The History & The Need
(scroll below for photos of the cats!)
In the spring of 2022, we moved The Garden Lab to a more secure location in our (then) neighborhood, and as we spent more time in the garden, we noticed how many stray and community cats would come by to visit.
We have always been a church community focused on feeding people while growing food in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, and at that point, we noticed that many of these cats, because of the economic hardships being faced in the neighborhood, were not being well-fed, nor were they getting spayed/neutered and vaccinated. While there are some forms of food assistance for people, there is much less help available for folks' pets. Because we have many cat lovers in this church community, a couple of them stepped up and offered to send us food for the cats, as well as money to get them spayed/neutered and vaccinated. The latter being important because with too many cats in a neighborhood, the birds and other small animals are at risk of being over-hunted. What started with feeding one cat slowly turned into two, three, and then as many as five cats. Over time we got them all spayed and neutered, and for the cats that we determined did not, in fact, belong to anyone, we took them in in order to foster them, and in the end, a few became permanently homed with us.
In the summer of 2023, we (the church founders) moved to Kansas to start our expanded Garden Lab program (and second church location) on donated land, and similarly to the Indianapolis location, we noticed this neighborhood has an extensive cat population with similar economic challenges. We began feeding a girl cat here, and before we had a chance to get her spayed, she gave birth to three kittens. She brought them to us when they were about 8 weeks old, and at that point we got her spayed, then all three of her kittens, and when we built up enough trust with him, we got the much more feral 'dad' cat neutered, as well. These cats remain outdoors, as we do not have the capacity to bring anymore indoors ourselves, and we have not yet been able to find others to foster/adopt them. They are, however, continuing to be well-fed and cared for, including any vet visits if they get sick or injured. This is only possible due to the generosity of our community cat-lovers! In the spring of 2024, an additional boy cat joined the neighborhood cat pride, and he, too, has now been neutered and vaccinated.
As of June 2024, we have reached our limit of how many we can support with our current generous donors, and so we are reaching out for additional support because a new mama cat just showed up with her four kittens! We will need to get all of them spayed and neutered, and hopefully find new homes for them (as it appears they are strays). We will be creating an amazon wish list for supplies, and in the meantime, you may send cash donations for vet costs via our donation page! Thank you so much to all existing and future donors who make this Meownistry possible!
