Our new tag line: for The Love of Cats

You may have noticed a new tag line popping up on our vouchers and other media saying “for The Love of Cats”.    Actually, it’s not really new as it was the tag line of our 2000-2009 Michigan cat programs. We’ve brought it back because our work here has expanded since we started in 2010 and we wanted to tie our programs together under a common name. 

Our Low-Income Pet Cat Spay/Neuter program was our first program and it continues to be our main work.

 

But we’ve added an Acute Care Program to also give low-income cats access to urgent care  for treatable medical emergencies.

 

And more recently we’ve added a Community Cat Outreach program allowing us to fund complementary spay/neuter programs for other nonprofits working in our service areas.   By strengthening their work, we can reach cats — including feral cats — our voucher program couldn’t easily reach.

We’re currently working with the Animal Welfare Coalition of Northeastern New Mexico, the Espanola Valley Humane Society, the McKinley County Humane Society  and Taos Feral Feline Friends — and  welcome inquiries from other area nonprofits.

So when you see our new tag line we hope you think of all the cats we’ve touched who will no longer lose their homes simply because their caregivers couldn’t afford their essential veterinary care.    In New Mexico this now totals over 8,500 cats.

What better way is there for us to show our love of cats than this?

Expanding our spay/neuter umbrella to include managed feral cat colonies.

For the last five years our free spay/neuter assistance has focused exclusively on lower-income individual and family pet cats.  And this is with good reason.  Pet cats in this demographic rarely come from shelters that fix the cats before placing them – the adoption fees are prohibitive.  So instead they get their cats the “old-fashioned” way – finding strays on the street or taking kittens from litters of other low-income homes with unfixed cats.  

And – just as they can’t afford an adoption fee, they can’t afford to fix the cats even at a low-cost spay/neuter clinic.  So they wait to save the money – or if they have a mix of cats – fix only the females (or males) and before they know it their cats get pregnant or start spraying and they can no longer tolerate living with them.  When this happens the cat(s) are abandoned outdoors (where they join feral cat colonies and continue reproducing) or are given to animal control shelters (where they are often put down for lack of immediate homes).    Empowering low-income caregivers to fix their cats quickly (by providing free and local spay/neuter) prevents these tragedies from happening – and makes a significant dent in the number of kittens born each year. 

Yet what about the cats that are already abandoned and living in outdoor colonies – shouldn't they be fixed too?  Yes.  And now we've established a separate ManagedTNR (trap-neuter-return) Program to address the special needs of fixing these outdoor cats.    Unlike our low-income voucher program that works directly with pet cat guardians, the TNR program seeks other non-profit groups working in our 10-county area* that can coordinate the live-trapping and transporting of feral cats to vet clinics for surgery.  The program is simple to use and we’ve posted all of the information including registration forms to our web site: 

For a practical guide on feral cat care, read our handbook:  Managing a Feral Cat Colony.    It gives you everything you need to know to care for outdoor cats.

*New Mexico counties of Bernalillo, Catron, Colfax, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, and Valencia.

Feral Cat Assistance Through Community Grants

We recently awarded our Community Cat Program’s first feral cat TNR grant to the Animal Welfare Coalition of Northeastern New Mexico.  This grant will enable them to continue an important project they began earlier this year with a similar ASPCA grant.  Under that grant they fixed 180 free-roaming feral cats in San Miguel and surrounding counties.    Our grant should help them double that number.

San Miguel county is also one of the 10 counties we target with our low-income pet cat spay/neuter program – which over the last few years – has funded the sterilization of almost 6,500 cats through the 27 veterinary clinics that work with us.  These local clinics make free-and-local spay/neuter a welcome reality for low-income guardians – including the elderly, the disabled, the un-or under-employed, young families living on a tight budget and students.   Once their pet cats are sterilized, they become easier to care for – no more kittening, spraying and yowling – and stand a better chance of keeping their “forever” homes forever.      Those that don’t get fixed are always at  risk of being relinquished to shelters or abandoned outdoors where they form or join feral cat colonies.  

While our spay/neuter program isn't equipped to directly work with feral cats – we support the work of groups that can which is why we’re happy to fund the Animal Welfare Coalition project.  Their efforts complement our basic pet cat spay/neuter work and help further our mission of reducing the New Mexico cat population to a manageable number – stemming the growth of feral cat colonies and reducing shelter intake and euthanasias. 

Zimmer Foundation is now the Zimmer Feline Foundation

Just in case you haven’t noticed -- over the past few months we’ve been using a slightly different name for our foundation – Zimmer Feline Foundation.  It’s a subtle change but one that more depicts who we are and what we do.  And – it also is the last step in transitioning from a Michigan corporation (where we worked with cats from 2000-2009 to a New Mexico corporation where we’ve been working with cats since 2010. 

