SPAY/NEUTER

First and foremost, South County Cats is a Spay/Neuter assistance organization. A common misconception is that you should wait until your pet cat is six months old before spaying or neutering.  In truth, it is not only safe to spay or neuter a healthy kitten at two pounds, or around eight weeks old, they recover much more quickly at that age.  A cat is old enough to reproduce at 4-5 months old and spaying a female cat prior to her first heat is the best way to prevent several types of cancer.  

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)

One of the most critical services provided by South County Cats is the trap, neuter, and return of feral community cats.  If you live in South King County and you encounter an outdoor cat, first try to determine if the cat is feral or stray.  If you're not sure how to tell the difference, here is a great article by Alley Cat Allies that can help... 

Feral and Stray Cats -- an Important Difference

If the cat is stray and tame enough to get into a carrier, you can take them to any vet and get them checked for a microchip.  Another option is to put a paper collar on the cat with your contact information or you can post a photo of the cat on social media sites like Facebook and Nextdoor asking your neighbors if the cat belongs to them.  

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If however, you determine the cat is indeed feral, or they are simply too skittish to approach, that's where South County Cats can help!  Contact us at southcountycats@comcast.net for expert advice on how best to proceed.  It is especially important to contact us as soon as possible if you see kittens, a female cat that appears pregnant, or a male cat that is obviously unneutered. 

Check out this fun and entertaining video from Scooter the Neutered Cat, courtesy of The TEN Movement.  

Trap-Neuter-Return is the only responsible, humane method of care for feral cats.  Feral cats do not make good pets, and because they are not suitable for adoption they are typically euthanized upon surrender to a shelter.  TNR stabilizes feral cat populations. The cats are humanely trapped, vaccinated, and neutered, so no more kittens will be born. They are then returned to their original location to live out their lives in their outdoor home. TNR also improves cats’ lives by relieving them of the stresses of mating and pregnancy.

Sometimes home or business owners simply want the cats removed, however this is only done as a last resort, in cases where it is clearly not safe to return the cats.  Science indicates that removing feral cat populations only opens up the habitat to an influx of new cats, and each time cats are removed, the population will rebound through a natural phenomenon known as the “vacuum effect,” drawing the community into an endless cycle of trapping and removing.

Through the tireless efforts of volunteer TNR trappers around the world, countless cat lives have been saved and unwanted litters prevented!  These dedicated individuals work long hours, sometimes late into the night, in their never-ending quest to outsmart the cleverest creatures in the feline world… the feral cat.  Although it is sometimes as simple as setting a trap and waiting a half hour for the cat to go in, more often than not, the situation is much more complex and it can take days or even weeks to capture an entire colony!  One of our mantras is “no cat left behind”, as it only takes one unfixed cat left at a site to start the cycle all over again.  The below video is a compilation of clips from real South County Cats trapping jobs that illustrate the different stages of the TNR process.