Saving Stanford cats 9 lives at a time: The historical past of the Feline Pals Community

Since 1987, the Feline Pals Community at Stanford has rescued lots of of vagabond cats roaming campus. After its almost four-decade historical past, the group is now sunsetting its cat-saving operations.

In line with Lisa Springs, a volunteer with the Community, the nonprofit is heading in the direction of dissolution for a mess of causes. “All of our campus feeding and monitoring stations have been dismantled,” she wrote, resulting from causes like elevated building and a bigger coyote inhabitants which made the Community extract its feeding and monitoring stations. 

In an e mail to The Day by day, Springs and different volunteers from the Community — Kathleen Creger, Laurie Tupper and Larissa Williams — wrote that with out their efforts, “a lot of [the cats] would probably have ended up in shelters and euthanized, or lived troublesome lives with out common meals or correct vet care.”

In line with scholar volunteer Caity McGinley ‘21 M.A. ‘21, “The principle alternative for [the organization] at Stanford was placing meals and water out for the cats at stations round campus.” Moreover, she wrote that she “favored monitoring [their] well being,” ensuring to notice if the cats have been exhibiting any atypical lethargy, wounds or weight reduction. 

The Community by no means turned an official College group, sustaining its “impartial, non-profit 501(c)(3)” standing, the group wrote. In line with the group, the Community did, nonetheless, dealer an settlement with the College to put in feeding stations round campus.

In line with Springs, the group skilled some attrition when its scholar volunteers have been despatched house in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. McGinley was amongst these college students. She started volunteering with the Community throughout her freshman yr, persevering with till the pandemic despatched her house in her junior yr. 

McGinley wrote that cats would pad over when she referred to as to them, recognizing her by voice. “Generally they might comply with me again to the dorm in Suites,” she wrote. She additionally wrote that seeing the cats was a spotlight of her week. “[W]hen I used to be battling Duck Syndrome, they might cheer me up and to see them dwelling their finest lives at all times put a smile on my face,” she wrote. Concerning the group’s resolution to dissolve, McGinley talked about she felt “saddened.”

Over time, cats have been present in quite a lot of areas, starting from a Stanford Buying Middle building web site to a drain pipe, in accordance with the group. At one level, the Community even “trapped a mom cat and her 7 orange tabby females,” which was peculiar not solely due to the big variety of cats, however “as a result of orange Tabbies are usually male” the group wrote.

Now on the tail finish of its actions, the group has 4 volunteers in its pack. Its employees dimension as soon as peaked at 25, together with scholar volunteers, retirees and locals who have been employed elsewhere on the time, in accordance with the group. 

For the volunteers, the time dedication diversified relying on their position, but it surely typically was round “a couple of hours every week,” the group wrote. As an example, some volunteers would work on the feeding stations, others would retrieve the cats and others would handle the Community’s e-newsletter.

The group wrote that the age of the cats diversified from kittens to seniors, and that the rescue course of usually adopted a components. After receiving chatter of a cat sighting, the Community would pounce, finding and trapping the cat. If the cat was tame and thereby thought of adoptable, they might test if it had a microchip so the proprietor might be discovered. “If there isn’t a microchip we attempt to discover the proprietor by posting on web sites and placing indicators across the neighborhood the place it was discovered,” the group wrote. 

Adoptable cats can be despatched to “a foster house whereas awaiting their ‘endlessly’ house” if no proprietor got here ahead, the group wrote. New homeowners tended to be from the Bay Space, though some “[came] from as distant because the Santa Cruz Mountains and Half Moon Bay.” The Community would do a background test on potential properties earlier than letting a cat get adopted.

Alternatively, feral cats have been thought of “unsocialized” or “unadoptable,” in accordance with the group. The group would nonetheless take the cat to a veterinarian to test for microchips and every other well being care, however the cat would obtain the usual “TNR,” or “Lure-Neuter-Return.” After remedy, these cats have been “returned to campus” to stay underneath the Community’s supervision and feeding. 

Some college students have been stunned to listen to of the Community’s former presence on campus but appreciative of its legacy of rescuing homeless cats. 

Hannah Cussen ’23 mentioned she would have beloved to change into a volunteer with Community if she had identified of its existence. “Cat individuals are usually introverted and it might have been enjoyable to satisfy different individuals by way of a shared love of cats,” Cussen mentioned.

“I didn’t understand there can be that many cats on campus to have an entire group devoted to saving them,” Alyssa Charley ’23 mentioned. “My very own fats cat at house was a stray, so it’s good to know there are efforts to save lots of strays right here too.”