Neighborhood Cat Advocates

Facebook friends - we need your help! Our voucher program through PawPrints Thrift Boutique is trying to assist a community member in getting a few rabbits spayed and neutered, and we had no idea that it was so expensive!! Does anyone have any suggestions of a local vet that can spay/neuter rabbits at a price that won’t break the bank? Thank you!

We were so sad today to say goodbye to our great friend and amazing cohort-in-cat-adventures Louise. Louise was a founding member of Neighborhood Cat Advocates in 2012. She was a board member from the very beginning, a cat trapper, and an absolutely tireless volunteer at PawPrints Thrift Boutique. She shares her final resting place with her wonderful husband Richard, who was also a big supporter of NCA. And their headstone has a cat on it! ... Goodbye Louise and thank you for everything you did for cats and the people who love them. WE LOVE YOU!

This is our eighth summer of operations, and unfortunately as usually happens in the summer, it is absolutely miserable times. We don’t have enough trapping volunteers, our main source of funding (the amazing PawPrints Thrift Boutique) was closed for 3 months, and worst of all is the scarcity of vet appointments. During the week of June 29, we have 6 spay/neuter appointments available to us. During the week of June 23, we received calls for help for over 40 cats. What can ...be done? If you’ve called us for help and we haven’t called you back, hang in there or call us again. If you’re feeding the cats, continue to feed them. If you’re not feeding the cats, it is vital that you either find out where they’re eating or start to feed them yourself (it is impossible to trap feral cats unless you have control over the food source). Also, please check out our webpage at www.neighborhoodcatadvocates.com to find out what we do and don’t do. We can’t relocate or find homes for adult feral cats, and yelling at our volunteers when told that’s not what we do doesn’t help anyone. Summer is always very difficult for TNR groups. We’ll get through this.

The last time we saw Dr. Dawn was at All About Pets Veterinary Hospital on June 8, when she spayed and neutered 15 feral cats for us. The last thing she said to us was Call us if you have trouble finding appointments and we’ll help. The greatest thing that a vet could say to a TNR cat trapping group. Dr. Dawn was an amazing friend to all animals and the people who love them. She did so much to help the neediest animals in town. We are so saddened by the loss of this amazing lady.

Neighborhood Cat Advocates needs your help now more than ever. Our main funding source of income is from our thrift store, PawPrints Thrift Boutique on 1360 East First Avenue in Chico. With COVID-19 concerns, we made the tough decision to close the store until further notice. Meanwhile, we still get frantic calls asking for help to trap and get their outdoor cats spayed and neutered to prevent unwanted kittens. This time of year is the worst time to run out of money as many ...cats are getting pregnant, producing unwanted and homeless kittens. Donating now will enable Neighborhood Cat Advocates (NCA) to continue its outstanding Trap-Neuter-Return program! Neighborhood Cat Advocates is a program under its umbrella organization, Companion Animal Welfare Alliance, and responds to calls within 20 miles of Chico. Since 2013 we have spayed and neutered over 8,000 feral cats! Our work is SO IMPORTANT, and we have assisted so many of you out there. If we don't reach out and ask for help, the trap/neuter/return program may not survive during these uncertain times. Our fundraising goal is $5,000. If you can't contribute, that's okay as many people are struggling now! ***But please do share*** our plea for help. It costs us about $50 for each cat we get spayed or neutered. The more support we receive, the more animals we can help. And thank you! Your support means so much to us, and it means the WORLD to all of those cats we help.

Hi NCA fans! We are just reaching out to remind you that we are still looking for volunteer trappers! Our TNR efforts are on temporary hold while we search for volunteers. Are you interested? Please drop us a line! It is difficult but rewarding work! We will guide you through the entire process until you are comfortable and ready to get going on your own. Please share this too so we can reach more people. Thank you!

Hello NCA fans! You may recall our previous post announcing we would be putting our TNR efforts on hold due to lack of volunteer trappers and lack of affordable veterinary appointments. The good news is, we are able to schedule regular appointments during the week. Yay! The bad news? We have no trappers! That's where you come in. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer trapper, please call our hotline at (530) 324-2292. Please know that trapping requires a lot of work a...nd planning.Traps are set in the evening, monitored, and the cats are tucked away for their appointments the next morning. The cats then need to be taken to one of the designated veterinarians around town, then picked up when they are ready. The cats need to be housed somewhere safe and warm overnight while they recuperate from surgery, then released back to their colony the next morning. Traps also need to be cleaned after each use. You should be able-bodied and physically able to lift traps up to 25 lbs. Reliable transportation is a must! Becoming a trapper is a commitment but it is so rewarding knowing you are making a HUGE difference! We will provide the traps and will give you all the training you need so you are ready to take on your first colony. Please give us a call if you are interested. We really want to continue our efforts but we can't do it without your help! Please share far and wide. Thank you!

