EDITION OF THURSDAY, JAN. 25, 2024 [PetPowellPress] Warm salutations and purrs, Dear Readers. I am William Powell, the charming Senior Office Cat at readlarrypowell.com.
Pardon my somber countenance today, but I am addressing you in sincere celebration of a wonderful triumph in a localized serious topic: Feline overproduction.
Our sources tell us that 105 cats were spayed or neutered (depending on the need!) in a carefully planned special project at Friends of the Animals of Cedar Creek Lake’s Spay/Neuter Clinic. The Friends, as you probably know, operate the world’’s most successful spay/neuter clinic at Gun Barrel City.
The question is: Where in the world would anybody get 105 potentially fertile cats? Devoted volunteers with Adopt A Barn Cat and All About Fixin’ It. Please read on. Sincerely, Your Senior Office Cat, William Powell. P.S. See you in Contemplations shortly.]
Here’s the journalistic way to explain this event. And we get this info from Sydney Busch and a well-written report by animal advocate Leslie Wadlow Kelly.
(Who) Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake with Dr. Glen Campbell and a big flock of volunteers joined with the feline support forces, Adopt A Barn Cat and Fixin’ It to
(What) create a massive spay/neuter event
(Where) at the Friends Spay/Neuter Clinic in Gun Barrel City.
(When) on Saturday the 20th
(Why?) to keep unwanted cats from having unwanted kittens because people can be idiots about animals without much effort. [Editorial comment regarding people/idiots from veteran observers with readlarrypowell.com]
BACK TO THE MAIN POINT:
When I discovered that the project had spayed/neutered 105 cats in a day, I asked Sydney, “Was that a record?” And she replied, “absolutely a record,” Sydney told us when I asked, “Is that a record?”
And she explains that the Clinic “could never do that many animals though and include dogs - the surgery takes too long on them… We were all just dropping in our tracks - a very long day - Dr. Campbell did great, had great attitude the whole day!
“There were two groups who are regulars in the TNR biz:: Adopt A Barn Cat and All About Fixin' It...they have regular trappers and they coordinated the whole thing...We just showed up with blades and sutures!”
Sydney suggests that the most comprehensive expiation of the success of the day appears in a post written by animal advocate Leslie Wadlow Kelly on her Facebook page HERE.
Here’s part of what Leslie posted after witnessing the successful event: “Today in our Lake Community about 25 people (estimated) came together to make a HUGE DIFFERENCE we all can appreciate.
“There were 105 feral cats trapped (from different colonies) and spayed or neutered and now they will be returned to their colonies. It’s called Trap Neuter Release and it’s the only way to manage a growing cat colony.
“This was a H U G E endeavor to accomplish!
“It started with each volunteer in their neighborhood recognizing a problem and finding a solution….TNR. When the need far outweighed the solution Directors from these groups got together and planned a Saturday Surgery Day at Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake just for the TNR programs.
“The plan was….to trap 100 cats, spay/neuter each one, in one day. That was today!
“It was a success! We did it!!! We actually had 105 cats and I am truly impressed, inspired and in AWE!
“This couldn’t happen without donations and volunteers.
But most importantly not without our phenomenal Dr. Glen Campbell. We even had doc’s wife Sherry Perchalla-Campbell there to help. Our incredible Vet Tech Holly Regina Press who leads our surgery team fearlessly.
Also Sydney Busch for seeing the possibility of YES we can do this.
A huge shout out to those volunteers who trapped all those cats. Wow! I can’t even imagine how many people were involved in that. Truly blows my mind.”
You can read Leslie’s entire report HERE.
Learn about Adopt a Barn Cat HERE.
Learn about All About Fixin’ HERE.
Get in touch with Friends of the Animals HERE or call 903-451-4701 or 214-808-4701.
CONTEMPLATIONS
A POSTSCRIPT FROM WILLIAM POWELL
I’d like to speak personally regarding the spay/neuter situation. I am the oldest formerly intact male cat on the staff of Readlarrypowell.com.
Look at my face. Do you see any anxiety. Any strain. Any plotting of a gutsy attempt to dart through an open door and run through the neighborhood spreading joy, so to speak, to any unfixed girl cat I can find?
No. I am at ease with the world. I am a lap cat with a loving attitude. I have a job in the literary community because I have a mind that can focus on more than one thing each day. I am, for many years now, a cat driven by passion, not by mindless lust. Thus, on behalf of all of us fellows and ladies who can wake each day without hormone-driven anxiety, I say “thank you” for setting me free of uncontrollable nature. I also don’t make enough money to pay the post break-up kitten child support. And remember this; All the kittens who are born don’t wind up in homes. They sometimes go to shelters to get the needle. They are thrown out in neighborhoods where they’ll become a meal for a coyote or a hawk or they’ll be run down by a driver who tried to dodge or a driver who saw them and gleefully didn’t try to dodge them. It’s a tough world for an unwanted cat. If I hadn’t wandered up to help Larry paint the wood trim on the house, I don’t know where I’d be today. I sure as heck wouldn’t be Senior Office Cat. Bless all the people who help cats and dogs whether it’s with paperwork, kennel work, adoption work or just wading into a tough area to bail a box of puppies out of a creek.
Sincerely,
William Powell,
Senior Office Cat, readlarrypowell.com.
—- Offer advice or support by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and tell those volunteers out at the lake, “Thank you!” —-
