Starlit's Strays TNR

23/08/2024

BARN HOMES NEEDED!!!
Starlit's Strays is not TNRing these cats, they are out of our area, but they are being spayed/neutered/vaccinated and desperately need barn homes! Their caretaker is moving away and lives in a very rural area of Missouri. If they stay, they will starve or be shot by the person purchasing the home who does not want cats on the property. We wanted to at least share since we can reach more people and find possible barn homes for these kitties. There are 15+ cats. If you can give a home to a few of these babies, please message us and we will give you the contact information of the caretaker!

11/08/2024

We haven't shared about Hiccup lately, our FIP kitten, so an update!

Hiccup has been getting life saving FIP treatment for 74 days now! We have 10 days left of treatment and the recovery is astounding. He will be 6 months old right before his last day of meds and he has gone from a lethargic, sick baby, to a healthy happy juvenile cat! We have done bloodwork every 4 weeks as suggested, and have watched it slowly improve each time. His last bloodwork done when he was neutered a couple weeks ago showed his bloodwork all totally normal! They said you would never know he had FIP looking at it.

Our journey isn't completely over, once he has completed his 84 days, we start 84 days of observation to make sure he doesn't relapse. We are so excited he has done so well and know he will continue to heal so he can go on to rescue and find his forever home like his siblings all have!❤️

08/08/2024

Mogi had his surgery today!! All the scabs from the burn on his head had sloughed off, exposing his skull, so we were glad today was finally the day. Dr Chitwood closed the wound on his head, fixed his umbilical hernia that was causing him to leak urine out his belly, and he was neutered!

What a big day for this boy, even after surgery he is full of purrs and happy as a clam. He is home recovering now, swollen, but in good spirits and already trying to play! Thank you so much to all of you that donated for his surgery cost and his daily care! We truly could not have done it without you. Also a huge thank you to Dr Chitwood and his staff at St. James Veterinary Medical Center we would be lost without their amazing care and attentiveness. We are so lucky to have them! ❤️

27/07/2024

Many of you have been asking so we want to do an update on Mogi, our burn kitten. He is doing ok, improving a little each day! It turns out the urination issues he's having is called "patent urachus". Forgive me if I get the medical bits of this wrong, I actually had never hear of this before! It's a congenital anomaly when the urachal canal does not close off at the umbilical cord after birth. He is leaking urine from his belly! He went back to the vet yesterday and they attempted a special way of patching it, but it doesn't seem to have worked and the vet said he will fix it during his surgery. The surgery for his head has been pushed off another week until August 8th because we really want him stable before going under anesthesia.

Some of the scabs around his eyes and on part of his head have started to slough off! The most amazing improvement is that he has begun to PLAY! Our hearts are bursting because until yesterday he was not playing at all. Hope is definitely here now!❤️

Thank you so much everyone for the outpouring of love for Mogi, we think he's pretty special too and cannot wait to see him grow stronger and heal! If you want to contribute to his surgery you can conact St. James Veterinary Center directly at 573-265-5525 or donate through our PayPal at [email protected]

23/07/2024

Meet baby Mogi! This precious boy was found last Thursday night in a garage. He has a horrible burn on his head & face, the vet said there is just a thin layer of muscle left and then his skull! We have been keeping him as comfortable as possible but on top of his awful injury, he was starved and dehydrated.

The garage he was found in hadn't even been opened for at least 3 days when the homeowners had gone to the store. We think he may have climbed into the engine, gotten burned and then was locked in the garage with no food and water for days. He was severely dehydrated and has had some issues with fluids just running straight through him. We are hoping his body can recover. He cries a lot but stops and is all purrs when you hold him!

