community cats!^..^!TNR network

OUR ADOPTABLE CAT LIST

Our Featured Pet...

INTERESTED IN ADOPTING ONE OF OUR RESCUE CATS? Fill out our ADOPTION APPLICATION. Your application will be forwarded to the foster home where the cat you are interested in is living. WE ARE NOT A SHELTER, but a small network of independent foster homes in the Cincinnati area. The foster home is responsible for explaining the adoption process, adoption fee, medical history and personality of the cat. Thanks for your inquiry!

We are a small network of foster homes who pay out of our own pockets to care for our rescue cats and feral cat colonies. Unfortunately because of our limited resources and lack of space we cannot take in any more cats from the public. IF YOU NEED HELP RE-HOMING A PET, pls check out "How To Find Homes For Homeless Pets" for ideas from Best Friends Animal Society. Please screen all adopters thoroughly!

IF YOU FEED THEM, FIX THEM!
Cats can get pregnant as young as 4 months old and have 4 litters a year, PLEASE SPAY TODAY! 7 out of 10 cats in humane shelters will be destroyed because there are not enough homes for all of them. Help stop the breeding, NEUTER NOW! Contact UCAN LOW COST SPAY NEUTER CLINIC on W. 8th St near downtown Cincinnati.Cat Spay or Neuter - $30.00 and Dog Spay or Neuter - $65.00 For more details, check out www.ucancincinnati.org or call to make an appointment: (513) 721-7387 (PETS).

PLEASE, MICROCHIP your pet! Every pet, including indoor-only cats, should wear collars with current tags and be microchipped. Only 15% of lost dogs and 2% of lost cats are ever reunited with their families. Please don't let your pet end up as a "stray" in an already overcrowded shelter.

Cat paws come with healthy claws for MANY reasons...find out how to manage them and why scratching is so healthy and beneficial for cats! Cat claws NEVER have to lead to damage, de-clawing, or relinquishment! EMAIL US for a PAWS NEED CLAWS brochure. We can help you with nail trimming too! BREAKING NEWS: In 2009, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Culver City, California have all BANNED de-clawing (amputation of bone & tendons) of animals! It has been banned in West Hollywood, CA since 2003, as well as illegal or considered grossly inhumane in 37 countries! In Nov 2011, the State of Israel banned declawing!

Find out why kittens and young cats love to be adopted in pairs ~ companionship for cats is a basic need, just like it is for humans! why CATS IN PAIRS are better and 10 reasons for TWO KITTENS!

:: Who We Are // Trap-Neuter-Return :: Feral ^..^ // TNR links :: LOST & FOUND PETS :: Report Animal Cruelty :: FIV+Felv links :: Claws & Scratching :: Declawing Cats

"Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission to be of service to them wherever they require it." ~ St Francis Of Assisi

Who We Are

We are a network of independent cat rescuers in the Cincinnati area. Our goal is to work together to help nonlethally and humanely reduce and control the feral (wild), homeless, and stray cat overpopulation problem in our city. We do this through TNR ~ TRAP, NEUTER, and RETURN the cats to their familiar, managed colony so we can help stop the breeding and production of homeless kittens. The cats that we do not return to their colonies ~ tame, kittens, injured, and those that live in dangerous areas where they can't fend for themselves ~ are fostered in our homes (we do NOT have a shelter) until we can place them into permanent LIFETIME homes. Community!^..^!CATS is committed to being the "catalysts" for these homeless cats living outdoors and improving their lives for the better ~ through spay and neuter, by recognizing their right to live in our environment, and by helping change the way feral cats are treated in our city.

ALLEY CAT ALLIES, a national advocate for TNR and feral cats since 1990,defines TNR as: "Trap-Neuter-Return is a full management plan in which stray and feral cats already living outdoors in cities, towns, and rural areas are humanely trapped, then evaluated, vaccinated, and sterilized by veterinarians. Kittens and tame cats are adopted into good homes. Healthy adult cats too wild to be adopted are returned to their familiar habitat under the lifelong care of volunteers". www.alleycat.org

  • The FACTS: Feral (cats that have never had exposure to human contact) and homeless cats are innocent victims of humans neglecting to spay and neuter their own cats. These unfixed roaming and abandoned cats mate with each other and begin the production of homeless feral kittens. A female cat can get pregnant as young as 4 months old and have 3 to 4 litters of kittens in one year.

