THE CAT'S EYE PROJECT

The Cat's Eye Project is a group of animal lovers whose purpose is to stop euthanasia of feral and stray cats and promote a program of neutering/spaying. The Cat's Eye Project stands for :

Counties' Alliance To Sterilize and End Yesterday's Euthanasia
"Watching over animals and being their voice."


Friday, November 5, 2010

CATS EYE NEWSLETTER

Wear Orange Ribbon To Alert Unaware Public To Feral Cats' Needs


THE CATS EYE PROJECT
"Watching over All Animals and Being Their Voice" 
CAT'S EYE: Counties' Alliance to Sterilize and End Yesteryear's Euthanasia
OCTOBER 16 IS NATIONAL FERAL CATS DAY
As nationally celebrated October 16 Feral Cats Day nears, all animal advocates everywhere are preparing to spread the word on that day to the unaware public that feral cats are being caught in a deadly overpopulation crisis and these endangered cats need and deserve our help.
About eighty per cent of Volusia County's approximately 20,000 kittens, puppies, dogs and cats taken by animal control to "shelters" to be quickly and routinely killed every year are feral cats and kittens, and other feral kittens are left to starve after their moms are caught and killed.
Feral cats are just normal felines whose once pampered housecat ancestors two or three or more generations ago became lost or abandoned.
Homeless cats and their two or three litters of kittens born every year in the wild survive by joining a feral colony, adapting to living outdoors and learning to fend for themselves. (Many included in the count of feral cats killed are not in truth feral, but are someone's lost pet now living in the feral community.) If former owners failed to spay, colony cats rampantly reproduce.
Determined to reduce the numbers of our endangered feral cat communities, local dedicated volunteer feral cat and kitten rescuers are out in the field every day working hard to trap, neuter and return feral cats or to trap-neuter-and relocate them via foster-and-adoption programs.
Jacksonville-Duval County government and its animal loving citizenry, along with the City of DeLand in Volusia, have set the standard locally for achieving a No-Kill status that includes our feral cats.
Volusia and other counties and cities' governing councils need to copy Jacksonville-Duval and DeLand hastily, because the atrocity of unnecessary killing innocent healthy kittens, puppies, cats and dogs at taxpayers' expense cannot be allowed to continue. Caring citizens WILL stop the killing!
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Read on pages 2 and 3 of this CAT'S EYE publication the story of how the combined efforts of a few people who decided to become involved and DO SOMETHING saved a family of kittens.
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And, be sure to take the back page of this publication to Applebee's Restaurant at 2599 Enterprise Road, Orange City on October 14 to earn funds for local animal rescue!


Page 2_____________ The CAT'S EYE PROJECT_________ October 2010
Addressing the feral cats overpopulation problem without killing..


ONE CAT AT A TIME!
Editor's note: Every year five to eight million kittens and puppies, dogs and cats — mostly feral cats — are killed in America, due to pet overpopulation. Trap-Neuter-Return and Trap-Neuter-Relocate volunteers are working to end that tragedy. Just one, two or a few dedicated people stepping up and doing something to start solving this crisis can change everything!
By Janice Potter
One day this past July I was at Dunkin' Donuts in DeLand and happened to look next door at a Rodeo Whip Ice Cream shop. There was a litter of kittens and a very young mama kitty at the rear of the building. I took one of my bags of cat food that I carry with me in my car trunk and walked over there, where I was told by an employee that the owners feed the kittens. I saw bowls outside for food and water, so I left the bag of food.
A couple of days later, I stopped by and spoke with the ice cream shop owner's daughter, Paula Dumas. I asked if they had any plans to try to spay or neuter the cat and kittens. She said she hadn't thought about it, but that she would be willing to help do that.
I contacted my vet, Dr. Bailey at Woodland Animal Clinic. His clinic manager, Sherica Egan, gave me contact info for two local animal activists. I contacted them to see what we could do and one of them, Charlotte Jones, met with the ice cream shop owner's daughter and me. She trained us in how to operate a humane trap. Then, she lent us the trap.
Three of the kittens were trapped the next day and were brought out to the ice cream shop owner's daughter's house. Paula has some land and it would be safer there for the kittens than at the ice cream business fronting right on Highway 17-92.
The other two kittens stayed clear of us. At that point, we had no place to put them anyway, so they had to be left with their mama at that location, though maybe they could be moved out to Paula's house after they were trapped and spayed or neutered.
The next day the mama cat was trapped and brought to Woodland Animal Clinic for spaying and her shots. I purchased a reduced-cost spay-neuter certificate at the Halifax Humane Society on LPGA Boulevard. Dr. Bailey is one of the veterinarians who honor those certificates.
The City of DeLand sponsored a spay-neuter fee reimbursement program until this past September 30 for the city's residents, so I would be reimbursed for the spaying. I returned to the ice cream shop a couple of times soon after we brought mama kitty back to the business location. She looked great and seemed to be doing fine.
We discovered, while I was going back and forth so many times checking on mama kitty and the two ice cream shop kittens, that there was also a whole other litter of kittens there, about a month old. I contacted Teresa of Candy's Cats in Orlando and she told us that if we could socialize these younger little feral kittens, she would be able to get them adopted out as soon as they were ready to eat kitten food. We decided we would go try to catch them and be their fosterers until Teresa could take them.