Mogi will be having surgery on his head next Thursday to close the wound. If you would like to help with the cost of his surgery you can call St. James Veterinary Clinic at 573-265-5525 and donate to Mogi under Starlit's Strays TNR account or you can email us PayPal at [email protected]

Please send lots of love and healing his way, he has a ways to go before we feel safe saying he is on the road to recovery! ❤️

13/07/2024

We are super low again on dry cat food for our community colony cats and wet kitten food for all the kittens in our care! If you can spare a bag of cat food or a box of wet kitten food all the kitties would be very happy!!
Cat Chow dry or Fancy Feast Kitten are what we use most. We have Amazon and Chewy lists but please let us know if you order from them, they rarely tell us who donates and we would love to thank you! Just a few of the adorable faces we are caring for that would like to thank you! ❤️

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

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

02/07/2024

We love when people feed & care for community cats that have no homes... just remember to spay and neuter them too! For about the cost of a bag of food you can ensure you don't have many more cats needing to be fed!
If you have an appointment set at Carol House Quick Fix (Rolla) we can lend you trap(s) and show you how to use them!

We can help with that!! 😻

Rolla: 573-465-3099 or [email protected]
St. Louis: 314-771-PETS (7387) or [email protected]

02/07/2024

We love when people feed/care for community cats that have no homes...but remember to spay and neuter them too! For about the cost of a bag of food you can prevent countless more cats needing to be fed!
We can lend you traps if you have an appointment set at Carol House Quick Fix!

We can help with that!! 😻

Rolla: 573-465-3099 or [email protected]
St. Louis: 314-771-PETS (7387) or [email protected]

21/06/2024

Sweetart update!🩷
Today was her surgery day and they did NOT amputate her leg! The vet said it looks like as her pelvis heals she is using her leg more so he decided not to amputate and see if she continues to improve. She was only spayed today and we are elated she is probably going to get to keep her leg!

18/06/2024

Not to be outdone by all the adorable kittens during kitten season, is this beautiful dilute tortie girl! Meet Sweetart! Sweetart came to us last week, she was found injured outside, the vet believes she was hit by a car. We wanted to get her into the vet asap while reaching out to some of our medical rescues we network with. She has a broken pelvis, no use of her rear right leg and even had a tooth knocked out!

The break to the pelvis damaged or severed the nerve to her leg so she is dragging it and has no feeling in it. We've had her on steroids to see if she would get any use back in her leg but the vet thinks it's likely permanent damage and will have to be amputated.

She is scheduled for surgery Thursday! She's not spayed so that needs to be done immediately, she doesn't appear to be pregnant but if she were very early pregnant we wouldnt be able to tell and her pelvis cannot handle a pregnancy. She will also be having her leg amputated.
She is the sweetest girl and we just want to get her all fixed up, then she will go to rescue and find a safe forever inside home, no more getting hit by cars!

If you can help with Sweetart's surgery cost, please call St. James Veterinary Clinic 573-265-5525 today or tomorrow and directly to donate to her care under Starlit's Strays TNR. The estimate is $668.42 for her surgery and we have already spent over $250 on xrays, her initial visit, medication, flea treatment, dewormer, etc. Thank you so much!

16/06/2024

Kitten season has kept us so busy that we've slacked on posting. Here is just one of the many tiny reasons we are so busy! Meet Pigeon, AKA Pidget, AKA baby Pidgeeeee! ❤️

This bottle baby has had a very rough start and we aren't sure if he is out of the woods yet, but he's doing well and enjoying life at the moment, so that's what we're focusing on!

We found Pigeon and his two sisters two weeks ago at a colony we've almost finished. We found them with mama in the mud, under a bush. Mama had tried to move them away from her only other shelter because 2 other siblings had already died in the shelter. She was trying so hard to care for them but was just a baby herself. Pigeon and his 2 living sisters were the size of newborns, even though their eyes were open, which happens usually around 7-10 days old. There was pus coming out of their eyes and their umbilical cord/belly button area! They were covered in fleas. We knew they didn't have long, poor mama must not have had enough milk because she was malnourished and young. She just couldn't keep them alive, hard as she was trying. This is why we TNR.

