Who we are

Cherry Street Cats is me (Robin), my husband Steve, Sandi, Michelle, Verena, Vinyse, Derek, Kent, and Connie, a group of dedicated cat lovers who care for a colony of feral cats in the east end of Toronto. I also have a great rescue team of Lesley, Joanne, and Susan. Together we do our best to make the lives better for feral and homeless cats and kittens. 900+ cats helped in nine years!



Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A mountain of food

We received word that the Humane Society was giving away some food to rescues so we rushed down to get in line. With more than a dozen mouths to feed, anything is appreciated. Well, there was a mountain of canned food there and we filled our car until the tires started to sag. Brenda also filled her car so we have enough canned food for months, unless the cats tire of mystery brand seafood.
The weather has been mild lately, here is one of the unnamed black cats taking advantage of the sun amongst the garbage trucks.
Jackson is a character. He's very demanding for his food as soon as we arrive.

MC and Queenie are always starving. It's nice to see that they're buddies.


Crossing my fingers that the winter continues to be snowless and mild, not good for kids who want to toboggan, but great for feral cats.

Friday, January 15, 2010

A community of cat lovers

Lest you think that every day I trudge off to feed the cats on my own, let me clear things up and tell you about the wonderful community of cat lovers I am part of. These cats were being cared for before I came on the scene by a number of wonderful people: Sandi, her husband Robbin, Aaffien and Tory. This winter with Sandi away Brenda has stepped in to help feed and now Brandy will join us too. My husband Steve comes with me most days and loves these cats as much as I do. This way we can make sure that every day the cats have food and fresh water. The other night a lovely friend of Sandi's, Carol, came by my house with a big supply of food. It is heartening to discover all these animal lovers out there.

Even Harry, who lives in a dry-docked boat, puts out food for the cats. He's also added some decorations in the cats' trailer.

This trailer has been fantastic. All the boat cats use it. It's not heated, but it's sheltered and dry and they can curl up out of the elements. It looks a bit lived in but for the cats it's a home of sorts.
Here are Lily and Tina having a much needed drink of water.

This is Queenie, formerly of the tree cats, now called the pontoon cats. We should call her Queen of the dumpsters. She is always dirty. The other day I found her perched up high on a garbage truck, happily munching away on something. Anything to survive.





Tuesday, January 5, 2010

First snowfall

Sunday was the first real snowfall of the winter. We, and especially the poor feral cats facing the harsh winter, have been fortunate that although it's been cold recently, there hasn't been snow. Well, that's no longer the case. It's not so easy to open cans of cat food in the snow with frozen fingers. Often they don't eat all the canned food before it freezes. We leave them with lots of hard food but it's actually the fresh water they flock to. At least they have the trailer to hunker down in. It may not be warm, but it's dry and there's shelters for them to curl up in.