THE BONDS THAT BRING US TOGETHER

Community cat caretaker, Allyson, lives in the first mobile home in a neighborhood park just outside of downtown Indianapolis. A busy street borders her yard where cars rip back and forth, their engines drowning out our conversation. I repeatedly ask the name of one of her two community cats spending time with us on the porch.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. What is the name again?” I ask as more cars speed down the road.

“Jag,” she says. “J-A-G.”

“Oh, like Jaguar. Got it.”

I’m surprised the cats are comfortable enough to hang out on the porch with all the noise and proximity to danger, but with food, shelter, and Apple ID tags on their collars in case they go missing, the two cats know they are safe at this spot. Unfortunately, Allyson tells me, other cats have not been so lucky. She finds unowned cats hit along the road, or if they haven’t been seen for a while, assume they’ve met the same fate. She sadly mentions an “old-timer,” a 21-year old cat who was hit by a car this past winter. In contrast, however, she and her husband have also seen a driver throw a kitten into her yard from the road before peeling away. She now cares for that cat, among a rotating cast of furry characters, cats and dogs alike, inside her house. Some are her pets and others are community cats temporarily avoiding the winter cold. One peek inside the front door and you’ll see them darting back and forth. Most of them prefer to stay inside, understandably. What brought me to Allyson’s porch, however, are the outdoor cats.

During our meeting, I met the two porch friendlies, Lightning and Jaguar, looking for pets and companionship. I also met a one-eyed guy named Pirate, and a couple others temporarily hiding inside. That was just the eartip of the community cat iceberg though. In the mobile home neighborhood just behind Allyson’s place, I was soon to find out, was something akin to a wildlife preserve of community cats.

COMMUNITY CATS AND COMMUNITY HUMANS

Allyson grew up a cat-lover, so it wasn’t an unwanted burden to start caring for the felines that showed up outside her door after moving to her new neighborhood. She enjoys their company and likes caring for them. She’s also fully aware of cat breeding cycles and knows if she’s feeding them, she also has the responsibility to fix them. That’s evident by the work she has put into her trap-neuter-return efforts over the past couple of years. How much work has she put into TNR for her neighborhood? Enough to be a recognized face at our clinic as a repeat customer, bringing in what she estimates to be more than 60 cats in that short time span.

Allyson spreads her hands a couple feet apart as emphasis. “I have a huge stack of medical records for all the cats I’ve brought to FACE,” she proudly states. “One time, I think we brought in 15 black cats all at once.” She elaborated, “For at least six months, we were bringing in at least ten cats each time.”

How does Allyson manage to catch and transport 15 cats all at once? Well, that’s where this community cat story becomes a community human story.

Although Allyson’s efforts began as an individual endeavor when she saw intact cats running around her home, things really took off when a fellow caretaker, Amelda, drove into the Brookside mobile home park. We previously highlighted Amelda’s “46219 Initiative” – a donor-supported program that helps neighbors get their community cats fixed at FACE free of charge. Amelda was driving through the area looking for community cat colonies when she met Allyson. The two had their work cut out for them, as I was about to see firsthand.

Allyson walked me into the neighborhood to find some community cats for photos. Admittedly, I wasn’t convinced we would even see any cats, let alone get their photos. If the weather isn’t just right or it’s not feeding time, community cats can remain elusive. So when we walked past her neighbor’s house, took a quick turn, and looked up the street, I was surprised to see a cat casually strolling down the sidewalk at the end of the block. Lucky me! I quickly pointed my camera and grabbed a few distant shots. Almost immediately, I looked across the street and saw another, calmly posed in the window, their eartip prominently displayed. Jackpot!

We continued up the one-car width street where Allyson knew a colony tended to hang out and other caretakers lived. As we walked, I asked her what the neighbors thought of her work.

“Well, there are a few people who don’t want them around. They’re like ‘please get rid of them.’” She explains. “I tell ‘em, well, I can’t get rid of them, but I can get them fixed so there aren’t any more kittens running around.”

“So, do you and your neighbors work together to bring the cats to FACE? Are you in charge of all that?” I asked.

