OLYMPIA — Mowgli, a stray black cat, darted from his cage and scurried down a wooded trail behind the Joint Animal Services shelter on Martin Way East. This was not a daring escape, but an intentional and successful release.
Mowgli and some other feral cats are getting a second chance in Thurston County with the implementation of a new trap-and-release program.
Those that make it through the program return to their territory, not as mere strays, but as newly labeled “community cats.” Though still wild, these cats return neutered or spayed as well as vaccinated.
Joint Animal Services started to slowly implement the community cat program in August as it sought to control stray cat populations and spare more of them from ineffective catch-and-kill policies, said Executive Director Sarah Hock.
“It’s very much been noted here in our area that free-roaming cats have become a problem because of the lack of spay-neuter resources,” Hock said.
“This has been a proven program that reduces the number of cats that are free-roaming in any given area, as well as reduces the number of cats that we have to euthanize each year.”
As of Tuesday, six cats had gone through the program and a couple more were waiting at the shelter for their clinic appointments, according to Operations Manager Andrew Toledo.
Animal Services estimates it can save the lives of up to 150 cats a year if it can fully implement this program, Hock said. Cats are selected for the program if they are deemed unsuitable for adoption.
Ideally, such cats are paired with a “community cat caregiver” — someone who is not an owner yet still provides food, water, shelter and veterinary care. The cats also get ear-tipped so people can tell they have already been treated.
Implementation
Though the program has been widely recognized, it has taken awhile to get going in Thurston County. To begin, Animal Services has partnered with Best Friends Animal Society, a non-profit animal welfare organization.
Hock said the non-profit has provided a $18,000 grant and training for her staff. This support has provided the boost it needs at this stage, she said.
“This is great seed money to get us started with this program,” Hock said. “Especially until we can be doing our own surgeries internally.”
The shelter currently lacks a medical treatment area and an in-house veterinarian. For now, staff send the cats to clinics such as Northwest Spay and Neuter Center in Tacoma.
Construction on a medical area has started, though, thanks to donations from other non-profit organizations, Hock said. The shelter aims to start conducting some medical treatments in-house next year, she added.
To fully implement the program, Hock said Animal Services needs local jurisdictions to include definitions for “community cat” and “community cat caregiver” in their codes.
“The way the ordinances were previously written, anybody feeding a cat for 14 days was considered the owner,” Hock said. “Community cat caregivers really aren’t owners. So we wanted to make sure people trying to do the right thing were not being punished either.”
In August, the Animal Services commission submitted letters to Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston County to request those code changes. Pending approval, Hock said the shelter may be able to trap and release more cats before the end of the year.
“We’re looking at working with our community members that are interested in helping,” Hock said. “It’s just step by step, building it as we can, what we have the capacity for and what the community has capacity for.”
The current codes did not prevent Animal Services staff from releasing the few cats they already have, Toledo said. However, he said changing the codes should help the county’s communities better understand the program as it expands.
Recently, Hock said staff have offered vouchers for spay-neuter clinics to people who come in with feral cats. Staff also offer plans for how to manage and deter such cats, if necessary, she added.
“Sometimes people start out doing the right thing and they get overwhelmed,” Hock said. “It’s really helping to problem solve with everybody in the neighborhood so that everybody can live harmoniously without it resulting in having to remove and kill these cats.”
Getting rid of the cats does not solve the issue, Hock said. She likened it to a vacuum effect, where if one cat leaves, another finds the food and resources left behind.
“If you can manage the cats in the area, meaning by targeting spay, neuter and vaccines to the cats so they cannot reproduce but they are happy and healthy … then they’ll actually keep other cats from coming into the area as well,” Hock said.
The tale of Mowgli
The shelter has a small room that can house a few feral cats, but Toledo said that room was at capacity last week. As a result, Mowgli and another cat waited in larger enclosures down the hall.
Prior to this program, Toledo said shelter staff would have to consider euthanizing feral cats once the facility reached capacity. By releasing them, he said staff can free up space and save their lives.
Animal Services trapped Mowgli at a walking trail near the shelter’s side parking lot, according to his documentation. “Coffee stand cat,” as Toledo called him, had sometimes been looked after by those who worked at The Coffee Bar.
Business owner Renee Taylor, 64, said she volunteered to be Mowgli’s caregiver. She said her family had started to put out food for the cat about seven months ago.
“All of the girls in the family love animals,” Taylor said. “So, we all just kind of want to do whatever we can to help.”
Taylor said they named the cat Mowgli to reference Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.” She said her family has cared for other stray cats that frequent the area as well.
“It’s always good to see animals being taken care of by the community,” Taylor said. “It’s no fault of their own that they end up in the situations they do.”
With Mowgli’s release on Thursday, she said her family will be happy to see him roam free again.
She said she hopes the program expands.
“I feel like there is a need for what they’re doing because there are a lot of homeless cats out there,” Taylor said. “If we can make it so that there aren’t more created all the time, I think that’s a really good program.”
