National feral cat day approaching

Oct. 16. is National Feral Cat Day, an observance begun in 2001 by Alley Cat Allies to call attention to the needless killing of feral cats in most pounds and animal shelters.

While 70 percent of cats sent to shelters are euthanized, the number jumps to 100 percent when these cats are feral.

Organizations like Paws Patrol of Green Valley believe, as do more than 81 percent of people polled, that it is far better to allow a feral cat to live out its life in the wild than for that cat to be euthanized.

Feral cats are trapped and taken to a veterinarian where they receive shots. Then, they are spayed or neutered and a piece of their left ear is taken painlessly so that this cat can be identified in the future.

It is then returned to the area where it was trapped to live out the rest of its life in its colony.

Paws Patrol is working with a limited budget and only 29 volunteers. Whenever possible feral kittens and sometimes older cats are taken in by some of these volunteers where they are socialized and cared for until they are adopted.

So far in 2008, 148 cats have been trapped, neutered and returned to their colonies while 75 kittens and cats have been fostered and then adopted.

Paws Patrol works with numerous feral cat colonies in Southern Pima and Northern Santa Cruz Counties.

Paws Patrol has produced, for the first time this year, a calendar featuring various cats that have been helped over the past three years.

For information on where to purchase these calendars, please call 520-207-4024.

Sharon King-Booker writes the Paws Patrol column for the Green Valley News.