February, 2015

Wow!! Stop the world, I want to get off! We have TNRd three females and three males this month! Not as many as we would have liked, but certainly better than recent months. This morning we started at another colony and it was very satisfying to hear the thunk of the gate closing barely five minutes after it had been set. I hope the rest of them will be as easy. There is a definite "red tide" here: the first cat trapped was a very young ginger female, and when I released her there were at least four or five more her age, also ginger.

The Beaufort Street cats have become very wily. As always happens when one gets close to the end of a colony, Mandy has been finding it very difficult to trap the last one or two unsterilised and I had decided to remove the traps so as to give them a week or two to settle down and forget about those horrible wire contraptions. Having said that, a female trapped last week was in the early stages of pregnancy so it is wise not to be too complacent. One kitten trapped was found to be extremely scared rather than feral and Magriet is kindly fostering her. Poppie is taming beautifully and is available for adoption (see details further down).

We have been approached by two businesses to assist with their feral colonies and we started this morning with the first one. There are 8+ cats here and hopefully TNR will go quickly, preferably before there are any more babies.

The other business has 3 cats needing to be sterilized, but we have since heard that the kittens have disappeared. Mom is being sterilized as soon as she re-appears and the business is paying for her operation.

One or two people have asked for our assistance with TNRing single cats in their area. At the moment a Sunnyside resident is trying to trap a sick feral but he is proving to be particularly wily.

The Project has been approached to assist with TNR of a large (30 cats) colony on a farm. The care-giver is prepared to keep housing and feeding them, but the situation has reached such a stage that adults are eating the kittens and some cats are covered in festering sores (presumably from fighting) and they all urgently need treatment and sterilization.

Fundraising

Having said all this, we have been advised that Grahamstown Veterinary Clinic will be increasing their spay and neuter fees from 1 March, although I do not know as yet what the new fees will be. We have quite a few donors who deposit into our account every month and we are very grateful to them, but expenses are far more than donations, and at present we only have enough in our account to cover five more sterilisations. The current cost to us is R500 per spay or neuter, and more if a female is pregnant or on heat.

Mary Bowker and Lorraine Richardson have booked the Pick ‘n Pay slot for Saturday 28 March from 8am to 5pm for their bi-annual food and cash collection. Volunteers are needed to shake a tin and ask for food - slots are an hour long. Please contact Mary Bowker on 083 625 7293 or 046 636 1528 if you can help.

Emma Martin of Furry Funds will be organizing a cake sale later in the year, but is/are there anybody(ies) keen and energetic enough to organize a book sale? I can help with publicity and I have a garage where the books can be stored, sorted and priced but I just don’t have the time to run around doing all the arranging. I need a strong angel(s) who is able to arrange a date with PnP or Wallace’s, help transport and price books, organise tables and get them to and from the venue, help sell books on the day, organise a float and those other 101 matters that I would never think of. If you are feeling fit and strong, please get in touch with me.

If anybody has any ideas for large injections of cash into our vet account, other than winning the lotto, please let me have them.

We need ongoing help with cat food, which can be dropped with me at 87 Beaufort Street or at Hoof and Hound.

Fostering

Although the main focus of the Project has always been and will continue to be TNR of feral colonies, we occasionally get asked to foster kittens who are too young to be sterilised, whose mother has died, or we need to take in pregnant cats (not feral) as their owners are leaving town and/or don't want the hassle of a cat and kittens. Foster parents are always in short supply and it would be nice to have a list of people who we could call upon in an emergency instead of having to scramble around. This is what we are looking for:

• the financial means to provide food, toys, bedding and other necessities;
• caring, commitment and patience;
• be sure that your significant other(s) are happy with you fostering;
• a secure spare room which can be converted to a nursery, or a willingness to share your room and bed;
• time to spend socialising the furkids and getting them used to other people, animals and situations: in a nutshell, making them adoptable;
• ability to function on little sleep if bottle-feeding is required;
• a strong heart so that you can say goodbye when they are successfully adopted to loving homes. And yes, it is OK to cry. Or be a foster failure - but we don't particularly want that because then we lose a foster parent! A catch-22 situation.

