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Feral Care is made up entirely of volunteers. We all work full time jobs too and understand how inconvenient it can be to deal with the feral cats that cross our paths. That is why we use the saying "Compassion is not always convenient" to keep us going.
Feral Care began as a two person team caring for feral colonies south of downtown Seattle. One of the partners Kaye Counce, branched off into creating an email network that links rescuers and people in need all over Puget Sound and into Eastern Washington. This network has undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds of dogs and cats. She is an amazing woman and photographer, with her photos being used on our website, the Alley Cat Allies website and in the NARN Animal Services guide that can be found in stores all over Western Washington.
I am the other half of the team and this website describes the work that I do along with a tireless group of volunteers. Key among them is Pamela Staeheli. In a world where lots of people talk about what needs to be done, Pam is the one doing the doing. Fearless and committed, she is setting traps in the worst neighborhoods in Seattle in an effort to reduce the suffering of homeless, unaltered cats. She built and maintains a 16 X 20 foot facility which allows us to hold up to 50 cats comfortably as they await their spays and neuters. The facility also includes an isolation room where sick cats are cared for until they can be released. She stores and meets out traps, mini shelters, food, crates and relocation pens. As the owner of a very successful cleaning company, Pam maintains sterile standards for all of her equipment and the facility as well.
Another key member of our team is Diane Anderson. Originally Diane provided part of her farm land to house our sanctuary. After her retirement from the University of Washington she is one of two caretakers of the sanctuary. She probably does twice the work now than she did while employed by the University of Washington. In addition to the mountains of laundry, dishes and recycling she does for the sanctuary she also does all of the caretaking for cats that are in our recovery shed for any number of temporary ailments. She works very closely with the great folks at Canyon Park Cat Clinic to keep our cats healthy. Her property is truly sacred and the cats (and horses and goats) love it there!
I also want to mention Cheri Sullivan, our kitten coordinator, who has turned her home over to wild kittens while they await their turn at being adopted through one of the many adoptathons that she hosts, or through the All The Best Pet Care stores. And Liz and Noel Braslin who keep the cats awaiting spays and neuters clean, fed and comfortable at our recovery facility. This is dirty, time consuming work that they do morning and night, before and after other jobs. Amazing. I also want to recognize Mike Mahrer, who gets up at the crack of dawn every other week to transport our cats to the clinic for altering.
We intersect with many other rescue groups and together we are stronger.
And, of course, there are those who continue to care for the cats that we alter, those who adopt our kittens, those who support us financially and spiritually and those who mourn with us when our efforts fail.