In the beginning...

...there was Washington 1

Below is the text of an email I sent out after the capture of Spook. It marks the beginning of the Washingtom Street Cat Project.

Hi Everyone,

I've never sent out one of these mass emailings to absolutely everyoneon my contact list before, but recent events in my neighborhood compel me to share share this tale.

First some background, please stay with me:

I recently became aware that we had three, or so feral cats in our neighborhood on Washington Street. They were starving, sick and looking really bad. Being a life-long lover of cats, I found this profoundly disturbing and sad, so I started feeding them. Two of them improved immediately, but one remained in pretty bad shape as a resultof all the fighting we had to listen to night after night. These guys are very wild and wary and you can't get to within a few feet of themever, so I stood little chance of ever being able to help the injured one.

Animal control doesn't pick up cats and if they do, they take them straight to capitol humane society, where they are euthanized. I really did not want to do this.

After a couple of agonizing weeks wondering what to do I finally contacted the Cat House in Lincoln. A wonderful man named Dennis Mathias told me about TNR, a program where they come to your location and, as the acronym indicates: Trap, Neuter, Return.

Statistically there could be as many as 75,000 feral cats in Lincoln. It's kind of out of control. TNR is the cheapest and most effectiveway of dealing with this problem because after being trapped, they goto a vet to get neutered, shots, and any other care they need. When they return, they are minimally maintained by a caretaker (in thiscase, yours truly). Once treated, they're healthy, they still keep the rodent population down, they don't have kittens and, most importantly,they don't fight with each other. Since they're are territorial, other cats stay away.
Last night Mr. Mathias came by with a humane trap and showed me what to do. I hoped we would get the injured one

Animal Planet on my porch:

Well, we caught a cat, but It wasn't the one I wanted. Instead we got the Spook, a black cat who won't get close enough for petting, but seems to like hanging out with us on the porch. Our goal is to eventually get all of them, so I guess it's ok that he was the one that walked into the cage last night at around 9 pm.

Wow, what a ruckus he raised when the trap door closed. I swear that cage jumped a foot in the air. Once he figured out he wasn't going to get killed or maimed, he settled down. My neighbor, whose bedroom window is right on the porch said she heard a hiss every now and then after that, but that was all.

All night I kept having a dream that I didn't get the back door of the trap latched and he got loose and we'd have to do it all over again. I'm glad all dreams aren't prophetic.

Early this morning he was still contained, so I took him to the vet. I picked up the cage, he started raising hell, I dropped it. Eventually I did get cat and trap into the car.

I just heard from Dennis and he says our Spook is doing well and complaining loudly to anyone who will listen. I'll pick him up after 9am tomorrow and bring him back and turn him loose. He technically belongs to the Cat House, and they registered him as "Washington 1." That's his official name, but Spook will continue to be his street name. Dennis kept saying "he's one tough hombre." Spook is probably going to be pretty steamed at me.

I think the others are mad at me too. Nobody showed up for food today.
We're going to try again to get the other one next week. The injured one I mentioned above, he's a yellow cat we started calling "Chills," because looking at him will send shivers down your spine. Wish me luck.

But back to the Cat House. They are a great organization that truly helps people and felines. I know, I'm one of them. I don't know what Iwould have done without their help.
If you happen to be looking for a charity to donate to, please consider this wonderful organization.
If you're up for it, there are many other ways you can help too. Please check them out at: thecathouse.org

This brings us up to date on the Washington Street Cat Chronicles.Thanks for listening to my story.

Stay tuned...