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BTC4A: Think Global, Act Local


Blog the Change for Animals (BtC4A) takes place quarterly on the 15th of January, April, July and October to bring attention to animal causes that matter to us. I’m honored to participate once again.

My human aka TW was living in a “bubble.” Even though she kept reading about feral colonies and community cats, she always thought it was “someone else’s problem.” She hadn’t seen a stray cat in our area for over 20 years. She thought we had it covered. She had another think coming

A few years ago, our concierge mentioned there were several cats living in our parking garage that residents were feeding. A quick look showed their ears weren’t notched. A red flag went up but she was still in denial.

The Park Cats aka Duarte Park Colony. The ginger is Joe who is getting treatment
on his eyes. Doesn’t the tuxie look like Mauricio?
Last December she noticed cats in Duarte park, a park she passes almost every day. Three or four were laying by the covered wading pool sunning themselves and others were on the grass. She bought them cans of food and noticed they weren’t notched either. Every day, she noticed the cats by the pool rotated. She didn’t know exactly how many there were but even two were too many. She began looking around for a local TNR. She didn’t get serious until she saw the two little cuties up the block from us—the Maple St. cats. She put one and one together and realized if she didn’t act that total of two was going to grow quickly.

Enter the Union City Feral Cat Committee (UCFCC). Their web site describes them as "a non profit organization (501c3) made up of cat loving volunteers who feed, trap, neuter and return (TNR) the feral cats of our neighborhoods. The mission of our group is caring for the homeless cats (feral and adoptable) of Union City and adjacent towns through TNR, vaccination, veterinary care, and adoptions. We care for homeless cats as much as we care about our families.”

The Maple Street Cats showing off their new igloo courtesy UCFCC.
UCFCC was founded in September 2012 and since then has spayed almost 200 cats and has spent over $24,000 of donated money for the care of sick animals, including vet care and food for local colonies. They’ve found foster and permanent homes for the cats who exhibit friendly behavior and can be domesticated. Their goal is to make Union City and surrounding areas kill-free by the year 2020. Toward this end, they provide low-cost or free TNRs to low income or public housing residents locally. In addition, they will provide pick up and drop off for people without transportation who need their cats altered.

UCFCC has been on averge spaying/neutering/vaccinating one colony—about 12-20 kitties—a month. Unfortunately, there seems to be an endless supply. UCFCC will lend people in Union City and the surrounding areas traps and use of their holding space free of charge, as well as teach how to trap the cats. They'll coordinate the fixing of the colony with the low-cost Peoples for Animals clinic. The group has big plans and like most other TNR groups need money and volunteers to do so.

TW found of their flyers and contacted their founder, Fernando Portes. UCFCC has neutered the cats in the garage as well as the Park cats and the Maple kitties. Right before they worked their magic, Mama Maple kitteh gave birth to a litter. The three kittens are up for adoption on their PetFinder page. They will be safe and warm while their Mama hides in her igloo provided by the group.

Thus far, TW has only been feeding the cats and sharing on FB and occasionally on this blog. She’s yet to be involved in the TNR so she deserves little credit in this article. The real heroes are the members of UCFCC who are on the streets doing the trapping, driving the cats to the vets and getting the kitties adopted and fostered. We salute those activists in our community.

Their latest flyer features Mama Maple Cat’s litter among others.

Would you like to comment?

  1. Always such a hard life for these sweeties..we had problems where we used to live..i became the kitten and cats whisperer...they always ended up with me..which led to joining a shelter as a foster ..a rewarding but sometimes hard thing to do..we hope one day no kitties or doggies are homeless..loves Fozziemum xx

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  2. That is a great cause and some super dedicated people. Have a tremendous Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  3. Paws up to TW for letting UCFCC know where the colony was that needed help. Plenty of people just feed colonies and don't ever do anything to get TNR started, and even if TW didn't trap cats or transport them herself, she did those kitties a huge service. Keeping local colonies under population control is everyone's business!

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  4. I was born feral, myself, but lucky on account of the peeps gettin' me inside when I was quite young. That's how I ended up with a home and a blog. Other cats aren't so lucky BUT I will say that TNR really does work. There are some TNR groups around here.

    Purrs,
    Nissy

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  5. What a great organization. In fact, every organization that takes care of feral cats, and their veterinary care and vaccination is a worthy cause.

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  6. Great post, that sounds like a fantastic group of dedicated cat lovers.

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  7. UCFCC wouldn't have known about those kitties if not for TW so she deserves 4 paws up!!!

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  8. we are ALL about TNR. sometimes asking for help is a big step. we hope TW continues to watch out for the kitties....

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  9. I am with Melossa and Truffles, TW deserves 8 paws up from us for having taken notice of the Maple St kitties and then stepping up tp make something positive happen for them. Great B4TC

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  10. Such adorable kitties! How wonderful of TW to take action for those sweethearts. She changed their lives for the better.

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  11. Like most of the comments, I applaud TW for observing the need and taking action. Homeless cats, dogs and even humans are plagued by "look the other way syndrome." We are fortunate here in Seattle to have several great TNR organizations like this one. My friend lives near a park that has a massive feral population and she takes advantage of their services (some or ours offer driving too!) very often.

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  12. What a terrific organization and so wonderful for TW to help out CK!

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  13. Great article! Even though TW may not be extremely active with the TNR volunteers, she is WAY ahead of so many others, including our mom! Thank you for the reminder that we should all be doing our part to help the stray and feral cats in our community.

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  14. ck...TW helped out....mor than her will add mit...but her helped out ..N de kittehz will bee for everz grate full ♥♥♥

    kewl post two day two ~~~~~

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  15. We all love the hero humans like that CK!

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  16. ANY help your human gives is great, CK! TNR takes time and dedication - my human went on a trapping run for a Cat Fancy story once, and it took all night to trap one kitty.

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  17. Fabulous post CK! Great cause and you are right, we have to work on our own back yards!

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  18. Well done from your human, CK ! And paws up for UCFCC ! Purrs

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  19. Gweat posty CK and a gweat gwoup. Weez so glad dat so many kitties awe bein' helped.

    Luv ya'

    Dezi and Lexi

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  20. Paws up to all rescue groups like UCFCC that take care of the feral kitties.

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  21. Good forte. That is a wonderful thing she is doing. We probably have them in our area and just don't know it.

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  22. That's a really great thing that TW did letting the organization know about the feral kitties that needed tending to.

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  23. Great post! We are so glad there are organizations like these to help these poor kitties.

    Purrs xx
    Athena and Marie

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  24. Awesome organization, so great that there are people out there to help!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  25. TW *does* deserve plenty of credit for getting these kitties taken care of--even the best organizations can't help kitties they don't know about! XOXOXOX & Paws Up to TW!

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  26. Awesome post, we are so happy that the cats are being cared for and we think TW is the cat's meow for helping.

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  27. Great post! Any organisation that helps feral cats deserves support - thanks for raising awareness.

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