    

We no longer use Cat Spay of Santa Fe for our spay-neuter program either.  When we first moved to New Mexico we “assumed” we would limit our work to Santa Fe County – but soon understood the need for free-and-local cat spay/neuter for low-income pets here is great – and extends far beyond the boundaries of Santa Fe County.    So – with the help of 27 private and non-profit veterinary clinics – we now locally service north and central New Mexico including most of Bernalillo, Catron, Colfax, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance and Valencia counties – and will add more counties as we find vet clinics to service them.

The Zimmer Feline Foundation vouchers are totally free to qualified applicants – individuals and households with gross incomes under $40K per year can apply for free spay/neuter vouchers – and those who receive food stamps can also apply for acute veterinary vouchers in the event of a treatable medical emergency.  The spay/neuter vouchers cover the complete cost to spay or neuter a cat – and a rabies vaccination given at time of surgery.  The acute care vouchers pay up to $300 toward the cost to treat a medical emergency such as broken bones, infections and fight wounds.

Our spay/neuter focus is expressly on the 15% of pet cats who are not routinely fixed when they are adopted –those in low-income homes who find the cost of sterilization even at low-cost clinics a burden that is easily put off.  Our experience (10 years working with both pet and feral cat caregivers in Michigan and 4 years working with pet caregivers in New Mexico), finds these unfixed pet cats are the root source of most of the feral colonies formed each year and most of the cats and kittens delivered to animal control shelters and often euthanized.

We no longer provide spay/neuter vouchers for feral cats (ie, cats you cannot handle) because we rely on our Participants making (and keeping) pre-arranged veterinary appointments so that the clinics we work with are not faced with last-minute cancellations because the feral cat didn’t show (or couldn’t be trapped) the morning of the appointment.

But – we can now selectively provide financial assistance to cat groups who work in situations our vouchers wouldn’t normally cover – outside our service area or special situations or events – provided the cat caregivers are not charged any co-pay and the project is well-defined and furthers our mission.

Many adoption and TNR (trap-neuter-return) programs are active in New Mexico to deal with the problem caused by leaving this 15% of pet cats intact – and we support and applaud their efforts.  But – we’ve come to the conclusion that the cat population cannot stabilize unless and until that 15% of unfixed pet cats is significantly reduced – and in our opinion that can happen only when cat sterilization services are free and local for all cats – that is our program focus.  To date we’ve helped 2,800 New Mexico caregivers sterilize – and keep – 5,200 cats.  

If you know anyone in our service area that could use our help, please ask them to call – applications are taken over the phone and vouchers are mailed within a day or two of approval.     Keeping a cat in its original homes is well worth it!

So how did we get from Feral Cat Colony Assistance to Lower-Income Spay/Neuter?

“The focus of our Cat Spay of Santa Fe program is to keep the cats -- most at risk of being abandoned outdoors or relinquished to shelters -- in their original homes by providing free and convenient spay/neuter assistance.”

When we moved to Santa Fe from Ann Arbor we changed more than our address.  We also changed the focus of our cat spay/neuter programs -- from feral colony trap-neuter-return (TNR) to lower-income pet cat sterilization.  Not because we don't get the value -- or the urgency -- of reducing feral cat populations -- but simply because we do.  We just believe we can be more effective in complementing in-place TNR programs by doing pre-emptive TNR -- fixing lower-income pet cats to keep them from being abandoned outdoors and exacerbateing the feral cat problem.  Borrowing from our new web site's background information, here's why we made the shift:  

Today we think of cat spay/neuter in terms of population control — but routine cat sterilization actually began in the 1950s with the introduction of kitty litter — long before cat population was seen to be a problem. Kitty litter brought cats indoors — and behaviors that were perfectly acceptable outdoors (yowling, spraying, and fighting) became unacceptable indoors. As their caregivers started complaining, vets offered the "fix" of sterilization. Fixing the cats did in fact end most of the noxious behaviors — and cats became accepted (and cherished) indoor pets.

Today, some 85% of indoor pet cats have been fixed — but that leaves 15% unfixed — and in our experience (10 years, working with both pet and feral cat caregivers), these unfixed indoor pet cats are the ultimate source of most of the kittens born each year. While we support and applaud those conducting TNR programs, we've come to the conclusion that the colonies established under these programs cannot be stabilized until that 15% of unfixed pet cats is significantly reduced — and in our opinion, that can happen only when sterilization services are both free and convenient.

In managing our TNR program in Michigan (almost 2,000 colonies), we continually received requests to fix a few new cats that had just "shown up" (frequently pregnant). Initially we thought, well, that's okay — it's nice that these free-roaming cats found a colony to join. But when some of these cats started showing up in boxes — on doorsteps — and kept "showing up" year after year — the realization started to dawn that these cats weren't free-roaming — but abandoned.