We brought all 3 kittens home immediately. We'll get mama fixed at our next TNR appointment though, we never want to forget the mama! We don't want her to have to go through that ever again.

All three babies were starving and latched to the bottle right away, but within a day or two, both girls had passed away. They likely had anemia from the fleas and unknown infection that our antibiotics were too late to help combat. We were heartbroken and braced ourselves for Pigeon to pass as well, but he kept on eating and slowly growing! We've been guarded because sometimes as they grow they have congenital issues develop, but he's doing well so far!

It's been 2 weeks! That means he is at least 3 weeks old and although small, he is growing and thriving! He's starting to get very curious about everything around him and loves to be held! Sweet baby Pidgee! ❤️

Please TNR (trap, neuter, return)! The suffering this mama and all her kittens endured could have been prevented if she had been spayed! The other cats at this colony that we TNR'd are all gaining weight, happier and healthier cats because this cycle has been stopped!

07/06/2024

Hiccup update!!
Hiccup started his FIP injections last week and is responding well to the meds! He already has some energy back so we're hopeful. He will get 84 days of injections (or pills if we switch to those eventually) and then 84 days of observation to make sure he doesn't relapse. These pics were taken only two days into treatment so he was still feeling pretty low energy, but his sister was happy to be a ham for the camera while he looks utterly unamused! 😂 It's ironic because when we first found them, weeks ago, she was the very sick one and he was the one purring and hamming it up for pictures.(see the last pic!)

02/06/2024

30/05/2024

Hiccup has FIP and we need help. 😔
We found Hiccup and his 4 siblings at a TNR site in early April, they weren't well, they had the worst case of worms I think we have ever seen. They've grown a lot and gotten healthy since then! Last week we noticed Hiccup's energy level was low and then his testicles swelled up? We thought maybe it was some sort of infection and he was started on antibiotics but then his belly started to grow, the telltale sign of FIP.

He had his bloodwork done today and has all the markers for FIP so we started him right away on his 84 days of injections. We are so grateful that this horrible disease isn't an immediate death sentence anymore, but 84 days of injections, blood panels and vet visits costs a lot. We won't choose money over his health, no kitty should have to suffer and die because treatment is expensive. The price of treatment has gone down in the couple years since the medication came out, so we're glad it's even a possibility to fundraise for him!

If you can donate anything to Hiccup's FIP treatment, we would be so grateful! The quickest way for us to get funds is through PayPal at [email protected]
If the donate button is easier, we will still get the money next month. That works too, we will still be treating him in a month!
Thank you so much! We hope he responds to the meds the way many cats and kittens have, this is the only current treatment for FIP.

04/05/2024

It's never JUST TNR. Kitten season has arrived like clockwork and made the "R"(Return) in TNR very difficult, as usual!

We are a very small volunteer run nonprofit, there's three of us and just 2 households, who do it all. Most would think TNR would be pretty simple, TRAP them, spay/NEUTER them, and RETURN them! This is the goal! We learned quickly when we started that things aren't quite so simple sometimes. Kitten season complicates things, as do medical conditions and other unique situations. Here are our non-R's from just this WEEK! All of these special cases will eventually go to licensed rescues but until then we will need food, litter, flea meds, and money for medical care. If you can donate any of those things to help with their care, thank you! We have an Amazon wishlist, a Chewy wishlist, PayPal and donate button.

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

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

Paypal: [email protected]

04/05/2024

16 more cats TNR'd yesterday thanks to Carol House Quick Fix Pet Clinic , Dr. Jessie Melton and her team! We could not have the positive impact on the community cats in Phelps County without them. Thank you so much for a successful TNR day!

15/04/2024

Friday we took 16 cats to Carol House Quick Fix in Rolla for their special TNR (trap, neuter, return) day! We are so grateful they invited us to be a part of this day. Thank you so much to Dr. Melton and her team, we're amazed you spayed and neutered 50 cats in one day, 14 of our 16 alone were females! This puts our total TNR of community cats in Phelps County since 2020 at 707 cats!!

