Open Window
August 2012
Open your heart to our community’s homeless cats
A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. We are dedicated to the care of feral cats, and members of our group
work on a volunteer basis to feed, water, and provide medical care for hundreds of feral cats in Knoxville
and surrounding areas. We participate in a trap/neuter/return program in an effort to control the feral cat
population. The TNR program is where feral cats are humanely trapped by volunteers, taken to a clinic to
be spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and returned to their colony where they are most comfortable. We
are not an adoption agency nor do we take in unwanted pets. Our organization only holds adoption fairs in
order to find homes for socialized kittens born into feral colonies and to re-home stray pets that are
abandoned in our colonies! We are funded solely from donations and fundraisers with 100% of money
raised going directly to controlling and maintaining the feral cat population.
What we can do: mentor you with your TNR (trap-neuter-release) project by teaching you how to use the
traps (including care of the cats while in the traps) and loaning you traps to get the cats to the vet or a low
cost spay/neuter clinic.
What we cannot do: remove feral cats from your neighborhood, place of business, etc., trap and transport
the cats for you; loan traps for you to take cats to any animal service for euthanization.
Monthly Meetings
Feral Feline Friends meets the
second Tuesday of every month
at Mr. Gatti’s at 6913 Kingston
Pike (just west of Papermill
Road.) Please come so you can
learn about how you can help the
feral cats of our community.
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Feral Fixin Dates
Sept 8th
Oct 13th
Adoption Center at Petsmart Turkey Creek
ADOPTED : Kittens Channing, Yosemite, Courage, Buttercup, Swirlee & Frisco together, Judy &
Wilson together, Cricket, Stephanie, Pearl & Charlene together. Another great weekend!
NEW : Josie, Rose, kittens Grasshopper, orange Daisy, Speck. Sandy, Andy, Trixie, Miss Tux, and
crazy Daisy are over their sniffles and are back.
Please make note if you hear any sneezing or see any other signs of a cold from anyone. Rose is still
a little scared to come out with everyone but loves attention. Josie does not get along with the others
sometimes - she is a very friendly cat with people though. Speck has recovered from a broken leg she
had as a small kitten. Please do not let her jump from her cage. She is a very active little thing and is
hard to keep from jumping around - just be a little careful with her
We are still in desperate need for fosters! If anyone can be of help or knows of anyone who would
like to help, please let me know. Please pass the word to friends, family, co-workers.
Please contact Deb at (865) 300-6873 or debmarsh@knology.net if you would like to help in our
adoption center.
Thanks to Deb and all the volunteers who work so hard to get our animals adopted!!!!
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RACCOON RESCUE
by Deb Marsh
On weekends I feed at an office park on Northshore & Pellissippi. Just recently there's been a family of
raccoons – 2 fat adults and 5 smaller ones – who also show up to eat the cat food. One Sunday morning
in July one of the small ones showed up with a plastic peanut butter jar completely over his head! The
poor little thing was sitting and putting food up to his mouth but the jar was in the way. At first thought
it is kind of funny but then you realize that the raccoon will die of starvation or thirst if he doesn't get
the jar off soon. I tried trapping him with a humane trap but he had no interest in the bait since he
couldn't smell. I then got a huge net with a long handle but didn't see the raccoon again until Tuesday.
By that time he seemed pretty weak - he actually came toward me instead of running away. I was able
to get the net over him and, with leather gloves on, held him down...but the jar was on too tight around
his neck! One of the wildlife rehabilitators I spoke with told me to use Dawn dish soap if it didn't come
off. I had that handy, put it on his neck, and the jar slipped off! I was so happy that the poor little
guy's life was saved! And the raccoon was definitely happy! The weekday feeders named him Jif!
Jif and his cat friend Lauren.
Jif, smiling because he is happy to be able to eat again!
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Changing Communities for Cats: A Tale of Two Kitties
Every morning after the city’s gridlock has peaked, Dolores Smith loads up her old Volvo with kibble
and canned cat food and starts driving through Washington, D.C. By lunchtime she’ll have visited
three neighborhoods where hungry feral cats will be anticipating the sound of her car.
A decade ago Dolores realized that even small efforts for cats could make a big difference. Animal
control was rounding up feral cats in an alley about four blocks from her house and taking them to the
shelter to be killed. Catch and kill was the norm. Policy or no policy, she wanted to help those cats.
Soon she’d worked with a neighbor and gotten the cats spayed and neutered. “I took them as my
own,” she remembers, about 16 in all.
She’s since taken on two other colonies, all in working-class urban neighborhoods. The cats—all
trapped, neutered and returned—congregate in alleyways used by residents and garbage collectors. Vet
bills, food, time—she’s all in.
Dolores is fortunate to live in a community that now embraces Trap-Neuter-Return. In spring of 2004,
Alley Cat Allies approached the D.C. Department of Public Health with a proposal to establish a
TNR pilot program. And the department accepted it—funded primarily by Alley Cat Allies and
promoted to city residents as a partnership between the department, Alley Cat Allies, and other local
animal protection organizations. Under the program, animal control officers and shelter officials
referred calls about feral cats to Alley Cat Allies, which then worked with residents and volunteers like
Dolores to humanely trap cats and bring them to local clinics for subsidized spay/neuter and other
veterinary services.
And it got even better for the cats: In 2008 the District passed a law that requires the Animal Care and
Control Agency to practice Trap-Neuter-Return in managing the feral cat population, provided that all
efforts are made to adopt out a trapped, tamable kitten.
Sustainable change was in the air.
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This year’s National Feral Cat Day® theme is Changing Communities for Cats, and Washington,
D.C. has proven that it’s possible to turn around the places where we live, even communities as vast as
our nation’s capital. Dolores was going to help those cats in her neighborhood no matter what. And
now she and the hundreds of caregivers like her are doing so out in the open, without fear of animal
control.
The gorgeous cats featured on our logo this year are in Dolores’ care. One’s a dilute calico, the other
a buff tabby. We affectionately call them Fred and Ginger. They’re happy, healthy, loved. They’re
family. Their colony has thrived for almost a decade.
“These guys are proof that the dream for a safe place for cats can be a reality,” says Becky Robinson,
president and co-founder of Alley Cat Allies. “This is what National Feral Cat Day® is all about—
working to make it accepted and legal to do what’s right. That’s what cats in every community
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ideas for National Feral Cat Day 2012 in Knoxville??
• Food drive with educational materials at Walmart or Kroger ??
• Pancake Breakfast??
• Any other ideas??
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Support Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee
In Honor/Memory of ________________________________
Enclosed is my donation of: __$10 __$25 __$50 __$100 __Other
Your donation will solely be used for the care of
Knoxville’s feral colonies, to include spaying/neutering,
food, or other necessary care. Your donations are tax
deductible under section 501c3 of the IRS code. Please let us
know if your employer will match your gift.
Name ____________________________________________
Address ___________________________________________
Phone ____________________________________________
Email _____________________________________________
Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee
PO Box 32121
Knoxville, TN 37930-2121
(865) 406-6980
kfcf@bellsouth.net
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