Then, in managing our lower-income spay/neuter program (almost 2,000 participants) and talking with the families, we began to understand what was happening. Most people find the behaviors of unfixed pet cats (male or female) very annoying — and most know the solution is to fix them — but when it's stretching the budget just to buy food and litter, paying for sterilization (even with a low-cost program) isn't out of the question, but it is a significant burden that's very easy to put off. And then when that behavior happens to strike a famiy member as intolerable — or when the cat becomes pregnant and the family can't deal with the prospect of a litter (or more likely, yet another litter) — and the family sees their choices as taking the cat to an animal control shelter (where they believe the cat will be killed) or dropping them off in the country at a house that looks "cat friendly" — it's hard to see them as "bad" — or "careless" — or "irresponsible" — more just "human".

To reach this group, we'll need the cooperation of the veterinary clincs in our service area (Santa Fe County). Convenience (near-access to the service) is as important as cost — especially to the elderly and infirm. Of the 57 small-animal vet clinics in our service area in Michigan, over 50 worked with us — and we worked regularly with 30 because of their location and pricing.

So for the time being, we've chosen to focus on the pet cats of low income families - living indoors or out. If we can significantly reduce the abandonments and kitten births of these cats, TNR has a fighting chance of working. We encourage those doing TNR continue to do so — even those TNRing just a few feral cats hanging out around their porch, shed or barn. And we'll help to the extent we can.

Our current program limits us to 3 cats per family — but that's how most feral cat colonies start,  If you're feeding outdoor cats and fix them right away you'll prevent a full-blown colony from forming in the first place.  And if you do, we'll may be able to help with the cost.

Free Cat Spay/Neuter Program Expands Service Area

Our Lower-Income Spay/Neuter Program now reaches all of Washtenaw County and most communities adjacent to it. The new zip codes include Carleton (48117), Hamburg (48139), Monroe (48161-48162), Canton (48187-48188), Novi (48374 and Wixom (48393).

Families in our area -- with annual household incomes under $40,000 -- are invited to apply for free vouchers covering the full cost to spay or neuter their cats– and -- if it can be done at the time of surgery –one vaccination each for rabies and distemper.

As long as the household provide the cats with daily care (food, water and shelter) – and has a lifelong commitment to them – the cats can live indoors or out at their home. This means in addition to property owners qualifying for outdoor cat spay/neuter vouchers through our Feral Colony Assistance Program, now renters, condominium and Mobile Home Park residents can too – but with a 3-cat limit per household. And, because these “porch” cats often move indoors after they’re fixed, we don’t ear-tip them as we would through the Feral Colony Assistance Program.

In addition to being free, our program is very convenient – with vouchers being issued to participating veterinary clinics scattered throughout our service area. With the exception of some fringe areas, most clients will be sent to a clinic within 10-15 miles from their home.

This change in service area only applies to the Lower-Income Spay/Neuter Program and does not affect the Feral Colony Assistance Program. Visit our web site for full program details and applications.

Let's Not Forget The Ferals

I failed to mention in the last post that 5 of the cats in our closed retirement center came from the show-and-tell feral cat colony we assembled in the barn of our "cat farm". We created the colony in 2002 with 8 displaced feral cats that had permanently lost their natural homes. At that time the cats ranged in age from 1 to 3 years.

Feral cats are cats that had little or no human attention before they turned 8 weeks of age -- the point at which their personalities are completely developed. As a result they are fearful of people and no amount of human attention after that point will change this. That being said, they may accept the person who feeds them -- thinking of him or her as their "mom cat" and essentially exclude their caregiver from the human race.

Feral cats constitute about half of the total cat population yet very few people know they are there -- like most other wildlife they are nocturnal coming out under the cloak of darkness when people won't see them. When people do catch a glimpse of them they often think that they are seeing a lost or abandoned cat that someone "dumped". Since most of our volunteers came to the farm for the geriatric cats, they started off being wary of our allowing cats to live outdoors in an unheated barn -- even if it was equipped with marsh-grass stuffed beds, custom cat walks and a cat-fenced corral where they could play. Observing the feral cats during their weekly volunteer shifts quickly changed their opinions. The cats were healthy, active and really enjoyed sunning themselves in the barn's windows even in the dead of winter.

In 2005, when we reached our decison to sell the farm, we decided to move the feral cats indoors and start the blending process with the geriatric companion cats. To our surprise, many of the volunteers were now wary of our bring the cats indoors to live and depriving them of their natural cat lifestyle. Fortunately the transition to indoor living went smoothly -- we started them in a room adjacent to the geriatric cat room with a removable window screen where the two groups of cats could observe each other.

