TNR: Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love. Successful TNR is an act of love. Love for the cats who need our care and to be treated humanely because we put them there.
Being part of a TNR (trap-neuter-release) feral cat program in your area is not doing something which will hit the headlines and bring fame but it is doing small things with great love. Love and respect for our fellow creatures on this planet. Doing right by feral cats is what we owe them.
When the community gets together as they have at Oceans Springs, Mississippi, USA, TNR works and it is rewarding to see the feral cat population decline naturally and humanely.
As usual it seems to be ladies who are the driving force behind this TNR program. Linda Cox founded the Feral Feline Coalition and she is the woman who quoted Mother Teresa. The quote is very apt. Doing the daily work of running a TNR program takes love for the cats which motivates one to relate to these cats in a gentle and kind way.
Female Community Cats
Linda says that the colony is mostly females as they stick together. A colleague of hers, Rose Vasquez, who runs a candy store, Candy Cottage, says that there were 30 or more feral cats on the street at one time. However now, thanks to the TNR program, they are down to four or five.
As is usual for successful TNR programs, the volunteer ladies work with the city leaders. It is very important that city councilors get on board with TNR and support the many ladies who volunteer their time and effort to manage community cats and stabilize their numbers. It is the partnership which brings success.
Doing small things with great love across America is how you achieve great things: humanely stabilizing the community cat population in every conurbation of the US.