13/04/2024

We are so grateful to Carol House Quick Fix, Dr. Jessie Melton, and her team in Rolla for including us on this special day! So many community kitties helped today!❤️

09/04/2024

Every year we have to make our "kitten season has arrived" post...and it has arrived, seemingly overnight, as usual! We have a young mama with tiny babies and a couple small kittens found at a big TNR site we're starting this week. There will be more quickly and we'll work hard to keep up!

Keep our new mama in your thoughts, she's young and many times either they don't know what to do or don't have enough milk, their babies often struggle to survive and die outside. She wasn't nursing them for quite a while and we were worried. Now that they are safe, Deb is keeping an eye on them to make sure she doesn't need to supplement.

30/03/2024

Another group of fire colony kitties went to a new home yesterday! These 4 girls will be living large in their very own kitty kottage! This will be their home/shelter, so they will spend quite a while inside only until they are completely at home and comfortable. Then eventually their new family will put in a kitty door and they will learn how to go in and out.

There are two large loft areas in the building and a lot of space for them to climb, play, lounge, and chase mice! They are starting off in a couple connected crates so they can learn who their new caretakers are first. It's also scary moving to a new place, we don't want them to run and hide right away. The crates will help them feel safe while they adjust to the new sights, smells and sounds of this new home.

We have been informed they already have names! Pancake (the super fluffy girl who is hiding in all the photos), Cookie Dough, Amanita, and Trametes! We know they will be so safe, loved, and cared for by this special family that offered them a whole house of their own!❤️

28/03/2024

The first group of our Fire Colony went to their new barn home today! Thank you so much Kari for offering a wonderful barn home to 4 of these special kitties! Kari has a beautiful rescue farm where she already has quite a few barn kitties she loves, adores, spoils and likes to make fat(her words! LOL) These babies will be so happy, safe and well cared for here with no worries now. A special thanks to Connie and Paula for driving all the way out to Rolla to get them and then transport them to Illinois to their new home.

They are set up in their acclimation crates in the kitty barn area and will stay in them for 3-4 weeks minimum to get used to the sights and sounds of their new home so they don't run away when let out!

24/03/2024

❤️🔥❤️Surviving 20 are safe!❤️🔥❤️
It's been a rough almost 2 weeks trying to re-trap the entire Fire Colony to get them safe from whoever has been shooting them.

The drop trap worked for a lot of them who were refusing to go anywhere near a trap after being trapped last fall to be TNR'd (spayed/neutered). One stubborn tortie girl was a holdout for over a week and we spent hours and days trying every trappers trick in the book. Finally hiding a trap inside a vacuum box worked!

Unfortunately the orange cat who was shot the day after we decided to relocate them, never reappeared. The photo his caretaker took looked like he was shot in the stomach area and we fear he passed from his injury. Char, the longhaired black cat, went missing for an entire week at the same time. We assumed he was shot and died with the orange boy but amazingly appeared two days ago! He was finally the last cat of the colony rescued today!

In the midst of this we have had to get the cats with gunshot wounds to the vet to be treated, spay/neuter a couple of the cats who had not been caught last fall, and try to formulate a plan for barn homes. It's been a crazy 12 days but they are safe and we would have continued for as long as it took to get them all! Our foster is a saint, she has opened her home to these babies to hold them temporarily and tend to them so that we could immediately get them out of that situation. I know she has cried over their wounds and how much they have suffered. I can never thank her enough, as soon as she would get settled, I would show up with another I had trapped!

Now we work to get them to their forever barns and special homes! Some will be going to wonderful barns together, a few will be going to licensed rescues and the ones that were shot are going to a special home that is more like a sanctuary. They will have a large catio with safe access to outdoors but will never live outside again! Thank you so much to everyone who donated money that went towards their vet bills, food and crates! We couldn't have done this without your support!

