TNR 101

There are about 24 feral cats living on my street.  They might have arrived about a year ago.  I wasn't paying attention.  First there was one, then two, then four, then eight...  A neighbor was feeding them at first.  Little by little, the colony grew, and few other neighbors (including me) started feeding them as well.

My cat story started with providing water to a little black and white kitty on one hot day last year.  Later on, I bought a little bag of cat food for her.  She liked it and started showing up everyday. Words must have gone out in the colony because more and more cats started showing up for food.  I have about 10 regulars.  I went from buying little ounce-size bags of cat food to 25-pound bags now.  Yes, I have become a CAT LADY.

I started paying more attention to the cats when the little black and white kitty got pregnant earlier this year.  She was a kitty herself.  In no time, new kitties were running around on our street.  Over the summer, there was a cat population explosion.  So many cats!  So many kitties!!

Some neighbors start complaining yet no one did anything about it.  Well, guess what, someone has to take action, and that person is me.

I looked into TNR.  Trap-Neuter-Return.  A humane way to control feral animal population without hurting them.  But where do I start?   How do I start?

After some research, I connected with Homeless Cat Network based in Belmont, CA.  What a wonderful non-profit organization that dedicates to feral cats.  They hooked me up with a volunteer who does cat trapping during her spare time and they paid for the expense of neutering these cats.  WOW!  To reciprocate their kindness, I made a cash donation to cover some of the surgery cost.  However, I can never donate enough to support their good deeds!!

Talking about learning on the job.  In no time, I learned to set up traps and tend to the cats after trapping.  Yap!  I'm a part-time cat trapper now.  From the first weekend in September through last weekend (4 weekends), we trapped total of 18 cats!!  We do trapping on Sundays.  The volunteer takes the cats to the vet on Monday morning to be examined, neutered/spayed, vaccinated and microchipped.  She then return them to my street on Monday nights.  She did all the hard work!!  My job was mainly PR with the neighbors informing them what we are doing and educating them on the concept of TNR.

All the TNRed cats are marked with a tipped left ear.  This is so if they were picked up Animal Control, they will be released because they belong to a managed cat colony.  The microchip will ensure that they are returned to the neighborhood if they ended up in shelters.  In other words, these cats are safe from being captured and destroyed.

It has been a satisfying experience.  Most all the cats now that show up have little tipped left ears and that just makes me smile.

There are still few more cats to trap but I hope we are already making a difference. I'm so proud of myself for being part of the solution and not problem.

Good job, Suts (pat myself on the back)!!