Blogger looking for help

[Erica's Ark]

Hello all! I am new to this forum. I work for a chain of weekly newspapers in Summit County, Ohio, and have a pet blog (http://blogs.dixcdn.com/erica/).

Today I received a comment from a reader in the Youngstown area who is looking for help in finding a no-kill shelter that might be able to help her out with some strays. Here is what she wrote me on a post I had about the Cat Ladies Society (http://blogs.dixcdn.com/erica/?p=1300) :

"I would like to know how an organization like the Cat ladies society is able to travel out of state to rescue 14 cats and they are not willing to help rescue cats that live a mile away?
My husband is disabled and I lost my job a month ago.
We have rescued,adopted,spayed,neutered and found homes for many cats.Recently we have had many strays showing up due to vacant houses.We have a mother,father and three kittens that were born on the porch of the vacant house next door.We have been feeding them and taking care of them to the best of our ability.
I visited the cat ladies society and was told that I better get them fixed and put them back outside because they were not able to take care of ferrel cats. I am going to find a way to get them spayed and neutered but I refuse to put them back outside to get killed.
Cat ladies will not take them unless I can pay one hundred dollars per cat and if I take them anywhere else,they will be killed.We do not have an ASPA or any other agency that does not euthinise."

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much!

Erica

[Medusa]

I live in Stark, Co., Ohio and rescued cats for 14 years. I wouldn't work w/rescue agencies because every time I called for help, I got the same answer. They're just too overloaded and overwhelmed. As long as a cat had a warm bed and meals and had been spayed/neutered, they didn't consider it as needing a home. Feral cats are difficult to place because they're difficult to socialize and sometimes they never can be. If I had taken in every cat that I rescued, I'd have hundreds in my home now. We can only do so much. Yes, it's a dangerous world out there for a cat but ferals have learned how to survive and it may seem callous but it's important to allow the colonies to die out by spay/neuter. If not, the colonies will continue to reproduce and the problem will never go away. At least those cats are being taken care of which is not the case w/most ferals. I can sympathize w/this woman but this is the chance we take when we feed and care for strays. :)