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I am the caretaker of a 100 feral and stray cat colony in a Troy industrial neighborhood. I have TNR'd (trap-neuter/spay-return'd) 160 cats in the past two years, most in the first 6 months in a mammoth effort to head off spring births. 60 of the cats I trapped and neutered were from surrounding colonies cared for by others. I adopted out about 50 cats and kittens in the process. I had a lot of help from Alley Cat Allies who used to run a free spay/neuter program at MSU for training vets on how to handle feral cats. I currently do maintenance trapping as I have 10-12 new cats entering the colony each year.

While I was doing this, the caretakers of surrounding colonies did nothing except feed cats and contribute to the problem. In particular I am writing about a colony I call, "The Nightmare on Elm Street." I told the ladies who maintained it about the free spay/neuter program but they refused to spend the effort to trap cats. They told me they had 20 cats and they told me all the gory stories about how the kittens died getting eaten by ants, etc., but they would not do what it took to stop the kittens being born. After I got my colony somewhat in hand, I started trapping their cats. I TNR'd 24 cats for them and told them they had 60 and that 2/3 of them were under a year old and pregnant, indicating the colony had started growing at the time that they started feeding. I was too exhausted to take on another colony of that size and I told them if they did not trap they would have 100 cats before the end of the year. They did nothing.

They shelter the cats in a long hay bale structure, covered with visqueen, but there is not enough shelter for 100 cats and they refuse to believe they have that many. The hay bale structure was built a year ago and has not been replaced with fresh hay. Due to the massive melting at this time, I imagine it is soaking inside from ground water entering at the bottom where there is no visqueen. The snowplow driver shoved the snow right up into the structure and it is probably nothing but hay bales now with no interior space. (This happened last year and they had one of their kids go through and re-open it, but they have not done so this year -- it's probably too disgustingly soggy inside). They also had two small dog homes, the kind that do not keep out water or snow coming in at the door (no vestibule), and the snowplow driver completely covered them. I hope the cats ran out before they were buried. No one has shoveled them out. I just went there today to return a cat I had TNR'd and 3 cats with tails and ears frozen off came from under cars to see if I had brought food. They were so hungry that one even let me get close enough to touch him before he ran away.

I am exhausted and broke from maintaining my own colony and cannot take on theirs. I put out 20 pounds of cat food a day for my cats and it is a struggle. My cats are twice the size of theirs because they are not starving since they are not competing with an exponential number of kittens for food. My cats have snug shingled wooden shelters and covered feeding stations. This is what the nightmare colony needs as well as serious help with TNR and money to do it since Alley Cat Allies is no longer running their free program. I am not able to finance it, nor do most of the work. The Dearborn Animal Shelter is running a $20 special on spay/neuter in the month of February. If people could volunteer to watch traps one day each and pay for 2 cats to be TNR'd and take those two to and from the vet in Dearborn, that would be a big help for these suffering cats. But more immediate is the need for shelter (and to have the shelters placed where the snowplow driver can't bury them). There are plans at www.alleycat.org (choose "Caregiver information", then "Preparing Cats for Winter", then "Building an Inexpensive Shelter") for the shingled wooden shelters that I use. However, they MUST BE insulated in the walls, ceiling, and floor, for our climate and the insulation must be pinkboard or white board, not fiberglass, and include a sheet of aluminum foil, reflective side facing inward to reflect body heat back to the cats. The windblock is inadequate and could use beefing up and the doors need a flap. These structures are very heavy -- it's better to use 2x2's for structural supports. These shelters run at least $100 to build and quite a bit of time. The most recent simplification I have encountered is the use of corrugated plastic roofing material instead of shingles. The easiest way to make an adequate shelter for homeless cats is to make a rectangular shelter, with no slope for the roof, about 2'x3'x1' (the 1' height must be the inside dimension - ceiling and floor insulation must be added to that) and to add a molding (e.g., 1x3) to the top of the roof at the long edge by the door and screw the corrugated roofing material to that and then straight to the roof on the other side, thereby easily adding a small slope without having to do rip cuts. The door should be sheltered from incoming snow by a diagonal piece of wood hinged or screwed into the top and covering the door, allowing access at the sides. All doors need to be about 6.5"x7" -- smaller and some cats won't fit, larger and coyotes might fit! The shelter must open for cleaning. Home Depot will cut all the wood for you. If you tell them it is for homeless cats and are talkative and friendly they often do not charge for cuts.

The need for shelter is dire and immediate. If anyone can help by signing up to build a shelter, call me, Sue, at (586)943-3162 to arrange delivery. I only have an Escort wagon, so the size must be scaled appropriately. (Each builder seems to come up with his or her own improvements, but please see that if you do so it can still be transported!). If you can help with TNR or money, please call too. Regrettably, this is not tax deductible. The cost of building materials can be refunded to you if and only if there are donations to do so. I will fund two shelters but I already contracted for one and I am building the other myself. They need 12 more shelters (7 cats per shelter). If anyone hears of low cost spay-neuter opportunities, please call also. The opportunities I know of are all low volume and a couple of cats here and there are not going to cut it for this colony. With Alley Cat Allies funding I was able to trap and fix 10-14 cats at a time and that is what this colony needs. This colony no doubt has other needs. If you think of a way to help -- suggest, suggest! Food donations will only be taken for each TNR'd cat during aftercare and recovery. I will not add to this problem. In the winter, the cats only like canned cat food because they are dehydrated. 40% of cats are allergic to fish.