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.