Urgent Help Needed

We need to find a shelter or home for five stray kittens very quickly. There was a total of eight but we were able to find homes for three. These are strays that appeared in the neighborhood last month and there are several neighbors who have threatened to call animal control. So far we trapped 4 of the original eight kittens but stopped when no homes were available and no shelter would take them. We feed them daily and all appear very healthy. If anyone knows of a shelter or person in the New York City area that will take these cats please post or contact us.

Thank You Al

PS WE WILL TRAVEL

very quickly. There was a total of eight but we were able to find homes for three...there are several neighbors who have threatened to call animal control. So far we trapped 4 of the original eight kittens but stopped when no homes were available and no shelter would take them. We feed them daily and all appear very healthy. If anyone knows of a shelter or person in the New York City area that will take these cats please post or contact us.>

I live in Queens. Using search engines such as Hotbot, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, Mamma (I have a list of 20 HOT engines), and the words animal rescue, animal shelter (Long Island, NY, Queens, NY, NY, NY), I come up with 20+ shelters....plus the webpages designed to host pix & names of cats/kitties needing homes. So, ac1977, thanks for posting, but you dropped the ball! Please pick it up and keep going.

We have contacted numerous shelters which we have heard to be 'no kill' in three states all said the same thing 'sorry full to the brim can't take them'.We have had 6 strays spay or neutered in the last 2 years adopted 3 ourselves, found homes for 5 others and feed who ever needs feeding. If you call that drooping the ball well I guess I just can't catch. Personally I think we done plenty.

I can vouch for this at least in my area. I just rescued a cat from an abandoned apartment and a lot of the no-kill shelters are full. So I decided to foster the cat until she can be placed on the adoption lists.

in three states all said the same thing 'sorry full to the brim can't take them'.

No surprise there. If you look at websites, or find a phone number and call, you will not get any information on how to give them cats - you will only get information on how to get cats from them. No surprise there, either.

We have had 6 strays spay or neutered in the last 2 years adopted 3 ourselves, found homes for 5 others and feed who ever needs feeding.

Without downplaying the gravity of your situation - a bunch of kittens to home - please consider the possibility that you haven't neutered enough cats to still be saddled with surplus kittens after two years! That is, over the long haul you're better off devoting your time and resources to *preventing* kittens.

If you call that drooping the ball well I guess I just can't catch.

That comment from NYWRITER (or whatever her name is) was uncalled for.

Personally I think we done plenty.

Sadly, plenty isn't enough. No one should say you haven't done a lot, but, seriously, you're taking the wrong approach if you think there's got to be a shelter somewhere that will solve your problem. It doesn't work that way.

In a sense you're asking for the wrong thing. There's no one to help your cats. But there are people to help *you* help your cats.

From my interpretation of of the original post, these cats are strays; including the cats that were previously spayed. With all due respect, one person possibly can't spay/neuter every stray cat in the city. Unless he has an endless supply of cash or a very cooperative veterinarian; or access to a low-cost spay/neuter program.

including the cats that were previously spayed.

You're right. But the OP also wrote in a followup:

: We have had 6 strays spay or neutered in the last 2 years adopted 3 : ourselves, found homes for 5 others and feed who ever needs feeding.

If someone 'feed who ever needs feeding', and the resident population of ferals or 'outside cats' don't manage to keep newcomers out, then whose actions were ultimately responsible for these arrivals?

With all due respect, one person possibly can't spay/neuter every stray cat in the city.

I've heard the 'with all due respect, you must be a complete idiot to suggest something absurd' line before. Amazing how easy it is to lose perspective just because there are some kittens in distress.

The idiots who refuse to spay or neuter their cats, and allow them to roam are ultimately responsible. However, they aren't going to take responsibility, now, are they?

No one is 'losing perspective' except possibly you. Aren't you the idiot who claimed it isn't the Humane Societies place to help this person with these cats, who are obviously strays? Why, exactly, do you think Humane Societies exist?

|> of ferals or 'outside cats' don't manage to keep newcomers out, then |> whose actions were ultimately responsible for these arrivals? The idiots who refuse to spay or neuter their cats, and allow them to roam are ultimately responsible.

If you wanted to score a debating point, congratulations, you just did. But this isn't a debate. This is a discussion. I didn't ask about the origins of the cats themselves, I asked about their presence in the OP's neighborhood.

In case you weren't paying attention, cats go to where there is food. Find a dumpster, regularly full of organic garbage, and in due course there will be cats. Find a parking lot, littered with the remains of McLunches, and in due course there will be cats. Find someone moved by 'Oh, the poor things must be hungry', and guess what? in due course there will be *more* cats.

This is not rocket science.

However, they aren't going to take responsibility, now, are they?

No they aren't, but all that's irrelevant unless you can find them. Would that we could save every hapless cat in the world, but we can't. The best we can do is to look after our *own* environments. Feeding hungry cats in the streets does nothing to solve the *systemic* problem that caused these cats to be hungry there in the first place.

No one is 'losing perspective' except possibly you.

If you insist. For that matter, I think the OP agrees with you.

Aren't you the idiot who claimed it isn't the Humane Societies place to help this person with these cats,

If that claim makes me an idiot, then demonstrate your judgment. Here is the number of the Humane Society of New York: 212-752-4840. Call them up. You will get an IVR system. Listen to the choices - hospital, administration, adoptions, etc - and lo, not a single one says anything about how you can give them cats or even ask them to take cats from you. Navigate each and every choice the robot voices give you, and you will eventually get either a voice mail extension or an extension that will just keep on ringing. Getting the picture yet?

Now, the HSNY has other numbers where you can indeed get a human, but these numbers are not for public consumption. Do you wonder why?

There are a number of well established rescue organizations in the New York city area. To name a few: North Shore Animal League, CityCritters, KittyKind. Most of them websites and, on those sites, contact numbers. But none of them is even remotely interested in taking cats from you. Many of them, however, run public adoption fairs outside their premises (some of them don't even have shelter establishments of their own) - on the streets, in big stores, and elsewhere. The point is to find them in the flesh and talk to them personally. They will offer advice, and they will help you all the more if you also help them.

That is how things work, because that's how they manage to get anything constructive done with only so many hours a day available.

Why, exactly, do you think Humane Societies exist?

Ok genius, educate me. Please. Do you live in the New York City area?

Here's an admittedly stupid suggestion:

You say you're already feeding them, and neighbors are threatening to call animal control to get rid of the 'strays'. You could trap them all, have them spayed and neutered, put a collar on them, release them right where you found them and keep feeding them. That way when animal control shows up you can say the cats with collars are your pets rather than strays and they've been fixed so there's no reason to remove them. You might want to ear tip them while they're being fixed so you can still prove they're fixed after the collars fall of which they all eventually do.

At least that's what I do with the strays that show up at my house.

'feed them and they will come'

Not stupid at all, IMO.

You could trap them all, have them spayed and neutered, put a collar on them, release them right where you found them and keep feeding them.

Agreed, except for the bit about collars.

You might want to ear tip them while they're being fixed so you can still prove they're fixed

Much the better idea. Animal Control authorities with even half a clue should be aware of eartipping: it's an internationally recognized marker of ferals under active management. Better yet, tell the AC people about the colony, so they won't have to waste time and resources responding to complaints that could be best handled by calling you first.

Most TNR programs nowadays eartip as a matter of course (bring the cat in a trap, tell them it's feral, and the ear will be tipped unless you specifically ask them not to.)

'feed them and they will come'

Aint that the truth.