Friends of Felines has been highlighted on KWCH-TV Channel 12 twice! Newest Video-Near Wichita Dowtown Arena and 2009 Spotlight. Thanks, KWCH!

Protest to Ban "Crush" Videos

Recently we emailed an attachment to sign a Letter of Protest to ban "crush" videos. If you are on any email lists for animal welfare organizations you get the opportunity to add your name to a number of petitions to help protect animals in all sorts of situations. These are pertinent activities to be involved with but what about local animal issues? Are you aware of your local animal codes? Do you agree with them? If not, what have you done to try to get them changed? We in Kansas have very few towns that have progres-sive animal codes. Many towns and cities don't even recognize feral cats. If you "harbor" them, they are your pets and in Wichita at least, there is a maximum number of pets you are allowed to have. There is no protection for these cats or for the people who care for them. Go to Alley Cat Allies website and see the horrible situations that people in some cities have had to face. Everything from a bounty on cats to ticketing caregivers for feeding their colonies.

If you don't want to see those things happen in your town or city, then step up and do something about it. If you live in Wichita or Sedgwick County, let us know that you want to get involved to change the animal codes so that feral cats and their caregivers are protected by the law. We know that TNR is the only proved method to control their population and we need to educate our lawmakers so that they realize it too. Plus, TNR will save money over the widely accepted Trap and Kill approach to feral cats. Let's get our animal codes updated. Contact any of our board members to get involved. You can be the force behind the change. The cats thank you.

Fall '08 Major Project Update

Ten volunteers worked an entire weekend in November to assist a caregiver in cleaning up her property. There are 30+ cats in this colony, and all of them had parasites, ranging from fleas, tapeworms and roundworms to ear mites and ringworm. Many also had upper respiratory infections, evidenced by eye infections, sneezing, nasal discharge, and a general look of illness. The cats were exposed not only to their own waste, but also to that of dogs living on the property. There were only temporary, makeshift shelters available. We decided that the only way the cats could regain their health would be for them to have a clean environment, adequate outdoor shelters, and appropriate treatment by the vet, including spay/neutering. We also requested the caregiver to limit the amount that the dogs spent in the front yard where the new shelters were located. This was not because there was any aggression by the dogs, but to limit the contact the cats had with the parasites that are contained in the dog waste. We wanted to limit re-infection of the cats once they had been treated for parasites.

Since fleas carry tapeworm eggs, we also wanted to treat the outdoor property for fleas to limit contact from fleas in the yard. We started the transformation by giving them a cleaner environment, high-quality food, fresh water and new, weatherproof shelters.

Then after being spay/neutered and treated at the vet, this colony would have the best chance to regain their health. We also worked with the caregiver so she knew more about parasites and their transmission.

The caregivers responsibility would be to maintain the care that we had instituted and contact us if she saw evidence of illness in any of the cats.

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Friends of Felines is extremely fortunate to receive a very generous donation from the Betty H. Graham Charitable Trust. FOF purchased a used Ford Expedition, which will be used for trapping cats when needed. So, if you have wanted to learn to trap feral cats and help us, but felt you couldn’t because you did not want to transport cats and traps in your vehicle, we have the solution. If you are interested in learning to trap, please let us know.

The Trust trustees have assured Ray that they continue to be interested in funding projects in the future. Thank you, Larry and Pat for believing in what we do -- the generous donations will certainly help us in our work with so many feral cats.

Make a Difference with Your Charitable Donation For additional information, email us at info@felinefriendsks.com

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