Community Cats is a term used to describe outdoor, un-owned, free-roaming cats not commonly socialized to people. The term includes feral cats, which are fearful of people, and stray cats, which are often lost or abandoned pets. These cats may be friendly or semi-friendly. Sometimes they live in colonies with other cats, often near people who provide them with food and shelter. A community cat is not considered wildlife; these are domestic animals who people have socialized as a species over many years.

Reducing unwanted community cat numbers begins with each owner of a pet. 

• Making sure that your pet cat is spayed or neutered or kept entirely indoors is the key to reducing our population of unwanted cats.
• If adopting a cat or kitten from rescues or shelters it is likely that the cat is already neutered and has a first set of vaccinations. But if you get your feline from a friend or if you have unfixed cats that accidentally get out and can become pregnant, it is very important you get these cats fixed.
• If you need some financial assistance for spay and neuter of your pet, keep in mind that you may qualify for free or reduced services at Fixin’ to Save Spay & Neuter Clinic or you can contact the Spay Hampton Roads program because they also support pet cats whose owners are in need. 

Always keep in mind it is against the law to abandon or physically harm or kill your pet as a method of dealing with pet cat problems.  

Trap Neuter and Return (TNR) is the accepted humane way of controlling and maintaining a healthy community cat population. Many unfixed community cats engage in fighting, mischievous behavior, and reproduce several times a year, exploding the outside cat population. Females can become pregnant at four months of age, and can bear between 100-400 kittens within seven-year period. Illness can run high among unfixed and unvaccinated cats due to lack of supportive care such as food and shelter.  

Be patient and follow a process. Never trap a feral cat without a plan.  It may take time to get an appointment for spay and neuter, but there are resources and people to help. 

• Look at the cat and if you do not see a clipped left ear, you are probably looking at a stray or feral unfixed cat.
• Contact one of the Spay and Neuter area resources listed in this section or in the Guides section of the Friends of Gloucester County Community Cats Facebook group.
• Obtain a trap, learn how to use it, or get help with the trapping. Traps are available from Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society (deposit required), Fixin’ to Save Spay & Neuter Clinic, and from the community cat group for the Tri-County area, Friends of Gloucester County Community Cats located on Facebook.  There may be times PETA can help with traps as well.  The Friends group has several trappers who can help you learn to trap, or who may be able to help you trap the cats.  PETA may also help with trapping.
• Provide aftercare for the recovering cat. Each clinic will provide you with the aftercare instructions for helping the cat recover.

There are several low cost spay and neuter programs regionally.  Please visit the Guide section of the Friends of Gloucester County Community Cats for a complete list of those.  Fixin’ to Save may have cost free services for qualified owners and Spay Hampton Roads can provide grants.

If you find a pregnant cat, you can call GMHS immediately.  The shelter nor its partners want kittens to be born outdoors, without proper medical care or socialization. Again, if you need help trapping, contact the groups above or get traps from them.  GMHS can schedule you an appointment to bring in the cat

If you find kittens, especially very young, leave them alone as the mother may be close by.  If you know that the mother is not caring for them, please bring them to the GMHS shelter, but make contact for space availability.  GMHS has a foster program and if you can foster the kittens for a while, GMHS can explain how to care for them as they do not drink cow’s milk, and they will need vaccines and parasite treatment. 

Many regional rescues and shelters exist in addition to GMHS, and to access these please visit the Guide section of the Friends of Gloucester County Community Cats Facebook page.

Note: Many of these rescues may be closed at times due to high numbers, so be patient as there may be a wait time to get any cats in.  Remember that some do not take in feral cats as they are very hard to rehome.

Colony and stray cat caregivers not only need to practice good TNR procedures but also must keep the fixed colony safe and healthy. This means providing regular feeding and providing clean water in all seasons. Especially during winter months, outdoor cats need appropriate shelter, but they also need to be provided shade and cooler places for summer living as well.  

• Below are several sources that offer good suggestions:

Alley Cat Allies:  https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/food-and- water-tips

Feral Cat Focus: https://feralcatfocus.org/colony-management-caring-for- your-colony

Neighborhood Cats: https://neighborhoodcats.org/feeding

For local advice on colony care, consider joining the Facebook group Friends of Gloucester County Community Cats where you will find questions, answers, and information on appropriate care for feral and stray cat groups.

Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society does offer a Pet Pantry program and the community may obtain cat food from the shelter and its church partners.  Be aware also that there are other church sponsored pantries in the tri-county area and these may offer animal food as well.

Local Animal Control offices in Gloucester can help with community cat issues. This site covers what community cat issues Animal Control deals with, including hurt and dangerous animals, sheltering issues, nuisance cases, and suspected cruelty issues.

https://gloucesterva.gov/animal-control#cats

Others of interest:

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title3.2/chapter65

https://library.municode.com/va/gloucester_county/codes/code_of_ordinances

There are many ways that you can become a part of the community effort to improve the lives of community cats and their caretakers.  

Please consider the following, and if you can help, please e-mail one or both of the two co-administrators of the network Friends of Gloucester County Community Cats, describing the kind of help you can give.   

• Join our developing trapping team
• Volunteer a space to temporarily hold cats waiting for neuter surgeries
• Volunteer to help feed existing colonies when needed
• Help with educating the public (meetings and putting up flyers)
• Start your own colony (we can connect you to the right people!)
• Donating money if not your time (Donate to the restricted community cat fund)

Contact: Katie Evans at evanske2@alumni.vcu.edu or Deborah Butler at butlerd@wabash.edu.

Include your best contact information, via phone (text), email or both.

Please include the all the ways you would like to help and include your best contact information, via phone (text), email or both.

How your monetary gift helps keep community cats healthy and safe:

• providing funds for access to simple medical interventions, 
• additional cat food for qualified colony keepers, 
• funding more spay/neuter grants at Fixing to Save for qualified pet and community cat owners
• providing equipment needed for trapping in TNR situations

You can donate to support community cats any of these ways:

• Phone (GMHS 804-693-5520)
• PayPal or Credit Card
• Mail and check (To GMHS Community Cat Fund)

IMPORTANT: You will need to state on your check, in the space provided for Notes at PayPal, or via phone conversation, that you want your donation is to go to the “Community Cat Fund,” which is a restricted fund at GMHS.  Money will then go only into that account. If you want your donation to help fund grants for spay and neuter at Fixin’ to Save, you must state this too.