Scampering through the trailer parks and apartment complexes in the areas surrounding Richmond, Virginia are hundreds and hundreds of feral and stray cats.

Operation Cat Nip helps these homeless kitties with food as well as medical care with its once-a-month spay and neuter clinic. And it’s all an effort from the heart on the part of the humans– the vets who perform the surgeries to the vet techs to the devoted cat lovers who buy food to feed the strays are not paid.

Halo, wishing to help Operation Catnip’s efforts, donated 30 cases of Spot’s Stew. It was the group’s first donation from a pet food company.

“We are very very grateful for it, thrilled,” says Jennifer Erisman, a board member of Operation Catnip and a licensed clinical therapist. “There are so many people who feed the cats, and it’s a struggle financially for some people. ”

On top of feeding homeless cats, about 800 feral and stray cats are spayed and neutered a year through Operation Catnip’s monthly free clinics. Yet this barely makes a dent in the stray cat population.

“I think it’s bad everywhere,” says Erisman of the issue. “We have a number of trailer parks inundated with cats, apartment complexes. In less than a year’s time I did 100 cats in the local trailer park.

“There is alot of suffering on the strees with cats who are not spayed and neutered,” Erisman continues. “When they are spayed and neutered, they are healthier, the males don’t fight.”

When the Halo donation arrived, volunteers received two cases each, and the food lasted several months. As expected, the cats loved it, says Erisman.

And the cats knew when their Spot’s Stew was arriving. “They know the sound of the person that feeds them,” she says, “the sound of their car.”

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under pet adoption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.