Did azcats get you a discount rate on the testing, vaccines and neuters? I believe all the rescue groups out here have an affiliation with at least one vet office and recieve the discount (so males are, I believe $45 - used to be $35.00 for nueter, etc- vaccines anywhere from $5.00 to $15.00).
The problem here with tnr is that there may not be anyone willing to feed the colony forever. Or to provide decent shelter in the winter. And most recently, had a woman who insisted on releasing a feral female back to a yauht (sp?) club colony at the harbor but didn't seem to get it that with a spay, they need to be kept for a few days to watch for infection- females can bleed from their stitches area, chew on the area because it itches, and get very sick from the immune system being lowered. It's been below zero here a lot, nevermind with the wind chill factor and a pile of marsh weeds does not cut it for shelter!! Another problem with tnr, is when people don't first check the cat before trapping to make sure she isn't nursing. Trap a nursing mother, her babies could die overnight from starvation if young enough or from predators (we have raccoons that will gladly snatch a young kitten!- along with other predators).
Then there's the problem of FIV and Leukemia. One has to have a plan on what one's gonna do if a cat is positive. It's not good to release them back to spread these conditions among the colony and neighbors cats, dumped cats etc. (often, when someone sees a colony being fed regularly, the colony will suddenly have friendly cats that have been dumped by those who say to themselves, "well here's a good place for that darn cat that keeps spraying or yowling in heat" etc!).
I'm wondering if anyone else has been up against these same problems!?
Anyone?