Christ Yoder
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WINCHESTER – A small network of community volunteers are working diligently to control the northern Shenandoah Valley wildcat population.
the Community Cat Alliance (CCA), a non-profit, all-volunteer organization founded in 2014 as Community Cat Advocats, has captured and deexualed more than 3,500 cats living in the wild in Winchester and Frederick and Clarke counties. Adult cats are returned to outdoor locations where they were found, while kittens are taken to local animal shelters and offered for adoption.
Susan Chesley, trap / neutral / return coordinator for the alliance, said the reason adult feral cats are returned to where they were captured is because they are not domesticated and the outdoors are usually the only one. home they have ever known.
“We have a policy that we always make cats better than we found them,” Chesley said.
Kittens are another story. Since they are young and adaptable, Chesley said they can be nurtured by ACC members until they are old enough to be taken to organizations like Winchester, Frederick and Clarke Counties SPCA and offered for adoption as indoor pets.
The CCA occasionally encounters an adult cat that has been abandoned by its former owner. If these cats are still comfortable with humans, Chesley said, they could be offered for adoption by a local animal shelter rather than returned to the wild.
There have been a handful of times ACC members have inadvertently tricked someone’s pet cat. When this happened, Chesley said, the alliance still had the cats deexed before returning them to their owners.
“People should sterilize and sterilize, that’s all there is to it,” Chesley said. “It is beyond our comprehension how anyone would let a still intact or fertile cat out of the house.”
In one case, she said, the owner of a domestic cat actually thanked the CCA for de-exercising his pet and then contributed financially to the alliance.
CCA President Teri Shirnia said the nonprofit frequently inquires about feral cat colonies from owners. Volunteers respond to each report as quickly as possible, but it can sometimes take several days before an alliance member is available to set up traps and capture the feral kittens.
Additionally, Chesley said landowners need to understand that the CCA’s mission is not to permanently remove feral cats from the areas they live in, but rather to ensure that they cannot reproduce again before they are send them back to where they were captured.
“We are not a relocation company,” Chesley said.
Some of the so-called ‘community cats’ that are humanely trapped by CCA are sick or have a health problem that needs treatment, so alliance volunteers are working with area vets to treat the animals. before the felines join their colonies in the wild.
“We can spend quite a bit of money on a cat,” Shirnia said.
“We even had eye surgery,” Chesley added.
Shirnia said the CCA is completely dependent on financial donations from animal lovers in the area.
Even when donations are scarce, the CCA continues its mission. Chesley said members of the nonprofit’s board of directors have been known to use their own money to cover veterinary expenses.
There is never a shortage of feral cats needing the services of the alliance.
“We don’t have enough volunteers to meet the level of need in our community,” Shirnia said. “We need volunteers to be trained not only for trapping, but also for the reception and handling of some of the medical care before the cats can be returned, or so that we can get enough kittens. good health to move into the SPCA for adoption. “
“In a lifetime, a cat can have around 180 kittens,” Chesley said. “And then you do the math from there with the kittens having kittens having kittens – it’s mind boggling. We’re just trying to stay one step ahead.
For more information or to donate to the Community Cat Alliance, visit communitycatalliance.org.