14/03/2024

🔥 Fire Colony: 1
Trucatch Trap: 0

😅 Long story but I can only laugh at this point! When you're trying to retrap cats that are trap savvy for hours on end, running on 4 hours sleep, sometimes you do dumb stuff. At least I didn't damage the car. (disclaimer: there wasn't a cat in or near the trap, it was behind the car and only going to be used if I caught someone in the drop trap.)

13/03/2024

What a day! Trapping cats that have already been trapped, neutered and released is not for the faint of heart! We caught 7 of them today though so it's a start! Two of them were males that actually had not be caught last fall when we did TNR so they will be getting neutered and vaccinated! Unfortunately we did not see the cat that was seen last night with a new gunshot wound. We did catch a couple of the cats with recent gunshot wounds and were so happy to get them safe. Thank you so much for those of you that were able to quickly get a couple crates to us so to add to the ones we had so we could house everyone! We still need a couple more because the ones ordered won't arrive in time before we catch the remaining cats, if you are local and have any 42"-48" crates, please reach out!

12/03/2024

Thank you so much to everyone for the outpouring of support for the fire colony!!!😻 I am working hard to return messages but wanted everyone to know it may take a day or two to get back to you, I'm not ignoring you!

I'm trying to coordinate interested barn homes, make lists and get information from everyone, release another group of colony cats we TNR'd yesterday, care for the cats we have, answer messages and figure out how to get crates to Deb's house so we can house all the cats immediately! I'm trapping today if I can get off my messages, lol, and was up all night stressing over the cats. Please forgive me if things are a little delayed, I promise we are interested and will respond soon! I have to work tomorrow again so I'm trying to cram things into days I don't work.

One of the things on my list is to get this girl to the vet for a convenia shot(antibiotic) to make sure the gunshot through her neck is healing ok. She will not be going to a barn, but to rescue, as you can see, she is a lovebug and when she leaned into my hand and started purring I just broke down and sobbed. I hate that these babies have suffered so much! We have named her Serafina🔥. A fire name, of course, as all the kitties rescued from this colony are named! We will make happy endings from these sad beginnings they have had!

12/03/2024

EDITED: THANK YOU, WE HAVE ENOUGH CRATES ON THE WAY, BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY 42" OR 48" CRATES LOCAL ROLLA WE CAN USE ASAP PLEASE LET US KNOW! We are trapping now and many of the crates won't arrive in time.

We have a foster to hold them but not enough crates to hold them! If you have large 42" or 48" dog crates you can donate or you can purchase from our Amazon list can you message us? We need them quickly, like this week, in order to hold the cats and then also have them acclimate to their barn homes.

Another one of the cats we just took photos of yesterday has been shot today! We cannot leave them until we find barn homes, we have to get them safe now.

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

11/03/2024

‼️URGENT!! CATS BEING SHOT!!‼️
First and foremost we need barn homes! Please don't stop reading if you don't have a barn home, we will need a lot more help to get these babies safe, you may be able to help in another way!

This is the fire colony. 🔥 If you follow our page, you may remember this colony, they have been through so much. We thought their days of struggling were over but we were wrong. Last summer their caretaker went into assisted living and within that same week her mobile home burned to the ground. They were living in the burned rubble with no one to feed them, no shelter, and none of them were spayed or neutered. A wonderful neighbor stepped in and offered to feed them daily and when she contacted us, we told her we would TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) them. Most of them were too feral for rescue and there were at least 25 cats. We couldn't relocate them all, there just aren't enough barn homes and we only relocate cats in life or death situations. We did the best we could for their situation and we got all the surviving kittens to rescue, spayed/neutered everyone over the fall, and got winter shelters for them to stay warm and dry.

