Stephentown Stray Fund

*As of December 8, 2023, we have TNR/Rescued/Rehabilitated/Vetted 55 feral/stray cats completely privately and out of pocket. Funds are completely exhauated and most have been out of pocket. Animal control officers do NOT rescue/take calls about cats. Cats have even less protection than dogs.

*Please note that all rescue efforts are 1. Out of pocket and 2. Done privately (not through a rescue)*

Stephentown is a rural, beautiful town in Upstate, NY. Unfortunately, we have an extremely large population of ferals/strays. There are several large communities throughout the town. Recently, I was approached by several residents regarding an entire road here in town that is absolutely overrun with a large feral community of approximately NINETY cats. Efforts have begun to tackle this community and it is no small undertaking. To date, we have trapped and fixed 12+ cats from this particular location in Stephentown, as well as 20+ from various other locations throughout the town.

What we do: Countless hours are spent both on the scene and 'behind the scenes'. Behind the scenes, we spend hours trying to obtain spay/neuter appts at local clinics. Once appts are secured, we spend voluminous amounts of time driving to the various destinations, baiting & setting traps (sometimes this consists of 4am wake up times, spending endless hours in our cars watching the traps, etc). Once the cats are in the traps, we transport to my home, or, a fellow rescuer's home where the kitties are settled in with food & water & given time to decompress. We then drive the cats to whichever destination we secured appts (from Stephentown, none of the appts are less than an hour drive each way & my counterpart leaves even further). The cats are: spayed/neutered, given distemper & rabies vaccinations, FIV/FELV tested, treated for worms, ear mites, fleas & ticks. Once the surgeries are complete, the cats are transported to one of our homes for recovery and observation. They are transferred into large dog crates with clean, warm bedding, food, water, and clean litter boxes. As many as I can possibly commit to rehabbing and adopting out, I do. Any cats who remain absolutely too feral will either go to barn homes, or, released back to the community they were trapped from. Each appt is done at a discounted rate but the 50-60.00 fees associated PER cat comes out of pocket.

As one can imagine, this can become immensely costly in an of itself. Add in all the food, litter, cages, litter boxes, and other supplies, and, it you quickly become inundated with expenses.

Often times, some of these cats require additional vetting which gets extremely costly (for example, a rescued feral ended up requiring a leg amputation which added up rapidly).

All funds raised will cover the discounted fee to have the cats spayed/neutered, shots, treated for parasites, any additional vetting required, supplies such as wet food, dry food, litter, and other needed supplies such as kitten formula, bottles, etc.

As of now, there are eight cats in our care that have already been trapped and vetted and are recovering comfortably with us.

Thank you for any help! These innocent animals deserve the chance.