<div>I'm Claire and I've lived in South Augusta, Georgia since 2010. I met my Augustan native husband, Dean, in 2013 and we got married in 2014. At the time, we had only one dog: an overweight beagle named Dixie.


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<div>By 2018, our house had a very serious mouse problem, but our neighbor with a cat had zero mice. This is what opened Dean up to the idea of getting a cat.


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<div>There was exactly one stray cat around our house in those days, but he'd run away from me so fast that I couldn't even get a good look at him. All I knew was that he was a black, long-haired cat.


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<div>Then we encountered a kitten making herself a nuisance at the old Huddle House on Mike Padgett. I managed to nab her and bring her home, but she got so scared of our dog, Dixie, that she ran away to never be seen again.


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<div>By now, we had rescued a boxador named Mikey from a farm in Evans, but Dixie and Mikey did nothing to reduce our growing mouse population.


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<div>If we wanted to make progress with all these mice, we were going to have to go to the pound on Tobacco Road. It was there that we found our tuxedo kitten, Saucia.


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<div>It all began with Saucia!


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<div>Saucia was just a baby, so she needed to learn how to hunt mice. Dean became so concerned when all she'd do was play with the mice that she encountered. I assured Dean that her cat instincts would eventually take over to turn her into the mouser of his dreams. And, sure enough, it happened.


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<div>Within 2 weeks, no longer did we have a mouse problem, thanks only to Saucia.


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<div>And, within a month, a little blonde tabby kitten from a litter born on the street at the beginning of 2019 reappeared in our neighborhood. She began following Dean home as he walked from his mother's house in the evenings. The second time I found her inside the big bush in front of our house, I brought her inside to stay.


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<div>As time went on, two stray cats took up residence in our part of the street because I consistently left food out for them. One was a tabby I named Tiger and the other was a long-haired black cat I named "2" (because his coat was two-toned). Both cats were quite feral, but when my elderly neighbor started to occasionally feed them wet food, they became hooked and determined to trust us humans.


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<div>A black and white cat I named Spot also began showing up on occasion, but he did not look well and eventually disappeared to never show up again.


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<div>Another black cat I named Scarface also joined us occasionally. I called him Scarface because he had a large open wound on the side of his face. Neither I nor another neighbor could afford to take Scarface to the vet to have him stitched up... but, amazingly, the open wound never got infected.


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<div>However, Scarface suddenly disappeared to eventually reappear all stitched up. We certainly appreciate the neighbor who did this for him. He was an older cat and, eventually, he died beneath my neighbor's porch.


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<div>For a while, I thought that "2" was that original spooked stray cat around here who was always running away from me in an instant... but I soon discovered that I was wrong.


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<div>Thanks to the young boy next door who would feed him his leftovers so he could pet him, the long-haired black cat who used to instantly vanish began to show up to my door like Tiger and "2." But Tiger would always run him off, causing him to vanish, again and again, like a wisp.


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<div>So, of course I named him Wisp (but we call him Wispy).


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<div>Finally, Wispy began begging me to bring him inside so he could get away from Tiger (who was always attacking him to defend his territory). I couldn't say no and that's when the original spooked stray cat near our house became ours in 2020.


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<div>Through a window, our Sandy had developed a romance with Wispy, so that must have been another motivating factor for Wispy to get inside with us.


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<div>By this time, our dog, Dixie, had passed away, leaving Mikey broken-hearted. And this is when we found our adorable Parsons Russell Terrior, Lily (Mikey's girlfriend), on CraigsList earlier that same year.


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<div>Then a beautiful, puffy, long-haired tabby began showing up in 2023. "2" and Tiger were always very affectionate with each other and this little girl wanted to join in on the love fest. One second she'd be rubbing up against "2" and Tiger and the next second she'd be short-circuiting, thinking they were attacking her. Both Tiger and "2" were quite tolerant of her behavior, it was so very sweet.


