Little Walnut Creek Branch Library
Emancipet
RECEIVED Thu., April 7, 2005
Dear Editor,
I just read your article on feral cats and I could identify with every word of it [“City Searches for a Feral Cat Fix,” News, March 25]. I live in a mobile home park on East Riverside. Ten years ago there were no feral/abandoned cats in this park. A few years ago that started changing; what started out as four abandoned kittens blossomed into more than 50 feral and abandoned house cats. At first I was able to catch the new kittens and find them homes, but last year I was simply overwhelmed. I found several kittens either dead or who died at the vets from some sort of respiratory infection, several more were squashed by automobiles and I had had enough. I contacted Julia Hilder with the Spay/Neuter Austin Campaign and after she took a look at the situation she began trapping that same day. With her trapping and taking cats to Animal Trustees of Austin and with me taking cats to the Emancipet/Spay Neuter van we have trapped and spayed or neutered more than 44 cats, found homes for dozens of kittens, and during the last kitten season there were only two small litters from females that had slipped through the loop unnoticed. They were captured and fixed immediately. It is a continuous struggle to capture any new cat with an untipped ear that shows up at my food bowls, but it is a battle I am winning. Thank you for drawing attention to these wonderful people and their programs.
I hope you will soon do an article on Emancipet. Their van is at different locations in Austin every Thursday and Friday. They offer free spay/neuter services, which also includes a rabies vaccination and city of Austin pet registration; both of these at no cost. At each of these locations they also offer low-cost veterinarian services. All of these services are provided on a first-come first-served basis and they are limited to the number of kennels inside of the van. They also just opened a clinic located in East Austin where they offer very low cost vet services.
I just read your article on feral cats and I could identify with every word of it [“City Searches for a Feral Cat Fix,” News, March 25]. I live in a mobile home park on East Riverside. Ten years ago there were no feral/abandoned cats in this park. A few years ago that started changing; what started out as four abandoned kittens blossomed into more than 50 feral and abandoned house cats. At first I was able to catch the new kittens and find them homes, but last year I was simply overwhelmed. I found several kittens either dead or who died at the vets from some sort of respiratory infection, several more were squashed by automobiles and I had had enough. I contacted Julia Hilder with the Spay/Neuter Austin Campaign and after she took a look at the situation she began trapping that same day. With her trapping and taking cats to Animal Trustees of Austin and with me taking cats to the Emancipet/Spay Neuter van we have trapped and spayed or neutered more than 44 cats, found homes for dozens of kittens, and during the last kitten season there were only two small litters from females that had slipped through the loop unnoticed. They were captured and fixed immediately. It is a continuous struggle to capture any new cat with an untipped ear that shows up at my food bowls, but it is a battle I am winning. Thank you for drawing attention to these wonderful people and their programs.
I hope you will soon do an article on Emancipet. Their van is at different locations in Austin every Thursday and Friday. They offer free spay/neuter services, which also includes a rabies vaccination and city of Austin pet registration; both of these at no cost. At each of these locations they also offer low-cost veterinarian services. All of these services are provided on a first-come first-served basis and they are limited to the number of kennels inside of the van. They also just opened a clinic located in East Austin where they offer very low cost vet services.
Delwin Goss