    (^..^) The SOLUTION...HUMAN INTERVENTION (^..^)! YOU, yes, YOU can help put an end to the feral, homelesss, and stray cat overpopulation problem in our city by :

    • SPAYING and NEUTERING your own cats. This may sound like "a given", but there are thousands of homes in Cincinnati with unfixed pets. Make sure your home is not one of them!

    • FIX the feral or stray cats you may be feeding. If you don't, YOU are adding to the overpopulation problem. Do not let these cats reproduce...triage and get the females fixed first, then the males. If you feed them, it is your responsibilty and obligation to make a plan and FIX THEM!

    • SPREAD THE WORD about TNR to friends, neighbors, hairdressers, veterinarians, city officials, humane shelter workers...we HAVE to be the voice for feral cats and make our city aware that trap-neuter-return works. There are thousands of feral cats in our city ~ be the person that has the solution when you hear someone talking about "the cats in the park" or "the cats under my porch". Feral cats do NOT belong in shelters; they are not "adoptable" pets. These cats are wild animals, like raccoons, they deserve to be spayed and neutered and RETURNED to their natural environments. Help us spread the word that Trap-Neuter-Return is THE answer, not trapping the cats and taking them to a shelter or animal control where they will be killed.

    • (^..^) WHY Trap-Neuter-Return WORKS (^..^)

    • Stabilizes the population of feral cats at manageable levels.

    • Eliminates the production of homeless kittens as well as reducing "roaming" cats because their needs are being met at the colony by a dedicated caretaker.

    • Eliminates annoying behaviors associated with mating; urine spraying, fighting, cat "screaming", etc...

    • It's HUMANE and COMPASSIONATE to the animal...homeless and stray cats are neutered and spayed instead of the inhumane "catch and kill" method.

    • It is effective! And cost efficient! Promoting stable, non-breeding colonies is far more cost effective than repeatedly going back to the same areas and trapping and killing the feral cats that fill the spots previously occupied by feral cats ("the vacuum effect").

  • Do you live in Hamilton County and believe in TNR? Please call our county humane shelter, spca cincinnati 513-541-6100, and urge them to enact a non-lethal control program for feral cats through their facility, like many of the progressive county humane shelters do across our country.

  • Our city has a severe pet overpopulation EPIDEMIC ~ it's a PET DEATH CRISIS ~ more than 31,000 animals were euthanized in the Greater Cincinnati humane shelters in 2003, that is almost 75%, or 3 out of every 4 animals being taken to humane shelters are being DESTROYED. Humane shelters do NOT have the space and funding to help all the animals that are taken to them...euthanasia is the number one cause of death for dogs and cats in the USA.

  • "Be the change you want to see in the world." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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  • For more information about FERAL CATS, TNR, how to successful manage a feral cat colony, and why "eartipping" is critical, log onto:

  • DECLAWING CATS

  • Thinking of "DECLAWING" your cat? Please read the facts about what this surgery really entails and the possible risks, complications, and physical, behavioral, and psychological consequences before doing this irreversible surgery to your cat. You never know how a cat will react to having the last digit of their toes amputated and left without their first line of defense until it is too late. Even if there were no risks to this surgery, do you really want to forever deprive your kitty from the physical and emotional benefits she gets from scratching with her healthy claws?

  • * Did you know the word "declawing" is really a misnomer? The surgery actually carves out, and completely amputates, the 3rd phalanx joint bone (knuckle bone) of the cats toe including healthy tendon, nerves, and muscle. It is NOT claw removal, but last digit of the toe removal. See a recovering declaw patient lying next to the "grisly evidence of bone, claw, and fur" and real pictures of a declaw surgery ^ - - ^ taken by a vet tech.