October 2010


The  CAT'S  EYE  PROJECT


Page  3


Addressing the feral cats overpopulation problem without killing...
ONE CAT AT A TIME!., . continued


Paula and I agreed that we would like also to get that second mama cat spayed. I hoped that all five older kittens from the earlier litter and this new mama could be spayed or neutered before the reimbursement deadline. (Reimbursement requirements specified a veterinarian's itemized bill, a rabies shot and the typical notched ear signifying cat or kitten has been sterilized. To stay informed on DeLand's reimbursement program and whether it might be repeated in the future, contact Antoinette Montanez at the City of DeLand, 386-626-7023 and request a reimbursement form.)





ANIMAL CLINIC
I am thankful for Paula Dumas' dedication in addressing the spaying-neutering issue with the cats that were living behind her mother's business and for her socializing the ones she took to her house, enabling adoption And, I'm thankful for her mother, Joyce Doolittle, owner of the Rodeo Whip ice cream shop at 1250 Woodland Avenue for her love of the cats and her dedication in feeding them every morning. They both are awesome! I'm thankful, too, for Dr. Bailey and his wonderful staff, especially for their flexibility and help with this big project of spaying and neutering this feral colony.
Since that first experience, Paula has become quite an expert in trapping feral cats! The ice cream shop owner purchased a trap, and they have trapped the second young mama cat and another female and one of the male cats. All have been brought to Dr. Bailey for spaying or neutering and shots. The ice cream shop family purchased many reduced-cost spay-neuter certificates provided by Halifax Humane Society. Paula tells me she will continue to trap and neuter feral cats until the entire colony has been sterilized. She told me another of the kittens from the original litter now has joined its siblings at her home.


This whole process was kind of stressful, since it was our first time, but we just wanted to get the job done and make sure those kittens were all safe.
I know this is just a drop in the bucket in addressing the feral cats crisis, but we can address this one-cat-at-a-time. It is a terrific thing these ladies are doing. They are fantastic examples of what happens when people act to make a difference.


October 2010


The CAT'S EYE PROJECT


Page 4


REST FOR WEARY HARDWORKING ANIMAL ACTIVISTS:
EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY AT APPLEBEE'S!
CAT'S EYE EDITORIAL
On Thursday night October 14 - that's just two days before nationwide Feral Cats Day activities -- a brief but reinvigorating respite for animal activists (and anyone else who loves and wants to help animals!) is being provided by our local Applebee's Restaurant in Orange City.
The address is 2599 Enterprise Road in Orange City and the time is from 5 p.m. till 9 p.m.
During that time, ten per cent of your food bill will be donated by Applebee's to a local animal rescue organization for saving and helping animals.
This is a great opportunity to earn much needed community monetary aid for all our animal activists' animal rescues, fostering, adoptions and Trap-Neuter-Retum and it advances our cause of ending Volusia County's and its cities' annual misnamed "euthanasias" of around 20,000 healthy, happy, harmless kittens, puppies, cats and dogs by the year 2014.
All you have to do to contribute to this lifesaving project is to go eat dinner at the Applebee's Restaurant in Orange City between 5 and 9 p.m. on October 14 and hand this page to your server along with your bill.
Please make many copies of this page, give them to everyone you meet, and encourage them all to go eat at Applebee's that evening to save animals' lives!!! Be very sure to remind them they must give their servers' this page in order to get the Applebee's contribution for animals.
Get all your animal welfare friends to join you at Applebee's on October 14 for this rare "R and R" (rest and recuperation) brief getaway from our seemingly endless animals-saving daily sessions. Come meet, greet and get to know your fellow troops in this battle for saving animals!
While there, talk with Applebee's management and schedule your own group's Applebee's evening very soon. This Applebee's project is succeeding in saving animals all around America!

Pasted text from the pages of the paper edition of the Cats Eye Project newsletter.



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