Organization Seeks to Reduce Number of Cats in Shelters

Cats who are abandoned by their owners or simply wandering the streets in search of a home is a problem in many parts of the country. Animal shelters are not necessarily the best choice for the fickle felines as their stay at a shelter can get cut short if an owner is not found after several weeks. There are those concerned with kitties that have decided to take action in a personal way.

Two women, Tammy Tichenor and Janet Dodd, joined forces and created the Kentucky Kitty Cats organization committed to reducing the number of cats who find their way into the aforementioned animal shelters. Kentucky Kitty Cats was specifically created as a no-kill shelter for cats. Services such as spaying, neutering, and adoption are all central to the purpose of the non-profit organization. They also provide educational and training programs, as well as a place where people can buy food for their pets.

But the organization does not work alone to achieve its goals. It coordinates its efforts with other like-minded organizations such as the Bluegrass Humane Society and Tina Thompson’s Friends of the Shelter to expand its influence.

Kentucky Kitty Cats doesn’t keep exact number of the cats they rescue, but the current estimate is 400 over the past year. But their number one priority is not sheltering the cats, but having as many cats as possible being spayed or neutered. The inability to reproduce is guaranteed to cut down on the number of stray cats in the community.

All of this takes money, and to that end the organization is constantly seeking funding to have the medical procedure performed on as many cats as possible. Recently a major success was achieved in the organization getting a $5,000 grant from Maddie’s Fund. The fund was established to promote pet adoptions but also to provide low income families with an alternative to paying out of pocket to have their pets spayed or neutered.

Currently Kentucky Kitty Cats does not have an actual facility to work out of. A facility would goa long way to not only demonstrating the viability of the organization, but to shelter more cats, promote more adoptions, and present a professional front for the organization that would encourage more people to stop in and see the services being offered. But on a more personal level, the duo running the show get attached to the cats because they are currently staying in their respective forever homes.

There is a lot that can be said about these two women who saw a problem and took immediate steps to start providing a solution. Often the solution is simply a matter of people getting personally involved and not having to spend a lot of time making a difference. It’s likely that Tammy and Janet spend more time feeding and taking care of their forever home kitties than they do actually working on the business end of things.

Many people don’t know how difficult it can be to get grants to fund a particular cause. The government has a number of grant programs available, but few of them are related to animal causes on a local level. Many times people will go to well-known animal rights organizations is search of money, but these are usually so overwhelmed with requests that even if you are able to get funding, it may take months to just get a response.

This is one of the biggest reasons people hesitate to start any local or community project that will benefit pets or people. Eventually it will require money to either expand or maintain the operation of the cause, money that people prefer to redirect to other personal projects. Seeing a problem and being involved in it, even to the tune of just a few dollars and zero time commitment, is something many people are reluctant to do.

Whether it is the Kentucky Kitty Cats or a local organization you are familiar with, these organizations have committed themselves to controlling the pet population and addresses a nation-wide problem, particularly in larger cities. They are the foundation of working to prevent a potentially more important public health problem – the littering of urban areas with the carcasses of dead cats. Most people don’t think of this as a problem, but maybe it is time to begin.