Gabrielle Sandbothe, owner of Gabby’s Bygone Treasures, has taken it upon herself to look out for the feral cats in Gerald. She feeds them, doctors them and provides temporary shelters when the weather gets cold.

Recently she added two more actions to her cat-protecting program. She coordinated with Ferals in Peril in Hermann to trap, neuter and return some of the feral population and she set up a kitty food bank near her shop.

Ferals in Peril promotes spaying, neutering and responsible pet ownership. Their objective is to insure that all feral cats are spayed and neutered. When needed they care for feral kittens until they can be adopted, pay for vet bills and also provide food to the foster homes.

A fertile female cat can give birth up to four times a year. Each litter averages four kittens, two males and two females. Just two weeks after giving birth, female cats can go into heat again. Kittens can get pregnant at four months old.  Approximately 1.4 million cats are euthanized in the U.S. annually. Feral cats are natural predators and can help control rodent populations including mice, rats and gophers.

Joann Bradford is a volunteer with Ferals in Peril and coordinated the Gerald project. She considers the effort a great success. “It takes everyone and this community really stepped up,” she noted.

Plans were made to set traps in Pear Tree and Hillside trailer parks and behind Jack Flash. 20 traps were set out the evening of May 15 and 16 cats were caught. They were taken to The Spay Neuter Project in Columbia the next day. There they were checked for wounds and parasites, spayed or neutered and with funds available through a special grant they were also vaccinated for feline leukemia. Each cat receives an ear clip to identify them as having been spayed/neutered.

One cat was in such poor condition it had to be euthanized, but 15 cats were returned to Gerald to live their best feral life. Some free cat food was provided for those who feed the feral cat colonies.

In addition, 21 kittens were rescued from the feral population ranging in age from three days to three weeks old. These were sent to foster homes were they are being bottle fed and eventually will be available for adoption.

The job isn’t done yet. There are least three male and three female ferals in two of the targeted locations in town. The group will be back next month for those.

Sandbothe publicized hte project on social media and $190 was donated directly on the webite feralsinperilhermann.org. She collected another $140 from direct contributions and an anonymous donor threw in $300. Bradford says this leaves her group only about $200 short in paying for the Gerald project.

Last week, Sandbothe set up a simple kitty food bank outside her shop. It consists of a simple plastic tote filled with plastic bags of cat and kitten food. She hopes to ease the burden of those feeding stray cats around town, but others may use the food bank as well. Any cat owner who needs a little help to get through is able to take some food.  “Take what you need, give what you can,” is written on the lid. Users are asked to limit the number of bags taken to their immediate needs.

Other fellow cat lovers have joined in the effort to keep the food tote full.

To help join the effort to control the feral cat population you  could make a donation on the website or directly at Gabby’s Bygone Treasures. Or even just drop some food in the kitty food bank.

This entire project has been a great  example of the power of community. A legitimate problem was identified, a solution was discovered and the solution was funded by private individuals.

When a community works together good things happen. It seems that this infectious concept is spreading though town. Indeed, good things are happening here.