Not sure what to do....

I live in a townhome and have 2 cats of my own- the max allowed by the management. I am a cat rescuer by nature but am in a bit of a bind. There are 2 male feral cats living in my neighborhood. One has decided I am his person and my daughter named him Sunny. I give him food each day and have a medium dog kennel on my porch for him to use for shelter, which he does often. The manager has agreed not to penalize me for caring for him, so I am free to help in that respect.

The problem is that he is not nuetered and needs medical attention. He has a problem with one of his front legs and has great difficulty using it. He also has become very dirty- he hasn't been cleaning himself as he used to. I am low-income (as are my cat-loving neighbors) and cannot afford to take him to the vet and for flea/tick treatments. I don't want to have him put down either, because he really is doing alright otherwise. I would also like to catch the other male cat and have him fixed. The vet would let me use cat traps, but he wants to get paid.

Anyone have any ideas? I live in a very small town in a rural county. There is no humane society or cat rescue organization here.

United animal nation gives one time grants for medical care leading to
the cat being kept/cared for. Let me scout out the web link. Upto
300 dollars worth of care I think (not good for spay neuter, but
treatment of leg for example..). also 1-800-spayusa can give you low
cost spay/neuter vets in your area. And Friends of Homeless animals will send you low cost spay neuter certificate - last I checked it was 65 dollars for spay slightly less for neuters...


UNA website look for the Life Line Grants :

http://www.uan.org/index.cfm?navid=28


Low cost spay neuter by state listed:

http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html

NATIONWIDE
Friends of Animals
777 Post Road, Suite 205
Darien, CT 06820
800-321-7387
203-656-1522
Web site: www.friendsofanimals.org
Friends of Animals will send you an order form and a directory of participating veterinarians nationwide. You pay Friends of Animals for a certificate which you then take to the vet. Veterinarians are invited to call for information about participating.

Good luck. MOre on this board can help you. Hope they jump in!

There may be one or someone who can help that you don't know about! Here are some links to help you search:

Fill out the form here and they'll e-mail you any organizations or individual contacts if any are registered in your area:

http://www.alleycat.org/response.aspx

You can search here for low-cost spay/neuter orgs in your area (enter your zipcode in the upper left-hand corner): http://www.pets911.com/services/spay.../locations.php

You can search here for rescue groups in your area - call them to ask about where you can get low-cost spay/neuter services: http://www.pets911.com/organizations/organizations.php

You can try e-mailing the Best Friends' No More Homeless Pet Campaign to ask if there's any organizations or individuals in your area that can help with the situation: [email protected].

I'd also call around to local vets, see if maybe they'll consider providing discounted services for a non-owned feral that needs help. If not, ask if they know any of the local "crazy cat" people - maybe they can call them to see if they can help out? Give your phone number so they can contact you (we've found help around the country this way).

We live in rural NJ. The vets around here are used to working with ferals, won't provide discounts, but will allow payment plans, and ALL have traps they let us borrow. So that's something else to consider - if you can afford to do it in a payment plan, just trap them, get them neutered, and the boy that needs medical attention can get it.

Getting them neutered will also stop any spraying, so neighbors won't complain about the cats. It also REALLY cuts down on the aggression - and they won't wander or get into fights during mating season (now!) - another cause of many neighbor complaints.

Hope you're able to find help or a solution!

Laurie

Thank you for your help! I will check out all the resources you mentioned.