“Oh yeah. Sometimes I’m even in charge of the dogs. I usually know who they belong to though,” Allyson explained. “Now my kids even get involved. They’ll see a cat and say, ‘mom, there’s a cat who isn’t tipped!” Allyson is not only in charge of the current caretakers, she’s training future trappers.

Suddenly, just up ahead, a streak of fur darts from underneath one car and into the shadows of another. Almost immediately after, another sprints from the other direction to a different car. From the corner of my eye, I see a black cat shoot from a hole in the skirting beneath a home to an opposite hole next door. I turn my head again. An orange cat runs along another home behind a jumble of kid’s play toys.

“Wow!,” I couldn’t help saying with volume, “there are cats everywhere!”

“Oh, yeah,” Allyson calmly responded, “you’ll see plenty more.”

She was taking me to the home of Laura, an elderly friend, now retired, who cares for her dog, Lucky, and a colony of cats that prefer her small yard and surrounding neighbors for territory. Laura, I learn, is another partner in Allyson’s team of caretakers who help her trap the cats to bring to FACE.

“I didn’t know Laura until I started trapping cats,” Allyson explained.

The pair help each other keep track of who needs caught, who might need medical attention, and who hasn’t been seen for a while. They are both also a database of cat names.

“That’s Blair. He lives on Laura’s porch,” Allyson states. “And that’s Blue.” She continues. Laura chimes in, “That’s Firecracker. That’s Alley Cat. That’s Misfire.” She explains, “I found Misfire stuck underneath my neighbors skirting on the fourth of July. He needed help, so I took him to the vet and gave him that name.

Caring for so many cats is no cheap endeavor, even though FACE offers heavily discounted services or free services on designated “Spay Days.” Laura tells me she spends an incredible amount of money on bulk cat food every month.

“Oh yeah, I spend a fortune on pet food,” she begins. “I buy four 32 pound bags of cat food from Sam’s every month.”

As a communal effort, however, they work together to share resources. Allyson will get food from Friends of Indianapolis Dogs Outside, a community partner, and bring back extra for all the neighbors. Even neighbors who are not part of the trapping team will bring Laura extra food to help with her efforts.

THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS

As we talk, more cats dart from home to home and car to car. Some begin playing with each other through mock fights. Others hang out near Lucky, despite his attention-seeking barking. I try to grab photos as quick as they are spotted. After more conversation about each cat’s personalities, I start to realize how relatively calm the scene is, despite the number of cats popping out of hiding spots like a game of whack-a-mole. Nothing really feels chaotic, and most importantly, despite the impressive quantity of cats (the ones I can see anyways), they are all eartipped.

With so many entertaining feline neighbors, I wondered aloud if some people wanted MORE cats? I asked Allyson, “Is everyone on board with having them fixed or are there any that are like, ‘I WANT to have kittens!” With a notable sternness in her voice she replied, “Oh yeah, we’ve had a few, but I had to talk them down, and now they get it.”

I asked if she has any tips on how best to convince neighbors of spay/neuter importance. She explains that other caretaker neighbors tell her who needs to be communicated with and that’s when she tells them about the free program Amelda started and our accommodation at FACE. Early in their efforts, they even had a community meeting with a group of residents to convince them to get their cats fixed.

Not every resident has been convinced though, as Laura explains. “It kinda makes me mad when people don’t take care of their cats. As a cat parent, I think these cats SHOULD be fixed. I mean, they aren’t asking for all these babies. I mean, cats, no matter what people say about them, they are so loveable. Mine will sleep in bed with me at night.” Allyson chimes in, “And we don’t have a rodent problem around here!”

Allyson tells me other residents ask her to get the cats out without hesitation. “They don’t care. They’re like, ‘Get your traps, come into my yard, and catch ‘em.”

A DREAM OR A NIGHTMARE?

Allyson gets on her phone and calls another trapper out to talk to us. It’s Tammy, who Laura tells me is like the park manager due to her extensive neighborhood knowledge. She lets everyone know who has cats that need fixed and makes the connections. She comes out and joins our conversation. With all this talk of cats, neighbors with cats, and the amount of work going into their TNR efforts, I ask the obvious question. “Just how many cats do you think are around here?”

Allyson has a stack of release papers from FACE as some evidence, but she has not detailed the exact number. Over two years of work, she estimates their group of about ten caretakers has TNR’d well over 200 cats. Not all of them are still alive or remain in the neighborhood, but the number is believable considering how many I have seen during our conversation. More than 200 cats in a neighborhood of an estimated 180 homes.