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<div>I named this pretty Jekyll-and-Hyde kitty, Charlotte. Like Wispy, she is so very affectionate, but she can turn on a dime to become so very fierce. She has clearly survived some severe trauma that has permanently affected her brain.


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<div>Poor baby.


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<div>By 2023, both Tiger and "2" had become elderly. We think that Tiger had a stroke which had left him all wobbly and "2" had became so bony that he was not going to survive the winter if I didn't bring him inside. Both Tiger and "2" had always refused to come inside, but after one very cold night in the autumn of 2023, "2" walked right inside to save his own life.


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<div>By spring, "2" was escaping through our front door to go back outside. It was on the day that he discovered that he wasn't enjoying his wet food (his obsession) that I think he knew his days were done. He escaped out of our front door for the last time and Tiger just so happened to be outside to say goodbye. "2" quickly ran off and then it began pouring rain and got really, really cold.


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<div>"2" was too fragile to have survived such weather and we never saw him again.


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<div>About a month later, Tiger got very sick for the last time. When he collapsed upon our front lawn for that last time, I set up some chairs to shield him from the elements. I had to hand feed him and pour water into his mouth to keep him alive. When he wouldn't eat or drink anymore, he died in front of our curb on May 3rd, 2024.


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<div>Dean buried him in our backyard.


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<div>This left poor Charlotte all alone outside. She wouldn't let me pick her up, so I was a little worried she wouldn't come inside. But shortly after Tiger died, I opened up our side door and she happily walked right in.


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<div>Charlotte was so very grateful to be inside.


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<div>After many deaths in the family, we packed up our 2 dogs and 4 cats and moved up to Hornell, New York. Prior to our departure, I had noticed a couple of kittens starting to show up at our door, so I arranged for my next door neighbor to feed them while we were gone.


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<div>My neighbor told me if I paid for the food, she'd feed them for free.


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<div>Well, we left town on January 4th, 2025 and finally returned back to Augusta on December 19th, 2025.


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<div>To my surprise, these 2 kittens had become 8 younger kittens and a few adult cats... more cats than had ever shown up to our house before.


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<div>Back in 2019, Best Friends Animal Society handled the Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) program in Augusta which helped so much to reduce the population of stray cats in our neighborhood.


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<div>In 2023, the Best Friends Animal Society even teamed up with Augusta Animal Services and were in the process of expanding these services when it was abruptly shut down in 2024 due to disagreements with local officials.


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<div>This is why we are seeing such a surge in the stray cat population in our neighborhood.


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<div>We returned back to our house in Augusta to discover an adorable one-eyed kitten, the runt of the litter, who I knew was my cat the second I set eyes on her. I really thought I was maxed out at 4 cats (and 2 dogs), but I just couldn't say no to this little one-eyed face at my door. There's always room for one more.


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<div>We call her Winkie Wink!


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<div>These days, no one else in the neighborhood is feeding all the stray cats, so they all end up at our door.


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<div>While we were gone, my next door neighbor ran out of food so fast... and this was why.


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<div>And now, on Wednesday, April 29th, 2026, a neighbor dropped a newborn kitten on our doorstep! I have to feed her replacement cat milk every 2 hours and must stimulate her backside after every feeding so she can go to the bathroom.

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<div>It is my dream to one day form my own organization: Claire's Cuties.


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<div>I'd love to create a place for all the “unwanted,” forgotten animals that were domesticated by our society, preventing them from returning to any wild.


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<div>We have created an entire family of these forgotten precious creatures. They are literally our children since we never were allowed to have our own human children.


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<div>It's so sad to me that there aren't more people who feel sorry for them wandering our streets cold, hungry and all alone.


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<div>I suppose so many compare them to the wild animals they hunt and kill for fun or the farm animals we so carelessly harvest for food.


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<div>These are not farm animals... these are not wild animals.


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<div>These are the forgotten animals that have nowhere to go.


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<div>Thank you for caring enough to help.


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<div>I so much appreciate it... and so do they!


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