Imagine if you would, waking up from the only home you ever knew. Your bed is gone, all your treasured photos and mementos in your house have vanished, your trusted food source has changed and you no longer know where you are. Would you be scared, disoriented, frightened and try to find your way back home? If you are a feral cat who is being re-located from the only home you ever knew, of course you would.

Gracie – this cat has a name and a face. She also had a safe and secure home at the Loews Portofino Hotel…

And that is exactly what is about to happen to the feral cats residing on the once pet-friendly Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando if we cannot convince management that relocating these cats from their property is not a safe and viable solution. These cats that were once part of a very successful and managed Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program were ordered in a reversal of decision by David Bartek, Director of Operations, at the end of 2011 to trap them from the premises and bring them to a shelter for a most certain death. The reason cited – they were a liability. Read more

Just what is an epidemic of cat overpopulation, how did it start, and what can we do to help?

On the surface, it would appear that these are relatively simple questions with quick and easy answers. For Christine Michaels, volunteer for the Cat Network of South Florida and Riverfront Cats, as well as my choice of donation should Zee & Zoey win the category of “Best Designed Blog” for the Petties 2011 Awards, it turns out this is the most difficult obstacle of all – trying to educate a community where there is little to zero awareness that a problem even exists, let alone a reason to help.

It became popular in the 1800’s for cats to be used in farms and townships to reduce rodent infestations

Let’s set the facts straight right now. Cats have been domesticated for thousands of years – whether it started with the Egyptians as a symbol of worship, or to reduce the rodent population in farms and townships in the 1800’s, to today – where our cats are beloved and pampered members of our household, this creature is the creation of human need and desire. All free-roaming, stray, feral, whatever you want to call them cats, are the descendants of unaltered tame cats somewhere in the ancestry line. One unsterilized cat dumped on the street for whatever human reason, can lead to 5,000 cats in seven generations. Multiply that by an entire community, filled with negligent or ignorant people, and that is how an epidemic is not only born, but sustained. Read more