The Watonga Community Cat Foundation received a grant earlier this year from the Oklahoma Initiative Fund, which is a component fund of Communities Foundation of Oklahoma.
The foundation received $7,750 to go toward its trap, neuter and release work. It will allow the organization to purchase additional traps and complete surgeries and vaccinations for 120 community cats this year. Community cat is a term that encompasses all outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cats. They are often fed by people in the neighborhoods where they live, essentially belonging to the community at large.
The trap, neuter and release project aims to serve not only the cats but the colony caretakers. The caretakers are educated on best practices in feeding, wellness monitoring and providing winter shelter.
In addition, the caretakers can get assistance in trapping the feral cats, taking them to the surgery site, care during recovery and during release. Once a caretaker has gained expertise in the routine of trap, neuter and release, the more experienced trappers can focus on areas where there is little or no caretaker involvement.
Community cats are believed to have better health after vaccination and sterilization. They are less likely to fight or spread diseases that are transmitted through bites or reproduction.
Vicki Williams is a retired attorney who now serves as caregiver for the cat colony designated as Colony A.
Williams said she had no idea there was a name for what she was doing until the cat foundation told her.
“I had 24 cats at one time, because I couldn’t afford to get them all spayed or neutered,” she said. Doug Jackson, who was the Watonga animal control officer at the time, helped her trap and relocate many of the animals to area farms that needed mousers. But one female, a tortoiseshell named Mrs. Moneypenny, was special to Williams. She had been rehomed but returned to Williams’ yard shortly thereafter.
“She was a breeder,” Williams said. From constantly being pregnant or nursing kittens, the cat was always thin and bedraggled.
Finally, Jackson was successful in catching the queen cat again and she was spayed.
Now she is fat and her long hair is silky. And now the cat band in the neighborhood has dropped to about six regulars with one or two who come and go, as cats will.
Since it began, the project has reduced the number of litters of kittens. Prior to the project, Colony A had 11 kittens and a mother cat adopted. Five males and four females were sterilized and released. There have been no further litters of kittens since June 2021.
“This is our second year without kittens, “ Williams said. But there has been another change as well.
Some of her neighbors used to complain about the cats. But now the same folks have a cat or two they feed and watch out for.
“There’s a solid block of people now, taking care of the same cats,” Williams laughed.
Through reduction of population and reproduction, the aim is to reduce shelter pet deaths, deaths from limited resources and the suffering of kittens born outdoors.
The project benefits residents since sterilized cats are less likely to have nuisance behaviors such as spraying urine or yowling.
Since the foundation began as a 501-C-3 nonprofit, it has reduced the number of free roaming cats in town by trapping, spaying or neutering and releasing 175 cats. It has also adopted 341 cats or kittens to forever homes.
The hope and mission of the organization is to stabilize the cat population in town. Colony B had seven kittens and two adults taken in and adopted. Five males and five females were sterilized and released. There have been no further litters of kittens since September 2021.
But the residents can benefit from the cat colonies, too, Williams believes.
“It’s fascinating to watch them over the years, the dynamics of how cats take care of themselves without people as companions, how they care for each other. And somehow, these chose me.”