With that many cats, my mind struggles to picture the scenario without FACE services.

“What do you think it would look like if FACE wasn’t an option for you?” I inquire.

“Oh my gosh, It would be a nightmare” Allyson starts, “we would have just been overrun with cats by now.”

CLOSE QUARTERS, CLOSER CONNECTIONS

Good thing she has an equally motivated group of friends to help her care for and TNR all the felines in their small, dense neighborhood. In a way, the friendship they have developed seems to go hand in hand with the reason the cats are also part of their group. The density of the neighborhood is both an ideal place for cats to find protective shelter and a need for neighbors to cooperate when all that separates front door to back window is about 6 feet of yard.

“Did you three know each other before starting to trap cats?” I ask.

Allyson replies, “No, not at all. I started walking the neighborhood and met everyone through the cats. It was a bear to get the program going. As time went on we would get to know more people, like, ‘Hey is this your cat? Let’s get them fixed.”

“So, it was the cats that brought you together.” I reply.

It’s an obvious bond of cooperation they share through the cats, as their conversations sound more like the musings of old friends than relatively recent acquaintances. And it’s not just the three of them in this feline-inspired friendship. I can see winter cathouses on the porches of neighbors I have not met and Allyson speaks of other caretaker neighbors who aren’t around to share their experiences. Their enthusiasm and comfortable conversation is infectious as they talk amongst each other about each cat, grabbing one or two for a posed photo.

They can grab the cats because the friendship transcends species. As we stand in the street talking, taking photos became easier as the cats adjusted to my alien presence and they sought the pets and companionship of their familiar caretakers. The cats’ self-protective nature turned to typical feline curiosity, and finally to a relaxed affection. It is also easy to see why the friendship of these women is so genuine. Their bond formed through the special, unconditional love of the community cats. Owned by no one, but cared for by all.

MORE WORK AND MORE FRIENDS

Theirs is a friendship that will need to remain intact as long as there are cats still intact…who need the spay/neuter services at FACE. Caretakers are well aware their work is never really finished. New cats find their way through the “cat distribution system” all the time. Allyson knows of some hard-to-catch tomcats and litters already.

As we parted ways with Laura and Tammy, Allyson and I walked back to her home at the entrance of the park, spotting more and more eartipped cats along the way. She points to a spot behind her neighbor’s house. “We have a drop trap over there for a tomcat, but he’s very elusive. We had five traps out for him and couldn’t get him!” She explains the success of their efforts too. “This year, I know of only one set of kittens that I’ve heard about so far…so the program’s working. We’re going to get them this season,” she confidently states.

I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Becoming a caretaker for community cats can be a daunting prospect. Most individuals don’t know where to start or find they are quickly overwhelmed with feeding schedules, new kitten litters, and spay/neuter bills. Fortunately, the burdens don’t have to be so insurmountable. It is one of the reasons FACE has a Community Cat Program to begin with – to help caretakers manage their colonies without worrying about excessive bills. Thanks to so many donors, like you, community organizations, grant funding, and corporate support, we are able to discount spay/neuter and vaccination services or provide Spay Days without charge. We strive to be a dedicated partner in the effort to care for these colonies by supporting the work of so many area caretakers. We are just one part of the solution, however. The other part is the team effort described above.

It only requires one caretaker, like Allyson, to better the lives of the outdoor cats around her home, but combining efforts with her neighbors, Laura and Tammy, and the many other caretakers in their neighborhood, the impact can create significant progress in what first seemed like an impossible situation. And sometimes, reducing the number of cats in an area can have other unexpected benefits, like increasing the number of friends. These are the bonds that keep us happy, no matter the species.

The FACE Community Cat Program offers discounted services to individuals and organizations in the greater Indianapolis area. As a donor-supported program, we are able to loan traps to caretakers, and offer spay/neuter, preventative, and vaccine services to community cats at a heavily-discounted price. Thanks to grant funding, we offer community cat services on dedicated days, called Spay Days, to community cat organizations free of charge.

If you would like to provide services to community cats, please consider donating at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/chinncommunitycatfund/