You have a couple of “visitor” cats coming into your yard occasionally – perhaps you provide some food for them, or they have decided to take shelter under your front porch. They don’t seem to belong to anyone, and they are sort of fun to watch. Then a few more show up, and you notice territorial fighting, spraying, and yowling – the behavior of un-fixed tomcats around a female in heat. Soon, you have a pregnant mama cat (or two!) preparing to birth a litter of kittens out in the elements. Those kittens who survive, while adorable, will be ready to mate and have litters of their own in less than four months! Without intervention, this may be the beginning of a growing feral cat colony. The territorial fighting and mating may lead to injuries or increase the transmission of feline diseases. The kittens born outdoors may become ill or die of exposure, starvation, or predation. Females in heat may entice more tomcats into the area, creating a bigger problem. The best way to deal with this growing problem is through Trap/Neuter/Return efforts like Kitsap Humane Society’s Community Cats program. When a cat benefits from a TNR program, it is spayed or neutered and vaccinated for rabies, then returned to its original habitat. Kittens are fostered and socialized to be adopted. But here’s the catch: Most free-roaming cats are skittish, leery of humans, or sometimes even aggressive when approached. How can you help them if you can’t even get near them? We can help, with our Tru-Catch humane trap loan program. If participating in KHS’s Trap/Neuter/Return program, you can borrow up to 5 traps at a time. We provide clear directions for using humane traps – and even some yummy bait to entice the cats into them. We also provide instructions to make the entire TNR process as simple for you and as un-stressful for the cats as possible. If you live in the Port Orchard area, we can even deliver the traps to you, and may be able to coordinate trapping and transport assistance as well! The cost of TNR surgeries at KHS is just $25 per cat throughout Kitsap County, and FREE for those cats trapped in the Port Orchard area. Through free-to-low-cost surgeries and our trap loan program, we hope to help our caring neighbors do the right thing by their community’s free-roaming cats. For more information about our TNR program, the Port Orchard free spay/neuter program for outdoor cats, or the humane trap loan program, call today at (360) 536-2668 or email communitycats@kitsap-humane.org. Your community cats will love you for it!