Rescue Village Cares About Cats
A little-known fact about Rescue Village is that year after year, Rescue Village provides shelter, medical care, and new homes for more cats than it does dogs, and last year was no different. Certainly, this isn’t a feline vs. canine competition. Still, the fact is, Rescue Village has always been a dedicated, welcoming, sanitary, and humane cat shelter, the only of its kind in Geauga County.
In the last five years alone, 4,854 cats have been rescued, with 1,065 rescues in 2022. When people need to give up their pet cat, Rescue Village is here to help people in this most difficult of decisions, whether due to an economic crisis, medical emergency, or drastic life changes. People love their cats and don’t want to give them up, but when they have no choice, Rescue Village has a loving staff, a warm bed, and a safe place to stay. Last year 352 families surrendered their cats to RV’s care. In addition to ensuring that every cat who calls Rescue Village home is spayed/neutered, Rescue Village also works to help reduce the free-roaming stray and feral cat population. Rescue Village’s dedicated trap, neuter, and return program (TNR), and its long-running low-cost spay/neuter program Fix-It-in-the Farmland for cats (and dogs) have a significant impact on this regional problem. Last year the medical team altered 1,730 cats.
One of Rescue Village’s more unique volunteer roles is that of a cat trapper. These volunteers must be as wile as an outdoor feline. Coaxing and luring the animals into traps for a date with Rescue Village’s medical staff isn’t easy!
Unaltered cats tend to get into more territorial fights and carry more diseases such as FIV and Feline Leukemia, not to mention contributing to overpopulation. In addition to the spay/neuter surgery, these wild cats are vaccinated against rabies. You can always tell if an outdoor cat has been part of an official TNR program as they will always have a clipped left ear, and this is how the trappers know if an animal has already been altered, so keep your eyes peeled. Cat Foster Volunteers are integral to helping make sure the cats in Rescue Village’s care have a more stress-free stay. It is a fact that living in an animal shelter is stressful for animals, and fosters are so very crucial in helping make sure the cats get as much cuddling, couch time, and under-bed-time as possible as they await adoption.
In 2022, 671 cats stayed with a loving foster family as part of their Rescue Village journey. Yes, Rescue Village really, really cares about cats, and all this care is made possible by the dedicated staff, the volunteers, and the thousands of donors who directly participate in this work every day.