The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
TAKING CARE OF STRAYS
Operation Wild Cats: Linda Shaffer on a mission to help local felines
CANASTOTA, N.Y. » Operation Wild Cats goes above and beyond to help stray and wild cats in the Madison County area.
On a typical day, founder Linda Shaffer is out the door by 1:30 a.m. to care for seven cat colonies and make sure they have food, water and if it’s been snowing, shovel so they aren’t trapped. After that, she’s back home for a quick hour nap before getting up and clocking in to work by 7 a.m. Even when she’s done with work, Shaffer goes out to check the colonies again.
“I’ve always loved cats, but there was a little kitten back in 2002 that I rescued on my road. As it turned out, he had a rare genetic bone disease that made his bones so brittle. He had to be put to sleep,” Shaffer said. “He had that genetic disease due to major inbreeding. The road I lived on, when we first moved in, it was overrun with cats. And it just inspired me to start looking into the problem.”
Shaffer came across the organization Alley Cat Allies, the first feral cat organization in the United States. After looking at their website, Shaffer was motivated to start her own grassroots organization, Operation Wild Cats to address the growing issue of wild and feral cats in the area. She runs it all out of her own home and recieves financial assistance from the city of Oneida.
Shaffer keeps the locations of the seven colonies she tends to secret out of concerns people could abandon cats and assume they’ll be taken care of, something that has happened one too many times already, she said.
“Themain purpose of the organization is to trap, neuter and release for feral and stray cats,” Shaffer said.
Last year, she had three mother cats with kittens at varying times through the year. All of the kittens were spayed, neutered and vaccinated before finding homes, along with two of the mother cats.
Another part of Operation Wild Cats is to help keep the cat population in the area healthy by looking out for diseases that could spread to other feral, stray or domestic cats.
Volunteer Lin Cukierski Kahler said she recently had a cat acting strangely in one of the colonies she tends.
“One of these cats, named Kiki, is really lovedovey and came to the colony last April,” Kahler said. “I was talking with Linda and said to her ‘He’s not acting right.’ And it’s not that easy to set up a vet appointment and then catch that cat. You can’t always catch them, they don’t have a schedule. But he happened to be in the garage one late afternoon and my husband and I cornered him. Linda made an emergency appointment at the Village Veterinary Hospital and we brought him in.”
The vet ran a blood panel on Kiki, who was unusually lethargic. It turned out he had feline immunodeficiency virus, also known as feline AIDS. It’s highly recommended that Kiki not be around other cats because of the risk of spreading it to others.
“They gave him medication and special food from the vet,” Kahler said. Kiki is currently living with Shaffer and is recovering Shaffer and Kahler try to find a home for him.
Kahler said that where there’s one cat with FIV, there can be more. She and Shaffer will have their hands full trapping, testing and releasing cats as they try to find any others who might be infected.
“Linda works full time and she takes care of her colonies,” Kahler said. “She’s always on the go and always working, twentyfour-seven.”
Shaffer said that it can be hard to find volunteers with the same drive as she does.
“Lin and her husband have been big supporters for a long time, since day one really,” Shaffer said. “I’ve had people say that they’ve wanted to help and I ask them if they’re ready to take the night shift and get up at 1 a.m. and they just look at me. Nobody is going to do this.”
Shaffer said she has good friends that are ready to step up and help should something happen to her, whether she was sick or injured.
Those interested in volunteering can call Linda at 315-363-3750 or if they’re interested in making an adoption or fostering.
Operation Wild Cats also accepts monetary donations, as well as food, blankets, towels, comforters and plastic tote boxes for shelters.