I'm moving, help!

I was speaking to a feeder this morning who has told me that she needs to move out of her flat because her CPF funds have dried up and she needs to downgrade. She will be moving to a slightly smaller flat.

The problem is that she now has dozens of cats and she doesn't know what to do with them. She called up to ask what to do.

I asked her where the cats came from. Some have medical conditions, others she picked up during SARS, and yet others she picked up because people abandoned them. She complained that people kept throwing cats out despite her picking the kittens up and bringing them home. She wanted to call and ask if there were caregivers who would take her cats into their colonies.

I told her that it is highly unlikely anyone can absorb her 'excess' cats so to speak. Most people are struggling, and even an increase of two or three cats will be very difficult for the caregivers. In addition, no one in her area really is a caregiver - she knows one other feeder who had never contacted the TC because the feeder says the officers keep changing and she does not know whom they are.

It's a difficult situation, and abandonment is an on-going problem. The problem also is that removing the abandoned cats doesn't help - because the people dumping very often keep the unsterilised parents and those cats continue to breed. In the end, people end up taking in too many. Unfortunately some like this woman run into unexpected situations like having to move and that makes it worse.