Kitten season is each season for Kitchener Stray Cat Rescue.
A corporation devoted to cat rescue and rehabilitation, the self-funded, community-run facility is positioned throughout from Cameron Heights Secondary Faculty and spans 3500 sq. ft, together with a kitten lounge that’s open on weekends.
“In my thoughts, cats are the forgotten animals exterior, you understand, for those who’re driving down a street and also you see a canine, everybody will cease to assist a canine proper? However anybody who sees a cat, will simply maintain driving,” stated Tammy Tanner, proprietor of Kitchener Stray Cat Rescue. “The quantity of emails and calls we get even every day is excessive.”
Tanner has been rescuing cats since she was a bit of lady. Earlier than she began Kitchener Stray Cat Rescue, she would monitor social media for cats in want of assist and rescue them from her basement.
“Actually, each metropolis has numerous stray cats,” stated Tanner. “I obtain cats from throughout, not simply Kitchener, usually from the nation the place (the cat was) dumped exterior.”
In 2019, the Kitchener-Waterloo & Stratford Perth Humane Society studied homeless cats within the area. The examine discovered over 140,000 cats reside on the streets in Waterloo Area alone, suggesting a mixture of each strays and feral cats.
“There are some months the place I am like, ‘oh, God, okay, guys, we can’t rescue any extra cats this month’ as a result of now we have a whole lot of medicals that now we have to handle,” stated Tanner. “We have now to be very cautious of what number of cats we soak up with main medical as a result of actually, 80 per cent of the cats that are available are main medical.”
Receiving cats from everywhere in the GTA, Tanner does a lot of the trapping for the power utilizing the T-N-R technique (lure, neuter, launch). Nonetheless, most cats find yourself needing extra medical care than a easy neuter which signifies that when Tanner finds one, they all the time go straight to a quarantine room to be screened for underlying ailments.
“They’ve their litter field, their mattress, their meals and water and so they keep in there until we discover something,” stated Tanner. “Normally you will see a virus of some kind come out inside these quarantine intervals.”
One in all her fondest recollections is of a rescue named Ming. Initially mistaking him as a feminine cat for his sagging, seemingly pregnant stomach, Tanner took him to the vet solely to find that the swelling was from a bout of abdomen most cancers. When she discovered the most cancers wasn’t inflicting any ache, Tanner determined to maintain him reasonably than euthanize him.
“Ming stayed with us on the facility for 3 loving months and he took all of our hearts when he handed,” stated Tanner. “He truly died in my arms. This cat by no means skilled a lot love that he in all probability did his complete whole life. It was stunning.”
Since opening its doorways in January 2020, Tanner has prided herself on producing consciousness for varied feline ailments together with feline AIDS (FIV). Whereas most cats can reside a standard life with remedy, FIV is extraordinarily contagious to different cats and lethal if not detected in time.
“As soon as I began doing FIV consciousness, instantly all of those FIV cats have been getting adopted,” stated Tanner. “After which they arrive again as a result of they need a buddy FIV cat and I used to be like ‘are you kidding me?’ that is superior.”
Whereas the group focuses on rescues reasonably than surrenders, these days, they’ve been receiving no less than 4 emails every week from people with pandemic pets that they don’t need anymore.
“My primary focus is to assist the precise homeless cats exterior as a result of I can replenish the entire facility with individuals not wanting their cats anymore,” stated Tanner. “However then behind my thoughts, I am pondering ‘if I do not take it, is it simply going to wind up exterior in any case?’”
Extra details about the group will be discovered on its web site.
