The calls are endless.

“I have a cat I was feeding all winter and she just had kittens under my porch.”

“I found an abandoned kitten.”

“My cat had kittens and I can’t keep them cuz I can’t afford the cat I have already.”

“I love cats but can’t keep this kitten my husband found at work because he’s allergic.”

Many folks find themselves making such calls these days.  Often they are sent from rescue to rescue to do nothing but spin their wheels because nobody seems to want to give it to them straight.  But I will.

Here is my stock answer which applies to every situation because how the cat came to you isn’t of any matter.  What matters is that it needs to leave your home.  So if that’s the case, here is my words of advice.

This is the height of kitten season.  While we have a wonderful Humane Society and Animal Shelter here in Kent County that use a humane lethal injection euthanization method vs gas and “heart sticking, ” like some other shelters in our state use, these two Kent County area facilities will kill some 8,000 cats and kittens this year.

There are an estimated 6-8,000 free roaming cats in the greater Grand Rapids area. My focus is to trap-neuter-return every one of those cats.  The purpose of Carol’s Ferals is not to take surrendered cats in for adoption.  We do sometimes take cats from the streets but like all other rescues, we are at maximum capacity.

The person I talk to wants me to give them a number of someone who will help them by taking the cat off their hands.  Rather than run them around and around like many rescues/agencies will do,  I tell them straight.

Carol’s Ferals is a TNR organization that helps cats, we are not a NO-KILL shelter.  I’m honestly against the use of the word NO-KILL because the mention of those words states that the organization’s efforts result in the killing of no cats.  And when a facility is at maximum capacity and can’t take in any more cats, they close their doors and keep the ones that were lucky enough to make it into their adoption program or shelter safe and they don’t kill them.  Nice theory.  What about the other 7,000 homeless cats in the city?

Some are feral and can stay outdoors.  Some are friendly and should be indoors.  Still…problem persists….NOT ENOUGH HOMES.  For every cat in the United States to have a home, each household would have to keep 49 cats.  Not really realistic, hence our focus being fixing every cat vs just sheltering it.

I digress.

What folks need to realize is this.  The cat they have either picked up in the parking lot of Walmart, found under their deck starving or just can’t keep because junior is allergic has it’s best shot at finding a home from the efforts of the person involved with it.

Nobody is a better advocate for the cat they have rescued or can’t keep than the person holding it in their hands at that moment.

Carol’s Ferals strives to help folks in every situation regarding feral and stray cats.  If the cat is sick or injured, we will help by providing medical care at significantly reduced rescue rates and supply medication at cost.  We will fix any cat that is brought to us either for free, a donation or at cost depending on area funding.

We will treat cats for fleas, earmites and worms.  We will offer vaccines and testing for feline leukemia & FIV at greatly reduced rates as well.

Carol’s Ferals will counsel you on getting the cat fixed through a number of other area low-cost spay/neuter clinics.  We have Spay Neuter Express and C-SNIP in West Michigan that do a great deal of good for our community animals.  Details for all low-cost spay/neuter is found here:  http://www.carolsferals.org/find-low-cost-spayneuter-services/

We will suggest methods of rehoming.  We will tell you the peril FREE ANIMALS face by discussing the information on this link: http://www.carolsferals.org/no-more-free-kittens/

But we will not take the cat or kittens off your hands when we have no room in our adoption program.   And sadly, until we adopt at least half of our 74 cat and kitten population, that means the cat you want to rehome will have to be rehomed by YOU!

Rather than just leave you in the weeds, we will loan you equipment, offer you low cost spay/neuter and other medical services, advise you and do everything we can.  We will not blow sunshine up your skirts or pussy foot around the subject.  We’ll tell you straight!

Here is a copy of a flier made by Castle, a woman who brought the kittens and mother to us, had them all fixed, released the feral mom, tamed the kittens and is now getting them adopted into loving homes.  She has invested time, money and great effort into this project.  She has done this because she understands that to do anything good in this world takes time and effort, heart and soul.  And she knows that she can’t just hand off the problem of the kittens.

Here is the PDF of her flier:  castles fixed kitten flier

In addition to this flier, she has posted them on her Facebook.

Other people have run ads, put out fliers in stores, twittered about them and added photos to the end of every email they send out to family and friends.

The successful folks don’t simply pass out the kittens as if they are chips at a party, they do the right thing…start to finish.

If you’re finding yourself in such a situation, you need to do the same thing.

If you can’t find the time or energy to devote to such a project then you must face up to the inevitable, the cats and kittens need to be taken to a qualified shelter or Humane Society.

As mentioned earlier, some facilities utilize humane methods of euthanasia like ours in Kent County.  But other counties like Gratiot still use GAS and have contracts with Class B Animal Dealers like R&R Research of Howard City.

Yesterday I got a call from a woman who could no longer keep her 12 year old cat.  She was not using the litter box and was urinating in spots all over the house.  This woman had spent the better part of her day getting passed from one rescue to another with nobody spelling out the inevitable for her.  I did and she thanked me for my candid response.

I told her that if she has exhausted all medical care for the cat and the urination problem had become habit and kitty prozac wasn’t working or she wasn’t able to give it, then she had to take her cat to her vet and have it euthanized.

Hard words to tell someone.  I’d never do it.  But what is the other plan?  Palm the cat off on a rescue that has too many cats already?  Take it to the shelter where friendly, healthy 8 week old kittens are being euthanized daily?  Put it outside?  Hand it off to a hoarder who doesn’t realize that there are indeed worse things than death.

We need to open our eyes to the situation in this country.  We are nowhere near being a no-kill nation.  To get there we have to employ practices including aggressive spay/neuter of owned animals, TNR of feral and stray cats and people need to take responsibility for the cats they have in their care.

If you can’t keep your cat, I’d rather see it humanely euthanized than cast outdoors where it’s unable to fend for itself, given to a hoarder who while well intentioned gets in over their heads and causes more harm than good or allow it to fall into the hands of a “buncher” or Class B Dealer.

The choice is that of the person rescuing the cat or needing to rehome the cat.  Do it yourself or do the hard thing.

I work with countless people who care about getting cats fixed and finding them homes.  I’m blessed to know people like Castle who go all the way start to finish.  Kudos!

: ) Carol

For solutions to basically every outdoor cat situation please consult our website.  We can help you with anything.  HELP being the operative word.  Call us!