Pat, Cat & Dog

What to Do If You See a Stray Cat and Want to Take it to a Shelter

Executive Summary from    .By Dr. R.J. Peters article

Cat Rescue

Every town has them… stray cats, wandering around back yards, alleys, walking down the road, robbing trash receptacles or other yard-pets’ bowls in order to survive.

Some people understand that stray cats aren’t being stray on pur

pose just to irritate humans.

Why would a cat that has been treated badly trust you?

If you are willing to follow through with a rescue, there must be some careful and thoughtful planning.

Obtain a humane trap. If your community has a shelter, humane

society, animal control department, or a veterinarian who works with rescues, you might be able to borrow one. This is the preferred way to capture a cat you don’t know, even if it seems friendly.

If you don’t know whether the cat has been vaccinated, you will have to endure a rabies vaccination series, and local authorities will have to trap the cat and have it tested. Since a rabies test cannot be done on a live animal, it means sacrificing its life to learn if rabies is present.

If you take the cat to a shelter immediately, they will have to handle the expense of this step… if they have the money. If there is nothing in the budget for this care, the cat most likely will have to be euthanized. If you don’t plan to keep the cat yourself, perhaps the kindest thing you can do is to donate enough to help the shelter provide the cat’s initial care.

Depending on where you live, the cost to get a cat “fully vetted” (shelter lingo for obtaining veterinary and other care to be sure the cat is healthy and adoptable), can amount to $100 – $200.

If you are not prepared to take responsibility for rescuing a stray cat, you may be able to help it by alerting a local rescue group to its plight.

They may be able to trap and care for the cat if they can afford it and have the personnel, or, perhaps include it in a managed feral cat colony to be sure it has food and health care.

If your community does not have a Trap Neuter Release program or a low cost spay/neuter clinic, form or join a group to request these services be provided.

For more information on how to help cats in your community, visit http://www.theproblemcat.com

You may interested reading this article to Cats for Sale or Cats-d

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