Stray cat blues
Local organization beginning to slow growth of homeless cat population
The Ginger Menace showed up in the neighbourhood about two years ago, but it wasn’t until he was trapped and fixed that Elaine Hamilton granted the stray access to her home.
“He’s a beautiful and adorable boy — with his little cat kisses and cat snuggles, he’s one of the most affectionate cats I’ve ever seen,” said the Whitney Pier resident, who recalled that the orange-andwhite feline was skinny and losing his fur in clumps when he found his way to the back door on a wet and windy autumn day in 2014.
“I could tell he always wanted to be an indoor cat and he never went totally feral — I just can’t understand how anyone could abandon a cat like that.”
The latest addition to Hamilton’s cat family was one of several neighbourhood strays trapped by volunteers with the Feral and Abandoned Cat Society. Once captured, the cats are then spayed or neutered and soon returned to where they were caught.
But while the Ginger Menace, now referred to as Gingy M, made a positive and, for the most part, conflict-free assimilation into a house already home to two cats, not all felines are so lucky.
The society estimates there may be as many as 20,000 homeless cats in Cape Breton Regional Municipality. The society, established four years ago, has identified more than 1,500 locations that are home to feral, stray and abandoned cats.
“We think we’re making a dent in that number in that we’ve already done 3,380 so far,” said society president Carmen Dunn, who added that the hard work of volunteers is beginning to make a difference.
“We seem to have stabilized certain areas — the whole point of our trap-neuter-return program is to go in, fix them, and stop more litters from being born and to stabilize a colony’s population which in turn will eventually decline.”
In June, the program saw the volunteer trappers capture 140 cats, a productive month, but a bit short of the record high of 153.
But it’s not always as easy as it might sound. Trappers often make several attempts to catch a particular cat and sometimes the more fidgety, suspicious and cautious kitties are never captured.
According to Dunn, the biggest obstacle facing the society in its efforts to stop the growth of Cape Breton’s homeless cat population is, not surprisingly, money.
“Right now the biggest thing holding us back is money — we’re very fortunate to have caring people who just want to do it, so right now the only thing slowing us down is a lack of money,” she said.
Dunn said that veterinary fees are by far the society’s biggest expense.
“We have a few expenses, but we have no paid staff — we put as much money as we can to the vet fees.”
With the goal of spaying or neutering 1,500 cats per year, the society relies heavily on fundraising initiatives such as its Wednesday evening Chase the Ace game that has a jackpot of more than $26,000 with 16 cards left in the deck. For more information, visit the society’s website at www.faacs.com.
Along with its trap-neuter-return program, the society offers ongoing support to the caretakers of feral cat colonies. The society also provides public outreach and education, builds shelters for outdoor cats, and collets food donations for cat colonies.