Home > Out of the Cage! > June 2005 > Featured Alliance Participating Organization: City Critters: Making NYC a Kinder Place for Cats

Featured Alliance Participating Organization

City Critters: Making NYC a Kinder Place for Cats

Pirate would be the first to tell you what a great job City Critters is doing for his kind in NYC.

A skinny, battle-scarred, un-neutered male tom cat with huge jowls, Pirate had somehow gotten stuck on a fifth story window-ledge of a Harlem apartment building in February, and he had been there for quite awhile. It was bitterly cold and the little cat was yowling for help. And help arrived, in the form of Luis Lebron, an AC&C rescue driver. With quite an audience watching, Luis had to use all his skills, including persuasion, to get the kitty safely off that ledge. No one seemed to know where he had come from, so the cat was taken to the Manhattan shelter. Since one of his eyes was nearly shut with what appeared to be an infection, he was placed in the shelter's sick ward. Days passed, but no one came to claim him.

Especially asked by Luis to find a happy ending for Pirate, AC&C New Hope staffers Renee Collins and Sabrina James asked Holly Staver, one of City Critters' founders, if the group could take this good-natured, weatherbeaten little guy and bring him back to health. Well, after a month of rehab and a minor eye surgery, Pirate (named by the staff of Midtown Animal Hospital) was holding court at the group's adoption center at PETCO Kips Bay (31st Street and Second Avenue), where he developed a fan club. In early May, an EMT named Andrea, from the FDNY firehouse near City Critters' adoption center, gave Pirate the wonderful home he deserved. City Critters delivered him to his new home. "As we left," says Holly, "he was batting around the toys she'd bought for him, finally able to relax and be a kitten."

Since 1994, City Critters, an Alliance Participating Organization (APO), has been saving cats like Pirate and placing them in loving, permanent homes.. The all-volunteer group, which numbers 50 to 60 individuals, focuses on stray and abandoned cats in downtown and midtown Manhattan (perhaps surprisingly, there are many). They also respond to situations referred to them by veterinarians, volunteers, adopters, and from people in the neighborhood.

In addition, City Critters has accepted a small number of cats each year from the city shelter since 1995. Over the past year, City Critters has taken many more cats and kittens from AC&C than ever before through the shelter's New Hope program. "We don't take out more than we can find veterinary care, foster care, and adoption for," explains Holly, "so the numbers vary depending on our resources. It can be as few as 10, or as many as 25 a month. When the New Hope staff begs us to take a cat — or two, or ten — we help as much as possible, and sometimes just a little bit more than possible."

According to Holly, the cats City Critters takes from AC&C are usually adults from one to ten years old, basically healthy cats with treatable upper respiratory infections, scared stray kittens that need a little TLC to come around, and adoptable felines with other treatable medical needs. At any given time, the group has from 150 to 200 cats and kittens awaiting permanent new homes (most of whom are either the guests of 20 to 25 foster families, housed in vet hospitals, or at the adoption center).

Adopters come to City Critters from a variety of sources. Some come by referral from former adopters, volunteers, veterinarians, or pet supply stores. Others find them through Petfinder.com and the group's own web site, www.citycritters.org or discover them when they pass through the doors at PETCO Kips Bay, where the group maintains an adoption center seven days a week.

Although rescuing and finding good homes for cats is City Critters' primary focus, some individuals in the group's network care for feral cats, or help support others who do. "Many of us have taken on specific small trap-neuter-return (TNR) projects," explains Holly. "Our biggest TNR project took place in Battery Park City, from 1993 through 1996, but even though the original plan was to return the ferals to the area, in the end most were relocated or adopted out. That situation continues to be monitored by Patti and Rich Brotman, the volunteers who did the hardest part of the work. They continue to care for the few remaining ferals, and pick up or trap newcomers."

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization, and Holly speaks of them with the highest regard. "Our dedicated volunteers take time out of their busy lives to care for our animals." For example, Ann Delgrasso (who was 80 years old this spring and is one of the busiest people in New York City!) is a foster mom, takes cats to and from the vet, does cat laundry, looks for supplies like baskets and bedding from flea markets, and does anything else she can to help improve the lives of homeless animals.

In addition to the many cats Holly has cared for, three special critters are a part of her family: Ginger, a rescued Bronx Chihuahua, Bicho, an abandoned West Village store cat, and Smoothie, a former feral rescued on South Street in Manhattan.

As one of NYC's largest cat rescue groups, City Critters truly is making a difference in the lives of hundreds of cats each year.

To learn more about City Critters and how you can help support its life-saving efforts, please visit their web site at www.citycritters.org.