Home > Out of the Cage! > January 2005 > NYC Feral Cat Council: Le Cats on the Water: Turning the Tide for Feral Cats in Queens

NYC Feral Cat Council

Le Cats on the Water: Turning the Tide for Feral Cats in Queens

Although Le Cats on the Water enjoys a somewhat whimsical name, the work they do with feral colonies is serious business.

Since August 2001, this small but potent troop of volunteers has been caring for feral cats and performing TNR operations in northeastern Queens. Gloria Green became involved in the work when a neighbor, Hedda Printzer, founder of Le Cats on the Water, asked her to care for a colony while she was on vacation.

Soon after taking on her new charges, Gloria discovered other feeders in the area, and quickly figured out how they could work together to maximize their efforts to care for the large colony. She organized a club, and the "members" rotated feeding rounds each day. They adopted a name, Le Cats on the Water, and set about to impose a sense of order and efficiency onto the colony's care.

Gloria intuitively understood the necessity of TNR for the group to have an impact on the colony's well-being. She also recognized that some of the cats and most of the kittens born into the colony were adoptable. So she and her fellow volunteers began the TNR process — trapping, having each cat spayed or neutered, and returning them to the colony. And they began to seek out homes for the adoptable cats.

Gloria and her team quickly learned the ins and outs of managing a feral colony. After attending a Neighborhood Cats workshop, they built styrafoam houses for the cats, and purchased four insulated cedar wood shelters for the colony. They set up a feeding station in a shed where it would be protected from the wind and rain. They placed food and water in dishes atop microwaveable disks (similar to solar disks used for birds) when it snowed to prevent freezing. And they continued to find homes for the cats.

Today, that colony numbers 15 to 20 cats. Most of them have been spayed or neutered, and Gloria proudly reports that there have been no births within the past two-and-a-half years.

Now that their original colony is under control, Le Cats is helping other feral caretakers in Queens and Nassau County improve their care of feral colonies. They loan out traps and provide instruction on trapping. And they encourage everyone to whom they provide assistance to attend the Neighborhood Cats' basic workshop, which provides expert instruction for anyone seeking to care for ferals.

Having a keen understanding of the importance of networking with others who are performing the same kind of critical life-saving work, Le Cats joined the Mayor's Alliance, and the NYC Feral Cat Council, a sub-group within the Alliance that focuses upon the care of feral cats. And they rarely miss an opportunity to attend education and adoption events.

Le Cats aggressively seeks out homes for the adoptable cats in their care. In addition to attending adoption events — like last month's Mayor's Alliance Cat Adoption Festival at St. Paul the Apostle Church and the AdoptaCat event at Madison Square Garden in October 2004 — the group seeks out adopters by promoting the cats on various web sites, including those of Petfinder, Neighborhood Cats, and the Mayor's Alliance's BigApplePets.com. (They currently are developing a web site of their own.) They distribute flyers, circulate e-mails, and work collaboratively with other rescue groups like City Critters to find good homes. Not long ago, when a member of Le Cats passed away, they teamed up with Eleanor Cohen of City Critters to find a home for the woman's eleven-and-a-half-year-old Himalayan.

Since its inception, Le Cats has found homes for 68 cats and kittens, and had nearly 150 cats spayed or neutered. All of the cats that have not been adopted are living as part of managed colonies, or are in foster care awaiting adoption.

For example, Le Cats currently is seeking homes for two kittens and a lovely white two-and-a-half year old cat with a hearing impairment.

How does Le Cats fund its TNR and adoption activities? Because all its support comes from private donations, the group holds two or three flea markets a year, as well as bake sales and raffles. Gloria says the community has been extremely generous and supportive.

Le Cats also is on the lookout for new foster families. The group's four foster homes currently are at capacity. Gloria, for example, started out with three fosters, and now cares for eight.

The group has developed quite a reputation in its area. Gloria tells of the time she was on feeding rounds and discovered a woman dumping two house cats into the colony. When Gloria asked her what she was doing, the woman replied that an acquaintance told her how well the colony was cared for, so she wanted to leave her cats there. It seems that the woman was relocating and couldn't take her cats with her. Gloria told her to have the pair spayed and neutered (at Le Cats' expense), and she would find them a new home. When the woman brought her newly neutered cats back to Gloria, she made a donation to the group. Today, the cats are in a new home.

More recently, Le Cats undertook the relocation of a large "porch" colony of more than 30 cats and kittens. The colony's former caretaker, in whose back yard the colony was located, contacted Le Cats a year-and-a-half ago when she realized that she couldn't adequately care for the colony. She agreed to work with Le Cats to have the cats spayed and neutered. Thus far, 34 members of the colony have been altered. Several months ago, the caretaker died, and her sister inherited the house, which she immediately put up for sale. Antagonistic toward the feral cats and Le Cats, she threatened to poison the cats if they were not removed immediately.

Gloria and Le Cats volunteers, Michelle Cuccia DeMaio and Carol McLoughlin, moved into high gear. First, to prevent the threatening homeowner from harming the cats, they informed her that poisoning cats is illegal. They placed flyers around the neighborhood to ensure that the neighbors were also aware of the illegality of poisoning cats. (Some of the neighbors were supportive of the group's efforts on behalf of the cats, but others were not so sympathetic.) Michelle and Carol fed the cats daily, sitting with them for hours to acclimate them to close human contact. They quickly determined which cats were adoptable, and found homes for three of them right away. They relocated nine cats to other colonies. And they found homes for all but two of the 19 kittens.

Today, twenty cats remain on the property. The house has been sold and is slated for demolition. Le Cats is seeking adopters for the remaining adoptable cats, and a suitable location to which they can relocate the remaining feral colony.

Clearly, Le Cats on the Water has been a godsend to the feral cats in its community, and to the numerous individuals who have sought their help with TNR. And while they work to relocate this latest threatened colony, they know that once that mission is accomplished, another will be waiting around the corner.

Le Cats on the Water is a member of the Mayor's Alliance, and a member of the NYC Feral Cat Council (NYCFCC), a coalition of Alliance Participating Organizations dedicated to providing responsible care for NYC's feral cats. Click here to learn more about Le Cats on the Water. Click here to learn more about the NYCFCC. If you'd like to become a foster family or provide other assistance to Le Cats, please contact Gloria at LeCats@aol.com.

This just in from Neighborhood Cats…

Ashot, a TNR activist and volunteer here in NYC, has come up with an excellent design for a feral cat winter shelter that he manufactures himself. Ashot will build one or more for you at a cost of $50 per shelter with a portion of the proceeds going to Neighborhood Cats. You can contact him at aak14@yahoo.com.

Ashot, in terms of his craftmanship and reliability, and the shelter itself, come with our highest recommendation.

Specifications for the shelter include: