone can donate a bag of dry and/or box of wet kitten food, we would be so grateful! We have the kind we use on our Amazon and Chewy wishlist and also posted a photo below. Thank you!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/GIWLXVB2V6EH?ref_=wl_share

https://www.chewy.com/g/starlits-strays-tnr_b90163322

23/01/2025

We are so excited to be a part of this and to get even more cats in Phelps County TNR'd in 2025!!

2025 Grant Recipients We’re proud to announce this year’s winners of the Rachael Ray No-Kill Excellence Grants and the Rachael Ray Save Them All Grants. Once again, we had many phenomenal applications to review but our selection committee eventually settled on 51 projects to fund. This year’s ...

01/01/2025

Thank you so much for all your support in 2024! We couldn't have gotten so many cats fixed or cared for those in need from colonies, without your help!

We had some changes this year and weren't able to do as much TNR as previous years. We did get some TNR done and also worked on educating others on how to trap! We lent out our traps, gave tips, and helped others learn how to TNR community cats effectively. We TNR'd 89 cats in 2024, which brings our grand total in Phelps County to 743 TNR's since 2020!

In addition to TNR, we successfully re-trapped the Fire Colony, a colony of 25 cats, when they were being shot/killed, and relocated them all to safe barn homes. This was a massive undertaking, thank you to all of you involved that helped them. Some of them went to rescue since they were friendly! We also found 24 friendly/injured adult cats in colonies that we spayed/neutered and sent to licensed rescues to find homes.

Last, but never least, we rescued 87 kittens from colonies. We cared for them, got them healthy, spayed/neutered, vaccinated and sent them on their way to rescues to find homes as well! We had some heartache, but also many wonderful stories of survival and happy endings for so many!

All of this would not be possible for 3 of us to do without the help and support of all of you! We truly are so grateful for you. We hope that 2025 will bring even more spays, neuters and happy endings!

Just some of the kitties we TNR'd and rescued in 2024...

05/12/2024

Who remembers Fig?! (most days we call him Figgy-Pudding. Lol) Big update!
Fig was a tiny newborn kitten when he was found at a colony with his siblings and feral mama. Once they weaned, mama was TNRd and returned to her colony. Fig was not well from a very young age. We thought mama had passed on a parasite of some sort, he had chronic diarrhea. Nothing helped though and f***l test after f***l test showed up negative. As they grew, his siblings all went to licensed rescue and were adopted but Fig stayed with us, the vet could not figure out what was causing the horrible diarrhea. His belly was huge!

We treated him for FIP, 84 days of shots and still he didn't get better. We tried every special diet and finally we found one food, Biome, that stopped the diarrhea...after a YEAR of this mystery! Yay! BUT... After quite a few months on the Biome, his belly was still enlarged, he still was not gaining weight, he acted starved all the time and his hair was falling out. We were at the point where we were trying to decide if his quality of life was suffering so much that we should let him go.

One day when discussing his mystery issues with a vet tech, she remembered a dog who had Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency, a fairly rare disease, and he had chronic diarrhea and weightloss. Our vet was on board with starting treatment immediately to see if it would help, we were grasping at anything at this point! Now 3 months later we are positive the mystery is solved, Fig has Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency! It is fairly easy to treat too! He can eat ANY food now, but it has to be sprinkled with a Pancreatic enzyme powder. That's it! He is finally gaining weight, slowly, and is doing great! He has spots of fur that may never come back, they look almost like scars, and we aren't sure if he will ever be fully healthy, but he is happy, not struggling with diarrhea, and seems healthier by the day! Thanks to everyone who followed his story, donated for vet visits and have been so supportive!

04/12/2024

THANK YOU so much to everyone that donated on Giving Tuesday! You are all amazing!!! 💜

03/12/2024

Starlit's Strays TNR main mission this and always is to spay and neuter more community cats in our area! We have TNR'd over 740 cats in Phelps County and every surgery costs $30-$32 depending on which clinic we can get appointments at. This includes the surgery and rabies vaccine.

This year we've had to slow down on TNR because of funding and resources. We've been lending out traps, teaching others how to trap/neuter/return in their area, and helping with sick/injured kittens and cats found in colonies.

Unfortunately we have a long list of people needing trapping help and colonies that need to be finished. Donating today will help us spay/neuter more cats and reduce the number of kittens being born outside! TNR improves the lives of these cats that live outside, tenfold, they are healthier and happier! It also cuts down on the number of kittens coming into all the overwhelmed rescues and shelters! We want to continue to provide these surgeries to the public but need help from the community. Please consider an end of year donation to help with TNR. You can donate here or on our paypal at [email protected]

03/12/2024

A very special update! Many of you remember Mogi who was found this past summer with a horrific burn on his head, stuck in a garage for 3+ days with no food or water. While we are doing TNR and caring for community cats, we often find kittens and cats in desperate need.

