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Tiniest Rescue of Randolph

May 15, 2008, 4:51PM MT

By Denise A LeBeau

Emergency moves and the TNR program progresses

Emergency moves and the TNR program progresses

Last week, Shelly Kotter of the Best Friends Feral Cat Program and Anna Gonce of Community Programs and Services were in Randolph, Iowa to monitor the recently implemented TNR and spay/neuter program and make sure it was on the right track. (please click here for the background story)

Visiting local farms, talking to the citizens and meeting with the Mayor and Town Council were all on the docket to ensure all the ducks were in a row. Driving from the neighboring town of Shenandoah to Randolph one morning, Shelly and Anna noticed something unusual on the side of the road. And it moved! There on the bank of the dirt road was the tiniest kitten that had been left with an umbilical cord wrapped tightly around her itty bitty paw. They named her Sidney, and knew she was close to not making it! Shelly speculated that the hard rains of the last few days could have caused the momma cat to head for higher grounds, and abandon one of her litter to save the others.

Where the deer and the antelopes and the kitty cats roam

Shelly and Anna acted quickly! They scooped her up and got her into the local veterinarian’s office back in Shenandoah. The kind vet took her in and started her on a bottle immediately, the prognosis was good, but would they be able to take little Sidney back to Utah with them?

With little time to waste, they were back on the road to Randolph where they found that great strides had been made in the humane care of the local companion animals. They met with Mayor Trively, who confirmed that other communities in the area were contacting him to find out more about TNR and how spay neuter could help them. He has been raving about how Best Friends has helped him get the stray and nuisance animal population under control. He also mentioned that he has been corresponding regularly with the Mayor of Red Oak on how they too can start a program!

Mayor Trively talks TNR with Best Friends

A Man With A Plan
Mayor Trively, who at one point was besieged with thousands of angry letters about the “cat bounty” was pleased to say that he had received over $300 in donations to help with the TNR program. Since Best Friends had underwritten the project thus far, he wanted to donate the money to Best Friends. Best Friends has encouraged the Mayor to start his own fund to help get the companion animals spayed and neutered as needed going forward. Anna and Shelly are looking into which local veterinarian clinic would be most suited to help facilitate the program into the future and beyond!

Shelly’s new assistant helps with the program, dictation is a snap without ear mites!

In under 2 months time, the Best Friends team has made sure all the cats of proper age and weight have been spayed/neutered and the future is looking mighty good for the companion animals of this agricultural town! The Best Friends team will be going back in 6 weeks for a follow up, which will include getting the mature kittens in for surgeries and a weekend seminar. Following the lead of the Catnippers model, the seminar will include an in depth look at what makes a TNR program successful and a hands-on session with best practices and a trouble shooting Q+A. Giving the town the tools they need to keep up the good work!

What About Sidney?
Well, that’s great for the town of Randolph, but what about Sidney? Good news! She was able to be transported on their flight back to Utah in her new pink carrier right on Shelly’s lap! She’s in foster care right now, where she is receiving around the clock attention! She may have to lose a paw due to an injurious umbilical accident, but she’s doing great and feeling in the pink!

Sidney’s in good hands now

3 Ways You Can Help!
1. Like what you see? It ain’t free! Support the Best Friends Randolph Rescue Fund, click here.

2. Join the Best Friends Feral Cat Community to get the latest news on the cats we love! Actionable items guaranteed!

3. Learn about how you can help the free roaming cats of your community! Click here for resources.

by Denise LeBeau, Best Friends staff
images by Anna Gonce, Best Friends staff

Comments

Posted May 16, 2008, 2:50PM by felis_sapien

Good going, Shelly and Mayor Trively!

This is such good news. And you go little, Sidney, you're in good hands now.

Posted May 27, 2008, 8:44PM by rescuerCalifornia

Many thanks to TNRdoesn'twork; The website you posted is downright laughable. The obvious mistakes and easily proven inaccurate statements on the website are too numberous to count like the first one mentioned (was this supposed to be the strongest of your points?) saying feral cats must be good bird hunters since they can catch rodents pretty well. Any person with an ounce of intelligence can see how difficult it is for a cat to catch a bird compared to it running down a mouse or rat on the ground. I've seen my cats catch many mice but can't catch a bird to save their life. I am one of many thousands, maybe millions, of people who have seen first hand TNR reducing colony sizes as well as eliminating or dramatically reducing public complaints about the cats which trap and kill may only do temporarily at best. Trap and removal will just allow new unaltered cats to move in and they will bring all the problems of unneutered cats with them. When I volunteered at my shelter we would see the same people bringing in trapped cats for euthanasia. If trap and kill really had any effect these same people wouldn't have kept coming back with more cats. You also can't argue the fact that TNR is less costly to the taxpayers. And you can't argue that the way we got in this mess in the first place is the disposable attitude people have had about animals in the past. So using the barbaric trap and kill method in communities will just further this disposable mentality and won't offer any longterm solutions to problems related to either feral or owned cats. I see the only people believing in your cracked propaganda are bird lovers who are more than happy to kill cats even though it would make little difference at all in the bird population and also people who don't have any experience using TNR and believe just about anything they read on the internet.

Posted May 16, 2008, 11:44AM by TNRdoesNotWork

http://www.tnrrealitycheck.com/

Posted May 28, 2008, 12:38PM by Joy

Shelly sent me this photo and I just had to share. It's so precious! Shelly's dog Rocky just loves Sidney.

Posted May 28, 2008, 1:11PM by katheriner

Sidney's getting so big! Awesome photo; thanks for sharing.

Posted May 16, 2008, 3:0PM by Fletch

Keep us informed and hang in there Sidney

Posted June 09, 2008, 2:4AM by TNRdoesNotWork

rescuerCalifornia - so glad you are easily amused, but I don't see you easily disproving anything on that website. The stated goal of TNR has little to do with reducing nuisance complaints and much to do with eliminating colonies or significantly reducing them - neither of which happens. Trap and remove does work when the food source is removed. TNR is a perpetual cycle. The difference is, in TNR, those cats that evade capture are fed and better able to breed and to hunt. What colonies have you elimated through TNR? TNR contributes to that disposable attitude because cats are re-abandoned outdoors. We cannot successfully convince people to be responsible pet owners, to spay and neuter their pets and keep them under control if we say that some cats can and should live and die outside in cat colonies.

Apparently, you are quite unfamiliar with the many organizations that do not endorse TNR. When you have time to do some homework and actually look into the science, then we can talk. Until then, I am laughing, too.

Posted June 23, 2008, 6:40PM by mytwocats

hey girls!!!GREAT JOB!!!She is soooocute!!!What color is she???And how is she doing now???mytwocats

Posted June 23, 2008, 7:1PM by carrie_fosters

mytwocats - Sidney is being followed in the Guardian Angel program. Click here for her latest update.

Posted May 15, 2008, 10:5PM by mimi

That's pretty perspecacious peepers Shelly and Anna have. To have spotted such a tiny, road-colored kitty...well, someone apparently wanted this kitty to have a little help. Well done!