Public Relations and Events

Additional Meeting: Monday, July 21st at noon, the IGC Committee will meeting at the Brazos County council of Government Building on 29th St, (the old Winn Dixie). This meeting will be attended by Rep. Fred Brown & either Sen. Ogden (or his rep) to show support for this legislation. It is an open meeting to the public.

Cat and Kitten Adoptions

BFCA has spayed-neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and found loving homes for nearly 200 cats and kittens each year for the past four years. For a group as small as ours, this is quite an accomplishment.

Our work never ends, but this year has been particularly challenging because “kitten season” (when females cats are giving birth) normally begins in late March and runs through September. But this year, many momma cats are having second and third litters. As a result, it’s December and we still have dozens of kittens needing homes while usually we would have only a few.

Please help us by telling your friends, families, and co-workers about us. To refresh your memory, each of our cats and kittens has been spayed or neutered, vaccinated against common cat diseases and rabies, tested negative for feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus, treated for worms and fleas and microchipped for permanent identification. We ask for a $95 donation for kittens and $75 for adult cats, a great bargain considering that if you were to adopt a free cat and take it to the vet, it would cost over $200 to purchase all the veterinary services we include.

Speaking of vets, we’d like to thank Kingdom Animal Hospital, College Hills Veterinary Hospital, Lovan Care Animal Clinic, and the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at Texas A&M University for their generous support of our programs. We simply couldn’t do our important work without them!

Feral Trap-Neuter-Release Program

Many of you know that our group is working to control the population of feral and stray cats in our community through trap-neuter-return (TNR) and adoption. TNR is widely accepted as the only effective method of limiting feral populations.

Since 2000, we have spayed-neutered more than 900 feral cats through our partnership with the TAMU College of Veterinary Medicine. Our program was the first in the United States to have feral cat surgeries performed by senior veterinary students as part of their training. We have worked with over 120 caretakers of feral colonies in the area. In 2007, the partnership was supported by the Summerlee Foundation and the National Humane Education Society.

Two healthy ferals from one of our managed colonies. This particular colony has stabilized at 22 cats because nearly all its members have been spayed-neutered.

Glossary of TNR Terms

Trap-neuter-return (TNR): non-lethal method of controlling the population of feral cats by humanely trapping them, spaying-neutering, then returning them to their colonies.

Feral cat: cat too afraid of people to be a pet.

Stray cat: previously owned cat that was lost or abandoned.

Colony: three or more cats living together, usually near a food.

Colony in the making: one or two unspayed/unneutered cats that can have kittens and quickly create a large colony.

Caretaker: person who feeds a colony of cats and uses TNR to control the colony’s population.

Animal Control Ordinances

Some of you may have read in the Eagle that the cities of Bryan and College Station are working with a committee made up of vets, citizens, and city officials to revise local animal control ordinances.

As you can imagine, this is quite a difficult job, because the opinions of diverse groups (pet lovers, pet haters, public health officials, city councils, and so on) must be considered. The committee is currently working to make TNR legal in both Bryan and College Station, which should translate to more support for BFCA’s work. There will be public hearings and a vote by the city councils once the draft of the new ordinances is complete, so keep your ears open for an opportunity to support TNR!

Are You One of Us?

Have you been wanting to do something for your community but haven’t found the right nonprofit group to volunteer with? Well, search no more!

BFCA is a small group, so you won’t get lost in the shuffle. There are a variety of tasks so that you’ll surely find something you’ll enjoy doing.

• We need volunteers at our adoption days at PetCo each Saturday to talk with prospective adopters, show the cats and kittens, and help adopters select a kitty that is right for them.

• We always need foster homes. If you have a spare bedroom and extra love to offer one of our felines temporarily, let us know!

• If you can’t volunteer at PetCo or foster kittens in your home, we need help with fundraising, publicity, and grant writing. And just so you’ll know, you don’t have to be an expert to earn our undying gratitude. Seriously.

What Else Do We Need? MONEY!!

We know that you’ve been getting requests for donations from lots of other groups over the past few weeks. So why should you donate to BFCA?

• We are a registered 501(c)(3) organization and are listed on the IRS website under nonprofits. Your donation to us is tax deductible.

• If you’ve adopted from us, you are living with the fruits of our labor—healthy, socialized cats. You know we do good work!

• Your money will be spent right here in your community.

• Your donation will be used for vet bills, vaccines and testing supplies, cat food, and litter.

• Nothing is spent on salaries. All of our administrative volunteers (those responsible for cat intake and veterinary scheduling, coordinating foster homes, volunteers, and adoption days, accounting, ordering supplies, answering phone calls and e-mails) work their regular paid 40-hour-a-week jobs and do all BFCA work in their spare time.

With the extra influx of kittens late in the season, our bank account has been drained. Before we know it, March will be here and a new crop of kittens will need our help.

“Is it suppertime, foster mom??” These kittens were born to feral mothers, but as their expressions tell you, they have adapted wonderfully to living with a family.

Please make it possible for us to continue our work by sending a donation. Make checks out to BFCA and mail to the address below, or donate using PayPal on our website. And don’t forget to spread the word about our kittens and cats available for adoption. Thank you!

P.O. Box 10738, College Station, TX 77842

979-690-9530

www.catfriends.org

e-mail: info@catfriends.org

Texas Great Pyrenees Rescue! TGPR is a 501.c.3 not for profit organization dedicated to the protection and rescue of Great Pyrenees in Texas and surrounding areas that believes strongly in ethical adoption and rescue to save this great bread of dogs.

We have beautiful dogs that are in need of homes. All our dogs are current on their vaccinations, have been spayed/neutered and are treated for Heartworm and on preventative and flea free. The dogs are kept in foster care and not in kennels. Most are crate trained and have some basic training. Puppies are available as well as live stock trained guardian dogs.

Successful rescue isn't done by one but by many… We are desperate for fosters that are willing to work with these gentle giants. Can't foster, we have many other areas that we can use volunteers in as well! Donations are also desperately needed to off set the cost of caring for these large dogs.