2 phone calls and 1 site visit from SCC volunteers later....we realized the enormity of the situation a colony caretaker was experiencing.
The first phone call came from a Castaway Critters volunteer whose son had brought home a very sick kitten he had rescued that day. The second phone call came from the colony caretaker himself pleading for help. These two phone calls led SCC to arranging a site visit to assess the situation and to put a plan into action.
Our guesstimate?? - 30 cats + kittens.
SCC instructed "MH" - the colony caretaker who requested to not be named - on how to set the traps and provided him with 20 traps.
Then, at 8:30 am, on a very hot Sunday morning, SCC received a frantic phone call from MH telling us that “all the traps were filled . . . some with 2 and 3 kitties in each.” Our response was to send 3 SCC volunteers out to the “cathouse". We loaded our vehicles with more traps to drop off and hauled the filled ones back to our facility. By noon that day, the traps we dropped off were filled and we delivered new empty traps. By Monday evening, there were more than 60 cats in our facility from this colony. After 3 more nights of trapping, we had 90 cats in the building.
Our next step was to assess the health of these cats. There were two Siamese cats that were blind. Arrangements were made and they were sent to a local rescue. There were a number of very small kittens - no more than 5-6 weeks old. Three local rescue programs, Castaway Critters, PAWS and Compassionate Hearts, who came to their rescue.
SCC handled the spay/neuter and medical care and the rescues we partner with did the rest — fostered the kittens and found them “furever” homes.
Some of the kittens were too ill to be spayed/neutered, and a number of volunteers stepped up to foster them until they were healthy and ready to go into a rescue operation. Out of the 60 cats, only 35 were returned to the colony. But, the BEST news is that after two years, THERE WERE NO MORE KITTENS!
Working together — TNR groups, animal rescue operations, local government, and caring, compassionate people willing to volunteer their time and energy, led to this successful TNR and rescue mission!
Success stories like this CAN BE REALIZED!
Please consider volunteering your time and energy to a local TNR organization or rescue organization near you. They always need help and will welcome you with open arms!!
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