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!



Tuesday, February 27, 2018

A taste of spring

This sure doesn't feel like the end of February, but hey I'm not complaining!  It's great for humans and cats alike.

Kent sent this great picture of MC that he took yesterday.  I've known MC for almost nine years!  Everyone always remarks on how beautiful she is, I think so too!

Saturday, February 24, 2018

The best job and the hardest job

Right now Susan has one of the best jobs out there and one of the toughest too!  For over a week now she has been bottle feeding six kittens.  By the time she finishes it's time to start all over again!  Thankfully they are now drinking from a saucer and soon will be on to solid food.  The best part is watching six tiny kittens play and have them climb all over you.  I love visiting to get my kitten hit.
Her cat Gregor is being a wonderful uncle to the kittens.  Funnily enough it always seems to be the males who prefer hanging out with the kittens.

 After three days of trying to trap mom with no luck (we tried tuna, KFC, even a kitten) we have given her a break but Lesley is going in tomorrow morning.  She can't live in a parking garage, it's just a matter of time and patience.

Speaking of hard jobs, sometimes the job of colony caretaker can be one of the worst.  I feed at a laneway colony where there are 10 cats, and for the last few years we have been fortunate enough to use a resident's parking area for feeding stations and shelters.  Now the cats are being evicted and we have to scramble to find somewhere else, and that's not an easy task.  The thought of them not having shelters or somewhere dry to eat breaks my heart.
Time to go door to door and hope somebody will help us....

Friday, February 16, 2018

Five more babies safe!

Yesterday was the day we planned to try to get the rest of the kittens as the storage locker is due to be cleaned out this weekend.  Daniel let us into a room filled with stuff and we started looking around, then momma cat shot out of the room, and after a few minutes we found one kitten, then another, and another until we had four.  We knew there was one more though and finally we discovered he or she under a pile of rubble.  
We then tried to trap momma but she had taken off, it's always hard taking kittens from a mom, hopefully we can catch her soon and reunite them.  For now, Susan is doing serious bottle feeding duty!

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Our first kitten of 2018!

A few weeks ago we got an email about three cats living in a parking garage downtown, they were being fed but had been there for some time.  It was a grim spot, dirty, no sunlight, and one cat was there for two years!  The other two were newer and presumably dumped.  Jennifer was able to trap a very traumatized white male and a friendly orange male and was in the process of trying to get the last cat when we discovered that she had tiny kittens.  An electrician who worked in the building was also feeding.

Alas, a week ago she moved them to an unknown location.  On Saturday Daniel called me to say he found one kitten so he scooped it up, little Lotus was about 400 grams which makes her approximately four weeks old.  Thankfully Susan is an experienced bottle feeder and has been taking great care of her.

Daniel thinks he knows where the kittens are now so this week we will attempt to catch the rest and hopefully mom at the same time too!  Needless to say all that is easier said than done!


Sunday, February 4, 2018

Catching up with old friends

Last June we rescued Batmom's kittens, and they all grew up and went off to loving homes.  I was lucky enough to take care of two of them last week, it was great to see them all grown up.  These two, now Mag and Leia, got to stay together and live with a lovely man who enjoys their company very much.