Recently we found out that someone is now shooting the cats... SHOOTING them. The caretaker found a cat shot dead last week and we found another one today. Three of the surviving cats have visible bullet wounds. At least 8 more are missing. We were able to trap one today that has a bullet wound straight through her neck and back out the other side. One is shot in the hip with a large wound and another other is shot straight through the back. The police have been contacted but we do not expect much to be done and have no proof of which neighbor is shooting them. We are disgusted, we have cried, we went back and forth over what to do to save what cats are remaining and we will lose sleep every night they remain out there. We think there are just 14-15 cats remaining of the 25 we TNR'd just a couple months ago. This is one of those life or death situations that we must find a way to relocate.

This is a massive undertaking. First and foremost we need you to share, share, share! We can only hope you, a friend, or your friends friend has a barn or a shop, and sharing will get this post to someone who will open their barn to a few of these babies. They are not all super feral and many have tamed up to their feeder and she pets quite a few of them.

When we relocate to a barn, the cats have to be held in a large dog crate we provide, in the barn, shed area, or shop, for 3-4 weeks so they can acclimate to the area. If you are interested we will explain more about the process when you message us!

We will need crates to hold the cats to acclimate to their new homes! If you can order a crate for us, donate one you already have, or even lend us a 42" dog crate (or larger) for 2-3 kitties to acclimate in together, please let us know! We have added them to our Amazon wishlist.

We'll need some large deep litterboxes, large ceramic(heavy) food and water bowls (they are less likely to spill these in the crate). We can also use donations to help us with vet care for the cats that have been shot, transportation, and their general care while we are trying to get them safe.

This will be the largest group of cats we have ever tried to relocate, we're going to need the communities help! We will be making sure these are good homes, these babies have been through enough and deserve safe barn homes where they have ample clean shelter and full bellies for the rest of their days!

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

09/03/2024

We desperately need dry cat food to help feed our colony cats! (all spayed & neutered) We feed over 70 TNR'd cats daily and we go through 3+ bags of dry food a week. If you could spare a bag or two for our community kitties we would be so grateful, and I know they would be as well! We give them quality wet food too that we get at a rescue food bank but they haven't offered dry food in a long time. TNR and medical costs have us struggling to keep up with dry food costs. Any type of dry cat food would be great! Thank you!! You can send it straight to us:
Starlit's Strays TNR
73 S Oak
St. James, Mo
65559

This is our Amazon list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/GIWLXVB2V6EH?ref_=wl_share

This is our Chewy List:
https://www.chewy.com/g/starlits-strays-tnr_b90163322

13/02/2024

Sharkie is home from surgery! His amputation & neuter went well and we can already tell he feels better. Thank you so much to those that donated for his care! We didn't get enough to cover it all, but it made a huge difference, we wouldn't have been able to afford the whole thing without the donations!

His skin, as you can see in the pics below, is in pretty rough shape because he has been on his own out there for a while. They estimated him at 11 months. His skin will heal along with his pelvis break. The vet says we should focus on getting some weight on him, he is very underweight. We will be working on socializing as well, but already he got up with me in the room to check out his wet food and eat a little. He also looks in better spirits as you can see per the "proud" look he has in the first pic below... "look at me, I'm Sharkie and I got my leg gone today!" 😆
Thank you again everyone! We could not help kitties like Sharkeesa without the support we get from you!

12/02/2024

Tomorrow is Sharkeesa's surgery! Sharkie, as we affectionately call him, is hanging in there. He is hissy and we have just been trying to keep him comfortable with meds and letting him rest.

If you are able to donate to his surgery and care, today is the day to call St. James Veterinary Center 573-265-5525, Sharkeesa is under the Starlit's Strays TNR account! We haven't raised enough and what we have gotten through Facebook will take at least a month to get to us, so if you are able to donate directly towards his vet bill, that would be the best way! We also have PayPal, our email is [email protected]

We are looking forward to getting his amputation so we can ease his pain and start working towards recovery and socialization! He is a bit dazed & confused in his pic today! Lol