When we eventually removed the screen to allow cross-access, we found the geriatric cats were spending a good deal of their time in the feral cat room -- enjoying the expansion of their space. After a few weeks the feral cats returned the favor and came into the original cat room learning quickly how to use the cat door to access the enclosed deck and yard. When the volunteers came for their shifts the feral cats would move back to the feral cat room until they left -- not quite ready to sit with people. Although only a few were able to pet any of the cats, everyone agreed that they enjoyed indoor living as much as they had the outdoors. Cats are very territorial and once they learn a new territory -- a process that takes about three weeks -- that's where they want to be.

Three years later they too are geriatric -- the youngest is now 10 years old -- and they have the run of our house with the companion cats. They remain very bonded to each other -- often sharing food from the same dish and snuggling with each other when they sleep. Cleo and Robin sleep with us, but Larry, Emmy and Joyce only allow infrequent petting. All of them hang out in the house areas we spend the least time in.

Our Shelter Experience

As with many people drawn to helping cats, our involvement started from a concern for their welfare. While researching how to provide successor care for our own cats (in event of our death or disability), we learned the grim truth that the odds of their surviving our demise were slim. Once a cat turns 5 years old, most adoption shelters give up on them -- no matter how cute and cuddly they are. It's not that they are unadoptable, it's just that they take longer to place, hence cost more money to shelter and tie up precious cage space that could be better used on very young and friendly cats and kittens. There are so many kittens born each year, the older cats don't stand a chance competing with them for homes. All too often the cat's age is the sole determinant of whether they live or die. The No Kill Movement is working to change this, but many traditional shelters will either not take in older cats or simply euthanize them on arrival.

In 1999 Cat Fancy Magazine ran an article on Cat Retirement Homes and how they offered people like us the chance to provide successor life care for our cats if we are hit by the proverbial Mack truck. Coincidentally we had recently sold our business and were looking for new avenues to develop in our Foundation. We did our research, attended the annual No Kill conference, and by November had roughed out a program. We recognized that there would be a lag from when we opened to when we would receive our first "true" retirement cat because the people applying were at the estate-planning stage, not the end-of-life stage. To get established we devised a plan to rescue older cats from "death row" at the local shelter to either adopt outright or foster to the elderly through a program we called Older Cats For Older People. We purchased a farm and renovated the house to provide a cage-free shelter that was so nice some of the people who adopted from us said they felt guilty about taking their cat away. We had a resident caregiver, three part-time employees, and 45 volunteers giving the 12-18 cats housed there all the love and attention they could muster.

As perfect as everything appeared, and as rewarding as the farm was for the staff, volunteers and visitors, something seemed to nag at us. Three years into the program we had rescued 70 teenaged cats, placed half in good homes and fostered many to senior citizens. Those aspects ran very well. The problem came from the cats who, as old cats do, developed health issues -- with frequent vet visits, complicated medical routines and the need to observe their behavior more closely, the shelter environment simply did not work. Soon we had a shadow shelter of chronically-ill or hospiced cats living in our home so they could receive round-the-clock care. To add to this, whenever a cat came home, a new cat was rescued to take his or her place at the farm. To calculate our total population, we had to add those at home and out on Older Cat foster to the group living in the shelter and that number was growing beyond the number we could comfortably commit to overall. We soon realized the inherent flaw in our lay-run retirement community and decided to refocus our efforts to an area where we could be infinitely more effective -- pro-active spay/neuter. We sold the farm, phased out the cat shifts, and brought the remaining cats home to live -- thus creating a closed retirement community now containing 18 cats. Fortunately, we had built our home to be cat-friendly and could house the cats at home as well as they were housed at the farm, but with one important difference -- they now have care available 24 hours a day.

Welcome

Welcome to our premier post of the Zimmer Foundation Mews & Views blog. Some of you may already recognize the title from our TLC/for The Love of Cats newsletter with the same name. We've published it locally (greater Ann Arbor MI area) for many years. You can read our archived newsletters by visiting: http://www.tlconline.org/. If you're not familiar with us, the Zimmer Foundation is a 501(c)3 private operating foundation that believes the lives of all cats (friendly and feral) have value and has established programs aimed at improving their lives.

Our TLC program is one of Michigan's largest cat spay/neuter programs -- and has fixed over 12,000 cats to date. It targets the two groups of cats traditionally living below the spay/neuter radar: pet cats in lower-income families and managed feral cats living in naturally-occurring colonies in residential areas.

In addition to our spay/neuter efforts, we provide life care for a closed retirement shelter housing 18 geriatric cats ranging in age from 10 to 19 years. And, we provide tuition funding for a small group of exceptional veterinary students focusing their life work on feline medicine.

Mews & Views will follow our geriatric cats as they journey through their final life phase, share human interest anecdotes on the cats in our spay/neuter programs -- many have pretty interesting stories to tell -- and present our vision on how the existing cat welfare system can (and should) be improved. As you may have guessed -- we're fully-immersed in these topics and would like to share them with you. Stay tuned.