Black & Orange Cat Foundation:: Fixing Felines to Keep Communities from Going Astray:: TNR—Trap, Neuter, Return:: Spay Neuter Services

One female cat and one male cat and their offspring result in 420,000 kittens in seven years

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What is a Feral Cat?

According to Alley Cat Allies, the national leader in work with Trap-Neuter-Return and feral cats, a feral cat is a cat that has lived his whole life without human contact and socialization. Feral cats can also be stray cats (formerly owned and human socialized cats) that have become lost or have been abandoned and who have lived so long without human contact that they have reverted back to a “wild” state. Feral cats are afraid of people and will avoid contact with humans. They cannot be touched by strangers.

Stray cats because they once knew human companionship can be re-socialized and re-homed. Truly feral adult cats, however, usually cannot be socialized and are happiest living outside. Feral kittens, however, are another matter. If you can rescue feral kittens while they are still young (between the ages of 8-10 weeks is best), they can often be tamed and placed into homes.

Estimates place the number of feral and stray cats living in Central Ohio at over ONE MILLION!!!

Butler the cat Black & Orange Cat Foundation (or “B & O”) is named for two very special and very spoiled cats, Butler and Oswald. Butler, the “B” in “B & O” is the black cat in the group, while Oswald, the “O” in “B & O” is our orange feline. Although, we are especially fond of our black and orange cats (and, yes, we love those black and orange tortie mixes, too), we do not just help cats of those colors. We help all cats, no matter their shading.

Both Butler and Oswald were adopted from the Union County Humane Society in Marysville, Ohio. Butler stole our hearts, when, after being released from his cage, he ran up his new mom's arm and perched atop her shoulder.

Oswald the cat Oswald, on the other hand, got our attention by screaming his head off until we finally came over and opened his cage door. Whereupon, there was no putting him back inside without suffering permanent hearing loss.

While these two mongrels were adopted from our local shelter, the rest of the cats who have padded into our lives have come looking for us. Like the hobos during the Great Depression who marked “X's” on gates to let other hobos know where a kindly person lived who would give them a meal, these cats seem to have marked our homes to lead other unfortunate felines to our doors.

Stray and abandoned, often very ill or injured, these cats led us to the idea of starting an organization to spay and neuter feral and stray cats in order to decrease the overpopulation problem and help cats who have no other angels looking out for them.

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Now it can! Search the web with www.goodsearch.com and money from advertisers will go to your favorite charity without you spending a dime! GoodSearch.com will donate 50% of advertising revenue, estimated to be about a penny per search, to the charities selected by its users.

Support our shelter! Buy Frontline Plus and pet medications today! Or Call 1-800-738-6337 and Mention: "BANDOCATS"

Buy postage stamps, t-shirts, and cards that feature the B and O logo and some of our kitties through Zazzle.com A portion of all proceeds comes back to B and O to help us fund our spay and neuter efforts in the community. If you join our ‘fan club’ on the site, we get an even larger donation from the sales. There are seasonal postage stamps and cards that you can send for holidays, as well as generic ones that can be used all year long. For everyone who has adopted from us, please be on the look out for your baby among the featured kitties. And if you have adopted a cat from B and O and would like to send a cute photo of your furry friend, please email that picture and we’ll try to use it on a stamp!! You can check out everything that is available at the following link: zazzle.com/bandocatfoundation

Plain City, where these black and orange cats hang out, is a rural, farming community. There are an enormous number of un-sterilized “"barn cats” who reside on farms, populating the area with huge numbers of unwanted kittens.

Using a method called Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), we are able to trap feral or “wild” cats in humane traps baited with tuna or other yummy cat food. Once trapped, these cats get a ride (often their first time in a car-terrifying to say the least) to the vet's office for vaccinations and sterilization. Feral cats are also “ear tipped.” A tiny portion of their left ear is removed in a universal symbol that tells everyone who might later come in contact with the cat that it has a feral cat already been fixed.

Although we mainly focus upon stray and feral cats, we also help low income residents, who cannot afford the cost of sterilization and medical care, obtain care for their cats.

We work primarily in Madison and Union Counties, as Plain City is divided between these two counties. We do, however, often receive calls for help from many areas within the Central Ohio area. We help anyone we can, as our funding allows, because our main concern is decreasing the cat overpopulation problem to put an end to unwanted cats and kittens.

Keep feral and outside cats warm as the temperatures drop this winter. I first learned about cat shelters when I attended a feral cat workshop sponsored by CATco, Cat Assistance Team of Central Ohio. There are plans for making shelters for your outside cat on several web sites and the links are listed. Additionally, Alley Cat Allies also has ideas for keeping water from freezing in dishes (http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/info/preventing.htm) and for building food stations to keep food dry in the winter.

Please check out all of these great sites to keep your kitties warm, dry, and safe this winter:

An outside shelter for cats Tucker, my outside cat, in his well built and insulated cat house — the plans for this cat house came from the Alley Cat Allies web site and my good friend, Richard Murray, built it for my kitties.

It's better to have one litter first.
My pet will get fat and lazy.
My children should experience the miracle of birth.
I don't want my male cat to feel like less of a male.
My cat is so special, I want another kitten of hers just like her.
Spaying and neutering is too expensive.
There are many low cost spay and neuter services available in the Central Ohio area. To find one close to you, please visit the Columbus Dog Connection
I can always find good homes for the kittens. I've done it before.

For more information about common myths about spaying/neutering — go to The Humane Society of the United States' web site.

Butler & Oswald's Opinionated News

September 2007 (PDF document)
April 2007 (PDF document)
December 2006 (PDF document)
October 2006 (PDF document)

Great news!

The Ohio Pet License Plate is now available! Fifteen dollars from the sale of each plate will support spay/neuter for Ohio cats and dogs.