It's almost impossible to love your own cats without wanting to help other cats. It's just in our nature. It doesn't take away anything from our own cats, and makes us grateful to have them.
Ways to Help Other Cats
- Volunteer at a Shelter
Shelters and Sanctuaries are always in need of volunteers, and the work can be rewarding, if heartbreaking at times. Volunteers may clean cages, do laundry, play with kittens, or hold, cuddle, or brush older cats. In short-staffed or busier shelters, you may even help with adoption paperwork. The biggest danger may be that you'll end up adopting another cat or more. But our bond with our cats is not threatened by caring for other cats. - Join a Cat Rescue Group
If you have only one cat at home, you may want to try fostering another cat. A lot will depend on both you and your cat, as you don't want to threaten her security if having other cats come and go cause her stress. An alternative would be to help out at Adoption Day Events, routinely done on weekends at participating pet stores, such as PetSmart. - Join a TNR Group
Except for spay/neutering our own cats, TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return groups are the best way to help overcome the over-population problem of feral and stray cats. TNR groups feed feral colonies to help earn their trust. Cats are then trapped and taken to participating veterinarians, for spay or neuter, testing for FIV and FeLv, and given the Core Vaccines. The cat's ear is then "tipped," i.e., a small triangular piece is snipped off to let other TNR folks know that cat has already been trapped. The cats are then returned to the feral colony. Alley Cat Allies is an outstanding group with loads of educational material about TNR.
