Donate to support cat sanctuary for feral cats
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As most of my fishers island friends know we have a big problem with feral cats here on the island, specifically at my mother’s house. We have embarked on a new venture here to try to contain the problem. A little back story..my mom has been feeding and trying to spay/neuter the feral cats that congregate at her house. She spends approximately 500-600 a month to feed them and she has done this for years. When my daughter and I moved out to the island this past December I wanted to help so I took over going out to feed them twice a day. Rain, sleet, snow, wind…you know how it goes. They haven’t missed a meal since mom started feeding them lol. Maybe not a good thing to do but we named them and fell in love with them. But this is a problem. It’s getting worse because we can’t afford to keep spaying/neutering them (most spay/neuter programs have been on hold since COVID hit) and all the females are getting pregnant and having kittens. And quite honestly I’m tired of the heartache that comes with getting attached to feral cats. Just feeding them isn’t really helping them the way they need to be helped. I’m tired of picking them up off the road and burying them when they get hit by cars, picking dead newborn kittens up out of wood piles because their moms are just too young and abandon them. Trying to save the ones found still barely alive by warming them up with heating pads and bottle feeding them only to have them die in your arms (not just me, but my mom and in the past her friends). Worrying about them freezing to death in the winter. Having them just disappear and not knowing what happened to them. It’s incredibly sad and it’s time to actually help them instead of just letting the problem continue. So my daughter and I have fixed up a room in the back garage into a cat sanctuary. We’ve cleaned, painted, had the ceiling and windows fixed as best as possible (Thank you Tim!) and tried to make it as homey as possible. We are busy trying to trap the feral cats using Have A Heart traps (Thank you Larry!). Our plan is to keep them safe and domesticate them (See Scruff’s Story below), get them spayed/neutered, exams and vaccinated and hopefully adopt them to loving families. My daughter is working on a website that we will use to do this. In order
to do this we have started a GoFund me for anyone who would like to donate and help us make this a reality. All donations will be used to care for the feral cats including food, cat litter, crates, spay/neuter fees, exams, and vaccinations.
A huge thank you to everyone on Fishers Island that have helped my mom over the years with donations of food, cat litter, etc. This is an amazing community we have here. <3
Scruff’s Story
As some of you know I had to say goodbye to my English bulldog Lily in February. I was devastated. She was my best friend and I missed her more than I can say ( I still do every single day). One of the feral cats that I was feeding caught my heart (even before I moved out here to the island…when I would visit and see her I just loved her). She looked older than the rest and just looking at her you could tell she had lived a rough, lonely life. We named her Scruff because she looked so scruffy. After I moved to the island and took over the feeding she would sit outside and wait for breakfast and dinner and rub against my legs while I was feeding her. One day it was raining and I went out and there she sat in the pouring rain soaking wet and the look on her face just broke my heart. I guess defeated is the best word to use. Instead of feeding her and walking inside I scooped her up and put her in a carrier (she didn’t put up a fight) and brought her in the house to my bedroom. Scruff went into my closet and didn’t come out for over a week. I had to put a litter box in there, a bed, and feed her in there. After a week Scruff emerged from my closet and became the queen of my room lol. I took her to the vet and had her spayed and vaccinated. Unfortunately Scruff tested positive for FIV but she is quite the fighter and she is on medication for arthritis but she is content. The vet estimates that she is around 12 years old and most likely has been living outside her entire life. Scruff had to have 6 teeth extracted because they were so rotten. Today Scruff is pampered and loved and quite happy. She thanks me everyday and shows her appreciation when she starts purring the minute she sees me. Scruff sleeps on top of me every night and her purring puts me to sleep lol. Scruff may have had a rough first chapter in life but her last chapter is going to be the best.
Scruff’s Story
As some of you know I had to say goodbye to my English bulldog Lily in February. I was devastated. She was my best friend and I missed her more than I can say ( I still do every single day). One of the feral cats that I was feeding caught my heart (even before I moved out here to the island…when I would visit and see her I just loved her). She looked older than the rest and just looking at her you could tell she had lived a rough, lonely life. We named her Scruff because she looked so scruffy. After I moved to the island and took over the feeding she would sit outside and wait for breakfast and dinner and rub against my legs while I was feeding her. One day it was raining and I went out and there she sat in the pouring rain soaking wet and the look on her face just broke my heart. I guess defeated is the best word to use. Instead of feeding her and walking inside I scooped her up and put her in a carrier (she didn’t put up a fight) and brought her in the house to my bedroom. Scruff went into my closet and didn’t come out for over a week. I had to put a litter box in there, a bed, and feed her in there. After a week Scruff emerged from my closet and became the queen of my room lol. I took her to the vet and had her spayed and vaccinated. Unfortunately Scruff tested positive for FIV but she is quite the fighter and she is on medication for arthritis but she is content. The vet estimates that she is around 12 years old and most likely has been living outside her entire life. Scruff had to have 6 teeth extracted because they were so rotten. Today Scruff is pampered and loved and quite happy. She thanks me everyday and shows her appreciation when she starts purring the minute she sees me. Scruff sleeps on top of me every night and her purring puts me to sleep lol. Scruff may have had a rough first chapter in life but her last chapter is going to be the best.
Organizer
Nancy Tirabassi
Organizer
Fishers Island, NY