  • * Did you know the possible physical risks of this amputation surgery include "excruciating pain, damage to the radial nerve, hemorrhage, bone chips that prevent healing, painful regrowth of deformed claw inside of the paw which is not visible to the eye, and chronic back and joint pain as shoulder, leg and back muscles weaken." (http://maxshouse.com). Cat guardians have also reported "declaw horror stories" and more "declaw horror stories" where kitty had personality, psychological, and behavioral changes after the surgery.

  • * Did you know that according to some national shelter surveys and testimonies, 70% of cats that are relinquished to humane shelters with stated behavioral problems (litterbox avoidance and biting/aggressive personalities) are declawed cats?

  • * Did you know declawing cats is ILLEGAL or considered grossly inhumane in 37 countries? The amputation, or dismembering, of healthy bone, joint, tendons, nerves, and muscles is considered grossly inhumane and a form of animal cruelty and pet abuse in these COUNTRIES. In the United States, W. Hollywood, CA enacted a declaw ban in 2003 ~ www.adoa.org.. . And in 2009, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Culver City, California all BANNED declawing of animals!

  • * Did you know The American Veterinary Medical Assoc , the American Assoc of Feline Practitioners, the American Animal Hospital Assoc, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Humane Society of the United States, and the Cat Fancier Association all agree that scratching is a natural behavior for all cats and it is medically unnecessary to declaw a cat? Declawing is not intended to be a preventative or routine surgery, yet the U.S. vets turned it into a 3 million dollar a year industry and routinely encourage the surgery and cross-sell it at the time of spay/neuter, not informing their clients of the details and risks of the surgery.

  • Amby.com ~ Declawing Issues and Alternatives

  • The Facts About Declawing ~ What You Need To Know

  • declaw.lisaviolet.com Lisa Violet's Declaw MENU

  • A vet's view...Dr. Christianne Schelling, DVM

  • You Can't Declaw with Love Dr. Paul Rowen, DVM

  • Declawing: A Rational Look Dr. Jean Hofve, DVM

  • declaw.com List of VETS WHO DO NOT DECLAW!

  • Declawing: Do You Really Understand What This Means?

  • A clearinghouse of declaw websites www.de-clawing.com

  • "Declaw = Detoe", Stray Pet Advocacy

  • "The Price Of Convenience", Best Friends Animal Society

  • Top 9 Reasons NOT to Declaw a Cat from About.Cats.

  • “Laser Declaw…is it really any better?”

  • ^- -^ NALA's story ^- -^

  • www.pawproject.com,The Paw Project (501c3) promotes public awareness to the dangers of declawing. This project was founded by Dr. Jennifer Conrad, DVM who helped to pass the 2003 West Hollywood, CA declaw ban! In 2005, Dr. Conrad moderated a Best Friends NMHP forum "What's Wrong With Declawing?"and responded to questions like: Does declawing keep cats in homes?, But my declawed cats do fine!, and My vet said laser surgery was better.

    PAWS NEED CLAWS CAMPAIGN 2005

  • In 2005, community!^..^!CATS helped launch the PAWS NEED CLAWS campaign in Cincinnati to ask the area veterinarians and cat rescues to provide education about the dangers and risks of declawing to cat parents who may be thinking about declawing their cat.

  • Email us if you would like a PAWS NEED CLAWS brochure!

  • Take a stand against declawing too! Buy and wear an "ABOVE ALL, DON'T DECLAW" t-shirt and tell the world just how you feel! www.cafepress.com/communitycats

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  • Top 9 Mistakes of New Cat Owners cats.about.com

  • Helping Cats and Cat Owners...need help better understanding your feline? www.catsinternational.org

  • Looking for a vet for your kitty that does House Calls (no more long car rides for kitty!)? CAT CALLS House Calls For Cats =^..^= 513-600-8191.

  • LOW COST VACCINE CLINIC for dogs and cats every Saturday provided by CAT CALLS House Calls For Cats. Call Anderson Twp Family Pet Center to schedule an appointment 513-231-7387.

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