Feline advocacy group's refrain: 'Gimme shelter'
As Somerville Alleycat AdvoCats expands, the group is finding itself in similar straits to those of the cats and kittens it seeks to place -- it has no real place to call home.
The city passed an order last July that said space in the city's kennel would be made available to the group, with the help of the commissioner of the Department of Public Works and the animal control officer, but a representative of the mayor's office said they have had little luck finding the space.
''We're grateful to the group for bringing their concerns about feral cats to our attention, and we'll continue to monitor the issue and work closely with them, but we don't have anything we can just hand over to them," said city public information officer Lucy Warsh.
AdvoCats, which is meeting with the mayor in April, needs space for cats recovering from neutering surgery. The group tries to control the feline population by identifying colonies of stray and feral cats, trapping them, neutering them, providing vaccines, and then returning them to the areas where they were found -- a process known as trap-neuter-return.
Kit Lilly, a trapping coordinator and cofounder of Charles River Feline Rescue, who works with AdvoCats, recently set up a postoperative ''clinic" for recovering feline surgical patients in her garage.
''The Department of Health called, saying there were about 12 cats in the area [Union Square], and there turned out to be about 50," she laughed.
As of last month, AdvoCats has intervened on behalf of 118 cats; 73 have been neutered or spayed, and 45 have been adopted, according to the group's chairwoman and founder, Lisa Moellman.
Jenny Ohgi, who runs the AdvoCats foster care and adoption program, said the group cannot keep up with the number of feral cats that need surgeries without the space from the city.
''It would be in the city's best interest to give us the space they promised so that we can continue to do our work and increase in scale to keep up with the large feral overpopulation problem in Somerville."
The group has identified about 300 cats in Somerville that need attention, but suspects there are many more.
Moellman said the number of feral cats people see is ''usually a tip of the iceberg" because many cats avoid humans.
The group is eyeing a population of about 200 cats at the Mystic Housing Development, she said, but, ''We can't begin to move forward on this until we have a space."
Until then, group members are targeting three neighborhoods in the Winter Hill area, enlisting the cooperation of the neighbors and putting up fliers asking residents who feed or care for unowned cats to contact them.
The next step is to schedule a trapping day. While the cats are recovering from the spaying or neutering, AdvoCats provides supplies for their postoperative care to people who feed the cats. The supplies include food, feeding and watering stations, and shelters that can house up to eight cats at a time.
''The cold wind can be the most devastating thing," said Stevie Garbarino, a colony caretaker on Ivaloo Street who said she feeds about six cats daily.
Jeanie Martelli, a colony caretaker in the Linden and Allen streets area of Union Square, where the group trapped and neutered 50 cats, said when the animals were returned she noticed a marked decrease in cat fights as well as sweeter-smelling streets. ''Because they weren't in heat, there was no spraying, and the odor in the neighborhood is just better," she said.
Not all of the people who take care of feral cats have been as receptive as Garbarino and Martelli, however, according to Moellman.
''We have had some that are reluctant to trust that we plan on returning the cats, and I can understand people being a little suspect of us coming around with these traps," she said. ''What we try to tell them is that the only way we would euthanize an animal is if we found out it was very sick, but if it's healthy we vaccinate it."
AdvoCats keeps tabs on the colonies after they are returned, requesting updates from feeders and continuing to supply them with food from funds raised through online bookselling, organizational events, and private donations. Cats that have been trapped and released have a small slice in their left ear so they won't be picked up again.
''It's been shown that with [trap, neuter, release], if you have somebody monitoring these cats, over time it stabilizes them, and over more time there is attrition," said Dr. Jane O'Donnell, a veterinarian at the Winter Hill Veterinary Clinic who performs the procedures for AdvoCats at a discount.
The goal of AdvoCats is to gradually cut overpopulation as the cats die off without reproducing. Moellman said when a feral cat colony is euthanized, a new colony usually takes its place.
''We're there for the animal lovers, but we're not crazy cat people," she said. ''Neighborhood relations are our number one issue."
