We estimate that there are close to 20,000 feral cats and kittens in Clarke County alone. Our Community Cats program hopes to use education and mobilize community involvement to tackle this "growing" situation of homeless felines. It is important to realize that we are NOT an organization with a shelter to house large numbers of homeless cats. 

Since we have very limited resources at this time, the primary thing we are able to do for the feral community cats is to offer advice to individuals who want to help a particular cat, or colony of cats, by providing information about the most humane and effective strategies to help the cats.  We have created a tip sheet for trapping ferals and a list of local resources and other animal assistance organizations. 

If an individual wants to help a particular kitten or kittens, we can also give special advice about trapping kittens and evaluating them for possible socializing and adopting. Age, health factors and personality are some of the things that will need to be considered.  Usually, the longer a kitten or cat has been "in the wild", the longer it will take to socialize him/her, and so in many cases, returning the animal to its territory after it has been spayed/neutered and vaccinated may be the best choice, as long as there is a dedicated caregiver for the feline once he/she has been returned.

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to trap, foster, and keep large numbers of feral kittens for adoption. In the future we hope to have a barn cat referral program where some feral cats and kittens may be able to eventually (with help) adapt to new homes in barnyards and/or on farms. However, that program is only part of the solution, not the solution for all 20,000 cats in the Athens Area!
 
If you need advice about a situation involving one or more of our "Community Cats", please first review our tip sheet and then if you need further help, call Angel, Coordinator of the "Community Cats" program, at 706-742-5760. You may also send an e-mail to her attention at: feralcatcaregivers@yahoo.com   (Angel is also the President  of  the Cat Zip Alliance. )

If you don't need help but simply want to OFFER your help, we would totally welcome it---whether you can help just a little or want to help a lot.  And there are lots of different ways to help - just click on the link "How You Can Help Us"!