Are you caring for outdoor cats? Do you have cats in your neighborhood? You are not alone!
As is true in many cities and towns across the country and around the world, Douglas County is home to many cats who call the outdoors home. Until there is free or very affordable high volume spay/neuter available here, our community will continue to have a large population of outdoor cats.
Saving Grace is working to raise the funding necessary to provide these essential services to our community. If you would like to donate towards our effort to bring free and affordable spay/neuter to our community, please donate here and include “TNR Program” in your notes.
At this time, we are hard at work behind the scenes on the beginnings of a Targeted Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Program. A volunteer team is currently mapping colonies in our area, so we may target the most-needed areas first. If you have a community cat colony you are concerned about, please assist us in tracking these areas by providing your contact information, location of the cat colony, and approximate # of cats to catterymanager@savinggrace.info. By sending an email, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to assist with your colony right away, but we appreciate your assistance in helping to map out these colony hotspots in our county.
Outdoor Cat FAQ's
How do I know if someone is caring for an outdoor cat?
If a cat looks healthy, it probably is! Cats often times have more than one person caring for them and will make the rounds to various houses receiving food at each location. While cats do rely on humans for food and water, they can easily adapt to living outdoors and are often very happy doing so. Cats who have their ear tipped (see photo) have even been spayed/neutered and vaccinated, so they most definitely have someone looking out for them. Because these outdoor cats already have a home, there is no need to take them to the shelter unless they look like they are in pain or suffering.
Don’t these cats get cold?
Yes, they can get cold, but they often have very warm hiding spots we would never think of! If you are worried that your outdoor cats might be cold, you can find instructions for a very easy and cheap shelter for outdoor cats by visiting neighborhoodcats.org.
What if I don’t want cats in my yard?
We get it. Not everyone wants cats in their yard. Thankfully, there are many humane steps you can take to keep cats out of your yard. The first step is understanding why cats are in your yard in the first place. Typically cats are seeking food, shelter or other cats to mate with. Make sure that you do not have any sources of food in your yard like garbage cans. Cats are always looking for a good place to hide, so you’ll want to clean up piles of junk and donate your old cars to Saving Grace (click here to donate your car running or not!). Ideally, outdoor cats would all be spayed or neutered. If you have the ability to do so, that is the best thing to do because with spay/neuter, over time, the population will decline and the cats will be gone altogether!
You’ll find tons of cheap and easy ideas for keeping cats out of your yard by checking out this article from neighborhoodcats.com.