When Mogi was found he was severely injured, starved and dehydrated, he likely wouldn't have made it another day. He was in pain and all we could do was hold him, comfort him, and syringe feed him until he was strong enough for surgery. Without donations from our followers, we wouldn't have been able to afford the surgery to repair the hole in his head, his umbilical hernia, or neuter.

After he healed from surgery, he went to one of the rescues we network with, Heartland Humane Society, and they found him the most purrfect forever family!💜 We are so lucky to get to see his success story as his mama posts about him on social media! He has a new brother, Yoshi, and is so loved and happy now! His first Christmas, you will see in the photos below, looks magical! This is why we continue to do what we do, for kittens like Mogi. People say this all the time, "we couldn't do it without your donations", but it is very much true! We are a tiny nonprofit with only a handful of volunteers. Your donations directly helped Mogi and other cats and kittens we have found suffering outside.

If you can donate on this day of giving, you can do it here on Facebook or through our PayPal at [email protected]! Thank you so much from Mogi and other Starlit's Strays kitties!

27/11/2024

Thank you to everyone that sent food and/or signed up to autoship a bag to the community cats in Phelps County that we care for daily! We are so thankful for the support and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving with your family, friends, and furry kids! These cats may not have a home but they are loved, spayed & neutered, have full bellies, and are cared for with your help!

16/11/2024

For the last 5 years, we've been lucky enough to have access to a rescue food bank with discounted cat food, without it we could not feed the 8 colonies and multiple fosters we care for daily. We get a great deal on wet cat food but unfortunately they have not had dry cat food donations for well over a year. The cost of food has depleted us in addition to kitten food, medical bills, and vetting costs. We've had so much support when we ask for donations but hate to continuously ask.

One very special donor, Paula💜 has been so committed to helping us continue to feed all our colony cats with an autoship each month of dry cat food.
We are wondering if any of our other loyal followers would be interested in donating just 1 bag of dry food each month on autoship. It would help our fixed colony kitties so much and we would be so grateful. We go through about 350 pounds of dry cat food a month! Amazon and Chewy both have autoship options, we mostly use Cat Chow or Friskies(any kind on sale is fine). If you are able to donate just one bag or a monthly autoship of one bag, we would be so grateful! Thank you so much for being a part of the community that helps support these cats, it takes a village!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/GIWLXVB2V6EH?ref_=wl_share

https://www.chewy.com/g/starlits-strays-tnr_b90163322

11/11/2024

Kelsey Moreland! Thank you for the donation! We haven't found any way to conact you to thank you for sending us supplies, so wanted to let you know how grateful we are! 💜

05/11/2024

Another day, another kitten with a broken leg! This is why we feel so strongly about not leaving kittens in colonies we are TNRing! 75% of kittens born outside don't make it to a year old. There are far too many dangers outside, as we have seen, over and over again.

Meet Haze! This little 2 pound wonder was limping and crying when she was found. Sure enough, her leg is broken. Luckily it's below the knee and the vet said it has already begun to heal so no surgery for her! We're relieved she won't need surgery at her size. We were worried after losing Fripouille last month when she was under anesthesia to repair a broken leg.

This little girl may end up with a bit of a limp as an adult but the vet felt she was already well on her way to being healed up! Welcome to an indoor only, safe life from now on Haze!💜

05/11/2024

We've shared before that we care for a number of fixed colonies in Phelps County every day, regardless of rain, snow or emergency, and today was no exception!

It's been raining here for 36 hours and we have had 9+ inches. Unfortunately our colony cats don't get to escape this, even shelters don't stay dry in that much rain.

One of our colonies was hit by a flash flood last night. This area flooded once a few years ago but this definitely was worse. There is a creek not far to the left, where you can see water still, and when I arrived I could tell the water had risen overnight and everything was gone, washed away.
The feeding station, bowls, and all the shelters.

Luckily at this colony there is an abandoned shed and a few of the cats came out when they heard me. They must have been able to get high enough to stay safe. Almost all of them are accounted for, although spooked.
I found two of the shelters down the creek, but everything else is gone.
If anyone in our area has any large tubs we can use for a new feeding station, message us. We just lay a tub with no lid on its side usually and that provides cover for the food and water. We're so grateful the kitties are OK! Let's hope the rain stops soon!