Arivaca gets help with feral cats

When Arlene Cates’ husband passed away last year, the income stopped and her house in Arivaca, where she has lived since 1998, was headed for foreclosure. It’s a familiar tale in this economy, but this is no ordinary foreclosure story.

“I really basically wanted to keep the house because I couldn’t imagine what would happen to all my animals,” Cates said.

Cates cares for a colony of feral cats, as do many others in the dusty, unpaved neighborhood in downtown Arivaca. The town is overrun with these creatures; about 500 by some counts roam the desert, feeding, fighting and, of course, breeding.

But a $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona will help Paws Patrol, a Green Valley nonprofit group, care for the homeless cats the next two years.

“The primary focus is going to be spay, neuter and vaccination of feral and stray cats,” said Patti Hogan of Paws Patrol. “We’re hoping this grant will be able to help us get some of them done quickly and slow the tide.”

The community is coming together to help. The goal, Hogan said, is to reduce the overpopulation of cats by limiting births and providing the area with healthy, vaccinated outdoor cats for rodent control.

Cates averted foreclosure by declaring bankruptcy, and now she and Hogan are planning to build a cat refuge on her back porch. Nearly 50 cats roam Cates’ property, 30 with their ears tipped, designating that they’ve been captured, sterilized and released. The others, she said, are a work in progress.

“It’s a long haul,” said Cates, the nurturing mother who names every one of her strays. “You try and try to work with them and you just want to see them go through a good time.”

Hogan posted flyers all over town advertising her program. She said she’s hoping other residents contact her about feral colonies on their properties.

She estimates they’ve fixed about 100 cats here, but the rate at which these cats multiply is overwhelming. One female over an average life-span of seven years can bear up to four litters per year of four to six kittens, she said.

“Every time we think we’re about done, we have a baby boom,” Hogan said. “There’s never going to be enough (money) because there’s so many cats.”

Hogan asked for $21,000 originally and was denied, but the group does have an opportunity to get more grant funding if they find donors to contribute matching funds. But due to the recession, donations are down and fewer people are adopting.

Hogan said she also needs people to donate dry cat food. It’d be one less thing for the organization to pay for and alleviate the cost for people who care for the colonies.

It costs about $40 to neuter a male and $60 to spay a female, Hogan said. Then there’s the medical expenses.

“All of them have ringworm when they’re born or will get it shortly after,” Hogan said. “It’s fairly easy to treat, but it’s a two-month process.”

Rampant inbreeding leads to recessed tails and sometimes the kittens are missing the lower part of their spine that houses the nerve endings that control bowel movements. They have to be euthanized.

“The quicker we can get all the short-tails sterilized, the healthier the kitten population will be here,” she said.

Predators are a problem too, said John Greene, a miner, trapper and self described “kitty rancher” who cares for a colony of strays that takes refuge under his house.

“We’ve got mountain lions, we’ve got bobcats, we’ve got coons and coyotes and about 12 or 14 dogs around,” he said. “I’ve got lights and I pee on a post out here and it keeps predators away.”

But even a 5-foot fence around Greene’s property doesn’t keep all the hunters out.

“We want to get feeding stations set up where people need them to get the food off the ground to make it a little safer,” Hogan said.

Down the street, a few shelves at the local dollar store, Arivaca Mart, hold donated toys, picture frames and other knickknacks from which all sale profits are donated to Paws Patrol.

Patti Jent, the store’s owner, feeds her colony of strays behind the store.

“At one point out back I was feeding 50 feral cats,” she said. “I’m lucky that I’m in a position to take care of all these feral cats. A lot of people aren’t in that position.”

dnewhauser@gvnews.com / 547-9749

HELPING OUT

Paws Patrol is a Green Valley non-profit that promotes the spay and neuter of animals in need.

Paws Patrol is putting together its annual calendar called Ears, Tails and Paws, one of the group’s major fund-raisers. To sponsor, or for more information, contact Patti Hogan at 520-207-4024 or by e-mail at pawspatrol@cox.net.