Please help us!

These cats desperately need your help. They will never know a real home. Please help us to provide food and shelter for them.

I'm part of a small group of volunteers who care for a colony of feral cats in the east end. Every day we feed almost 20 cats. As well, we have been trapping them and getting them spayed or neutered so they don't reproduce and add to the cat overpopulation problem.

Food donations (hard and canned food) are needed to care for these cats. Monetary donations also appreciated to cover our spaying and neutering costs.

If you can help please email me at robin@nabet700.com. We're happy to pick up food donations.

Thank you.

A wet weekend

It was a windy wet weekend but like the mailman neither snow nor rain stops us from feeding our needy felines. Here's part of our setup at the boat with bins containing hard food and dishes. There are raccoons so everything has to be secured.

Tina is no dummy. She's not about to get her feet wet and smart girl that she is, was waiting in a feeding station for food to be delivered to her.

I thought I would show a photo of Arrow. She is a gorgeous spayed female who lives in the boat colony. She is very shy and rarely seen.

Here's Jackson hogging the food at Clayton's trailer. He can be found at Clayton's or the boat - whereever there is food. Jackson is quite the character, he loves to eat and enjoys a nice pat. He seems to have it figured out and enjoys his life by the water.

These two, MC and Queenie, are my favourites right now. They are so sweet together and Queenie let me pat her on the weekend.

The nice weather brings them all out

The weather has been milder and the snow is melting. We definitely see more cats on a nice day. You can't see them all in this photo, but there were 8 cats at the pontoon. Usually we only see a few, they're very skittish, and mostly wait until after we leave to eat but no waiting here.
That's MC front left, Queenie front right and an unnamed black cat in the center. We know there at least 3 black cats at this location, only because I've seen them all at once.
Most days MC is waiting when we arrive. I still think she had a home at some point. She gets quite close to us but that experiment of taking her to Sandi's didn't work, sadly.

I love this photo of Tina. She is always excited to see us and eager to eat. Sometimes she's a sorry sight with her matted fur and cloudy eye but she's a group favourite.

Tibbs has been pretty shy since she got returned to the colony in November. I think it was stressful for her to be at the Humane Society for almost two months. Thankfully though she won't be having any more kittens.

Lily comes home

Well, this shot should tell you all you need to know about us and what we spend our time doing. Boy, does our car look like a crazy cat people car.
On Saturday we went to the vet and picked up Lily. Apparently all day she would hide in a carrier in a cage and only come out at night to eat after everyone had left. After four nights at the vet it was time to release her back to the colony after her spaying.

We opened up the door and she popped out, looking none the worse for wear.

All the females and most of the males at the boat part of our colony have now been spayed or neutered. Time to move on and get the rest done. My goal for this year is to have no kittens born at the colony. Let's see if I can beat the clock and make that happen. The snow is thawing, it will be full on kitten season soon.

Tough decision for the Cherry Street Cats

Yesterday was one of those triumphant but sad days, a day of making tough decisions.

Aaffien and I set out early in the morning to make one more effort at trapping Lily. We could tell for the last couple of weeks that she was pregnant and have tried repeatedly to trap her. Cats aren't supposed to get pregnant in the winter, it makes no sense to have kittens in February but it's been a mild winter and she's been fed regularly.

When we first arrived at the yard there was no sign of Lily, which was very unusual. After waiting around for a bit, we decided that we may as well try to trap someone else so we moved over to the pontoon. Within ten minutes we had Issac thrashing around in the trap. Now we think Issac is a male and may have already been neutered and since Lily (or another female) was our real target, we let him go. Now that we have to pay for the spaying and neutering out of our own pocket, we have to be a little more choosy.

We went back to the boats and there was Lily. They hadn't been fed the day before and not much on Sunday so they were definitely hungry. We baited the trap with Fancy Feast, a perennial cat favourite, and stood back.

We watched as Lily ventured into the trap, then out, then in again and finally, holding our breaths the whole time, it slammed shut behind her. We covered the trap and she immediately calmed down.

We took her off to the vet and made the tough decision to have her spayed and the kittens aborted even though her pregancy was advanced. I know some feel it was a controversial decision but it was not one we made lightly or without some tears shed.

If she had the kittens they might not have survived and if they did then what. Either we try to remove them from Lily at an age where they are old enough to survive without her but young enough to socialize and then try to find homes for them or they live out harsh lives as feral cats and we have to try to trap and spay/neuter all of them to prevent future generations of feral cats.

I believe spayed Lily saved the lives of living cats and kittens. There are already too many cats without homes, and cats being euthanized every day at shelters, that every new kitten born means the death of an existing cat or kitten waiting for a home.

It doesn't mean right decisions aren't hard decisions.

Lily is pregnant

We've recently realized that Lily, a torti who lives by the boats, is pregnant. She had two litters last year. We caught the kittens and had them adopted out but we haven't had any luck catching Lily to get her spayed. Now here it is February and she's pregnant again! We thought we would have more time. Most of our cats have been spayed or neutered but there are still a wily few who have evaded us.

Yesterday I tried to trap her again using warmed up cooked chicken but there was no way she or any of the other cats would venture into the trap. I guess we've made it too good for them, a warm trailer to sleep in, food every day.

I don't know what we will do if we can't catch her before she gives birth. I'm going to give it one more go next week.

Shelter from the storms

This isn't a great picture, but it just shows how resourceful cats are. There's an abandoned car at the boat yard and somebody has left one of the windows unrolled partway. A couple of cats have made themselves at home in there. It's dry and probably pretty toasty when the sun comes in through the windows.

I'm thankful that my first winter feeding has been mostly snowless. We have our team in place and between the four of us the cats get fresh food and water every single day of the week. With the addition of the trailer the cats can stay dry and relatively warm. They all look pretty good. I still worry about them especially on those really frosty days but I take comfort in knowing that we are doing the best we can for them.

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.

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.

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.