While being foster parents, you will be entitled to free veterinary support for your foster furkid(s). All vaccinations, ad-hoc veterinary treatments and sterilisation will be provided for, without cost to you. All we ask of you is to introducing the furkid to a family life worthy of a well loved pet, in a stress-free, loving environment.

I am completely astounded by the fact that Missy and her two gorgeous girls have not yet been adopted. How can this be? They are absolutely beautiful, fit, friendly, socialised with other people and animals and yet.... no interest! Folks, you don't know what you are missing.

Missy is just over a year old and has been sterilised and given her first inoculation and dewormer. She is a lovely, talkative, gentle girl, who loves to love. Her kittens are adorable and are three months old. They love playing and snuggling together and have both been inoculated and dewormed.

Missy with her two kittens and Deputy Foster Mother Gypsy Clarke

The adoption fee is R500 per cat (deworming, first inoculation and obligatory sterilization). If you adopt two cats at the same time the fee is R900. Please contact Elaine at elainetclarke@gmail.com or 083 472 4669. PLEASE NOTE: Deputy Foster Mother Gypsy Clarke is NOT available for adoption.

		Poppie is the very scared kitten who was trapped at the Beaufort Street colony. She has been sterilised, inoculated and dewormed and we estimate that she is about 3 to 4 months old. Magriet advises that she has settled down beautifully in their home, is very friendly and loves cuddling and paying with her humans but is still a bit hissy towards Garfield, the resident cat. And she also has the most bewitching green eyes.   The adoption fee is R500 and Magriet can be contacted on 060 954 9347.

On the subject of foster failures, Malcolm and I had barely got involved with the Project when Zuzu and Apollo arrived at the end of February 2011. We were only going to foster – Malcolm was dead against having cats – but within 48 hours he was won over. Having never raised live young before, we were thrown in at the deep end and the 24/7 2-hourly feedings nearly killed us. We were absolutely convinced that we were going to kill them through sheer ignorance but four years later they are fat, fine and friendly!

Donations

(25 January to 25 February)

Thank you so much to everyone who donated. Your support means so much to us and helps us to continue with our work.

Sheryl Drennan
Lee-Anne Venter
Jenna Holmes (sachets)
Colleen Duffy
Jeannie McKeown
Viv Botha
Bob ?
Two anonymous donations

If making electronic payments please remember to include WILDCAT and your name as a reference so that we can thank you. If possible, email proof of payment to: l.grant@nelm.org.za

About Us

All donations go to sterilization and a small portion to food.
Occasionally there are costs for veterinary care of ferals who are ill or injured.

We appreciate your generosity greatly as it enables us to continue helping the feral cats.
Spays and neuters cost us R500,
plus extra for any complications such as pregnancy or undescended testes.

The adoption fee is R500, which includes first deworming and inoculation and obligatory sterilization.

If you would like to donate any amount, please deposit into our vet account at:

The Grahamstown Veterinary Clinic,
Standard Bank Account No 282625054
Branch Code 050917

Please add the reference "W/CAT" and your name, and please notify us if possible
so that we can follow up donations in case of accidental misallocation

Please do not take any feral/stray cat into the vet for attention and charge it to our Wildcat account without prior approval from Lynne.

The Wildcat account with the vet is meant for sterilization of ferals and will only under certain exceptional circumstances be used for other procedures.

Grahamstown Feral Cat Project uses the TNR (Trap, Neuter & Return) approach - globally recognised as the most humane, least costly and most sustainable way of stabilizing feral cat populations.

Volunteers humanely trap the feral cats; we take them to the vet to be spayed or neutered; the tip of the right ear is snipped off so we can easily identify that they have been sterilized; we return them to their original territory where they live out their lives (adult ferals cannot be tamed). Feral kittens, wherever possible, are fostered, tamed and homed.

 

Archived Newsletters

December 2014
January 2015

 

The Grahamstown Feral Cat project promotes responsible pet ownership. This includes proper care (feeding, vaccination and preventative treatment against parasites, etc.) and sterilisation to prevent unplanned kittens and reduce the number of homeless animals.

See
http://www.ru.ac.za/environment/action/petwise
and
http://www.ru.ac.za/environment/action/animalwise/feralcats

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Page updated on February 6, 2018