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Newsletter
Feral Cat Colony Management: Rabies Vaccinations: It's the Law
As colony caregivers, we are responsible for seeing that the cats we care for receive regular rabies vaccination as prescribed by law. Though this capture and revaccination can be a daunting task, it is nonetheless, the law.
Most cases of rabies in cats come from areas (such as the Northeast) where there are large populations of common rabies carriers such as raccoons, foxes and bats, and can pass the virus onto cats. If you are a community cat caretaker, it is important to vaccinate and revaccinate your colony.
The TNVR program carried out by Friends of Felines volunteers includes spaying/neutering and vaccinating cats against rabies therefore protecting our cats and protecting our community. In the State of NC, the 1st vaccine is good for 1 year. You are required by law to re-vaccinate your cat at the end of the first year, the 2nd vaccine being good for three years. Friends of Felines requires all caregivers to abide by this law. Keep your colonies and your neighbors safe from rabies. Please contact us if you need to borrow traps and get appointments to re-vaccinate your colony. We will be happy to help.
Saving Goodbye to one of the Founders Of Friends of Felines, Timmi Evans
Timmi Evans, FOF founder, has passed away. All of us have so many stories about Timmi and her wit, humor and love for animals that there aren’t enough pages in the newsletter to publish them all. I would like to share a couple of them with you.
Timmi was very active in the rescue world here in Wilmington for many years. She helped several organizations caring for animals in need. She was a member of Cat Adoption Team and the Humane Society before FOF was formed. She was on the Animal Services Advisory Board for many years fighting for animal rights. Timmi was a visionary who was ahead of her time. When FOF was formed she helped recruit members and volunteers. She helped get information together for our non-profit status and worked tirelessly to get FOF established and respected in the community. She served as President for many years. She and her husband John dedicated their lives to helping all animals. She was especially good at saving the littlest ones who had lost their mother. She would wake up every couple of hours and bottle feed the little babies until they would eat on their own. She had two dogs Nikki and Tucker who were big pit bulls that loved cats and kittens. They would help her clean the milk off the kitten’s faces after she would feed them. They made a great team.
It was November 1999 when I attended my first FOF meeting. I was there because I needed help trapping a large colony of cats in my neighborhood. Timmi lived near me and became the volunteer who was assigned to help me. I remember her asking me how many cats I thought were in the colony and I said “about 100 or so”. Timmi rolled her eyes in a playful way; she had heard that line before. Everyone thinks they have 100 cats in the colony! So we planned to meet the next evening at the colony to assess my situation. When we drove up, there were about 15 cats hanging around. We got out of the car and a few more came out for dinner. Not too spectacular! She jokingly said, 100? I then popped open a can of food and here they came! They were hiding in the woods and buildings until they heard the can open! I opened more cans and she proceeded to count. She said she stopped counting at 80, there were just too many! Over the next 6 months, Timmi and I became very good friends. She taught me to trap and all the tricks to catch the savvy and elusive ones. When I found young kittens, she took them home and cared for them until she could get them adopted. I was forever in her debt and because of her kindness and love for the animals and, of course, her patience with me, I became an active and dedicated member of FOF.
When Timmi and John decided to move to Florida to buy a farm so she could have her beloved horses again, it was a sad day for all of us. We had lost two very important people in our group. We have never been able to replace her love, caring and compassion. We wish their family comfort and love during this difficult time of loss. We hope you find peace in knowing she and John are together again with all their beloved animals across the Rainbow Bridge.
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BEHIND THE SCENES OF FRIENDS OF FELINES
Many of you know us as a Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return (TNVR) program for the feral cats in New Hanover. But did you know we also:
Help individuals on fixed incomes with food for their colonies
Take in, tame, and foster kittens from our colonies
Take kittens from the “back” of animal services when they are too small to be fixed so that so they don’t have to be euthanized
Work with local adoption groups to place the tame cats and kittens from our colonies
Provide medical care for the cats that have gone through our program
In extreme cases relocate cats who are in danger of death due to changing situations to our partner group, The Ruffian Foundation Feral Cat Sanctuary
Work with animal services on complaints with existing colonies
Work with animal services on new colonies so cats can stay where they live
Provide education to help the public understand the benefits of our TNVR program
Because of our work we have grown from a simple TNVR program to a group with many different outreach programs.
If you think we are ONLY a TNVR program, think again! If you want to help us as a
volunteer please contact us via email at friendsofelines@aol.com
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Working Together with N.H. County Animal Services to Reduce Intake of Feral Cats in the Shelter
Friends of Felines and Animal Services Unit (ASU) are working together to reduce and eliminate the intake of feral cats into their facility to be euthanized. ASU is now offering referrals for feral cat calls to us instead of loaning traps out to have the cats brought in and killed. They will, however, still loan traps if we cannot resolve the problem.
This gives us a wonderful opportunity to save the lives of feral cats in New Hanover County. It also leaves us scrambling to handle 10 times as many situations as we had before. This is stretching us very thin on manpower and funds. Since we help all the feral cats a person is feeding, what came into ASU as a call for a mom cat with kittens turns into helping not only them, but the other 12 -15 cats the person and their neighbors are feeding! So, instead of 5 cats in need, we have 17 – 20 cats in need, hence our problem! It now takes us 4 or 5 more visits to trap and transport the additional cats and pay for them!
We need your help! We need people who can trap and transport, write grants, create and execute fundraisers and donate funds. Whether you want to be hands on with “boots on the ground”, sit at your computer, add a cat or two in your colony or barn, or write a check, we need your help. We have a golden opportunity to fulfill our goal of “no more feral cats being euthanized at New Hanover County Animal Services Unit”. But we can’t do it without your support. Please? Please help us stop the intake and killing of our feral cats in New Hanover County
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