Zimmer FoundationPO Box 130944
Ann Arbor MI 48113
Do you have a bulletin board at your business,
school or housing office?
If so, we can supply you with posters
to advertise our free spay/neuter programs.
The more people we can reach,
the more cats we can spay and neuter.
Is your cat wetting outside the box?
First make sure there are no medical reasons
and if not, try placing an empty (no litter) litter box
or a framed puppy training pad
in the area where the cat wets.
Odds are the cat will use these over the floor,
making clean-up easier while you work on the problem.
"Late last fall we started providing food for a very wary, feral cat.
During late winter, a second more trustful, but feral, cat
showed up and stayed.
The two got along, and since they established their territory,
no other feral cats have been about.
BUT in May, the first very wary, now very healthy, feral cat
had her litter of four in a woodpile.
In all likelihood, her "partner" sired the litter.
As for the kittens,
we managed to catch, take in, and tame 3 of the 4.
With your help, we're willing to try to trap
the remaining kitten and two adults.
If we can catch and tame the remaining kitten,
we should be able to find a home for all of them.
As part of your managed TNR program,
if we can catch the two adults,
we're willing to sponsor their return to our property".
We followed up with an application and our Feral Cat Handbook,
and they returned the application with the following note:
Few caregivers set out to manage a feral cat colony --
they simply see cats outdoors --
make eye contact --
and start feeding.
Then, the first kittens arrive,
and they look for alternatives.
Here's one Ann Arbor family's story illustrating this process:
"We purchased our own live trap
and are acclimating the feral cats to enter.
Recently they started going in for their wet-food "treat".
We will make arrangements with a vet and set the trap
as soon as we receive the vouchers.
As an update, we decided to keep one kitten
and found good homes for the two others."
We followed up with vouchers
and the outdoor cats are now sterilized,
vaccinated for rabies and distemper,
and ear-tipped (see photo) identifying them as sterilized feral cats.
Through this family's efforts, six cats that may have become shelter statistics are now living appropriate lives. And, because the outdoor cats have a dedicated manager, any new cats that appear can also be promptly sterilized through our ongoing TNR assistance. They are linked to our kitten-free network and are helping to humanely and effectively reduce the cat population.
If you feed cats on your property,
link to our kitten-free network.
We issue free spay/neuter vouchers
to qualified colonies --
yard or barn --
in much of southeastern Michigan.
To date we've fixed about 4,000 outdoor cats
in over 700 different colonies.
It's easy to encourage homeowners to TNR their outdoor cats -- usually the property owner is also the caregiver. By the time a homeowner calls us, they've already been encouraged by their vet or learned about TNR on the Internet. Getting through to other locations -- apartments, universities, restaurants and mobile home parks -- is more difficult because the caregivers are usually employees or residents -- not the owner. Their site managers view cats as a nuisance and are in denial that the cats will be there regardless -- or that sterilized colonies would make better neighbors -- with no more kittens or adult cats yowling, fighting and spraying. The caregivers hesitate to ask permission to TNR for fear of raising the cats' visibility which may result in the managers attempting to remove them.
Even though we can't fund TNR in these limited situations, we are making inroads at getting the pet cats that live in these areas sterilized through our Snip 'N Chip Program. What management is not willing to do outdoors may eventually get done by the residents indoors. Their now-sterilized indoor/outdoor pets will no longer contribute kittens to the feral colonies living around dumpsters. What is really needed though, is a two-pronged approach of sterilizing the pet cats while at the same time, sterilizing the outdoor cats.
Our Snip 'N Chip Program issues free vouchers for cats in families with incomes under $40,000. Our TNR Program issues free vouchers to managed yard and barn cats regardless of caregiver's income. Both programs now work in a new expanded territory covering much of southeastern Michigan. Donations to our spay/neuter fund help extend the number of cats we can sterilize.
Kitty Zimmer