Hi everyone, Due to lack of trapping volunteers and lack of affordable vet appointments, sadly we must (hopefully temporarily) suspend our trapping efforts. We receive dozens of calls a week asking for our help and we just simply cannot handle it right now. We ask that you contact us if you'd like trapping advice; we can give you valuable tips and we can also help cover the cost. It will be up to you to trap, deliver to the vet for surgery, and return the cat where you trappe...d him/her. If you are interested in becoming a trapping volunteer, great! However, we are unable to find veterinarians willing to work with us to provide affordable, heck even actual appointments. This has become beyond frustrating for us. Trust us - this was not an easy decision to make! We are sorry to suspend our efforts but without appointments we are not able to move forward with any trapping at this time. Thank you for understanding. Your friendly Neighborhood Cat Advocates volunteers

It's been a difficult summer for Neighborhood Cat Advocates, and in this, our seventh summer of operations, we know to expect an overwhelming number of calls for help every summer. But right now, we are experiencing difficulties with finding vet appointments at a level that has reached crisis proportions. Even though we have adequate funding from our AMAZING thrift store, PawPrints Thrift Boutique, we just can't find enough spay/neuter appointments to keep up with the dema...nd. As a result so we cannot respond to requests nearly as fast as we would like. The situation is frustrating for you and for us but please know that we are responding to calls as fast as we can despite our limited vet appointments. If you've called our helpline (530-324-2292) or emailed us for help and you haven't heard anything back, please contact us in early September. It’s VERY hard times for NCA. We ask for your understanding at this time.

AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION!!! HEALTHY, SPAYED/NEUTERED/VACCINATED KITTENS. Contact Armeda at (530) 321-5923 for more info. We here at Neighborhood Cat Advocates say it over and over we don’t rehome or relocate cats. We just do TNR. But! All of our volunteers are people who LOVE cats, and when they encounter kittens that are facing a feral life unless they’re rescued, our volunteers sometimes are able to bring the kittens to their homes, foster them, and find them loving ho...mes. It’s one of the hazards of being a TNR volunteer! With that in mind, please check out these kitten cuties that were rescued by NCA trapping volunteer and president Armeda she is amazing!! It’s not an official function of NCA, but Armeda has a huge heart for the kitties and couldn’t leave these littles behind. If you or someone you know are looking for a new feline family member, please consider these kittens! They are all spayed/neutered, up to date with shots, healthy, and friendly! An adoption fee of $40 covers all of the medical care they’ve received so far. To meet or get more information about any of these kittens, call or text Armeda at (530) 321-5923. If you’re not looking to adopt now, please share?

Hello, cats and kittens! To anyone who is new to our page, we need to remind and reiterate that we are a volunteer group that does trap, spay/neuter, and return of feral and unowned cats. We don’t have the ability to relocate or adopt out cats, no matter how friendly and sweet they are. We don’t have a physical location - we are all volunteers who work out of our houses. Here are snippets from some of the messages we’ve gotten lately:... I need someone to come out and get this cat picked up as soon as possible. These cats need loving homes, and they deserve some care. Someone needs to come out and get them. I can’t have these cats here. Unfortunately I cannot keep her. I would be able to take the cat to your facility anytime. It sounded like you said you return the cats. I'm trying to get them not returned. These are the hardest calls to return. We agree that all cats need loving homes and need to be cared for. But - our goal is to try to reduce the severe overpopulation of unowned cats in our community. We can’t relocate cats. What we can do is get them spayed or neutered, with the understanding that the cats will be returned to where they were trapped. We work only on private property with written permission from the property owners. Please see our webpage at www.neighborhoodcatadvocates.com for more information about what we do, and why we do it.

Hi NCA fans and non-fans, volunteer Shelly here. I'm a volunteer trapper and also the phone volunteer. This is the time of year when I'm talking to LOTS of people about kittens...lots of angry, or at least highly irritated people, who are upset that NCA can't help with socializing/fostering/rehoming kittens and adult cats. I decided to write a timeline of what the logistics of TNR look like, and why it's time consuming and requires every ounce of our volunteering energy. H...Continue reading

Oh my goodness. Kitten season is definitely here. And according to many reports, the population of Chico has increased by 20% after the Camp Fire that may explain why we are getting more phone calls for help than we ever have in our seven year history. If you have called our helpline at (530) 324-2292 and haven’t received a call back, please call us again. If you’ve called twice, please call us again. If you’ve called five times and we haven’t called you back, call us again. We know that we are missing calls, but it is impossible to keep up with the demand for help right now. Also, please keep in mind that our volunteers have jobs, families, and try to conduct some semblance of a life outside of volunteering for Neighborhood Cat Advocates. It’s always an adventure!

There are many things about TNR that are difficult, and one of the hardest things is how scared the cats are during the entire process. For most of the cats that we help, it’s the first time they’ve been in a car - how terrifying! Add to that their time in the trap, the vet’s office, housing at the volunteer’s house...it’s a very scary time for these poor cats. That’s why the cats’ return home makes us so happy! Pictured is this big guy right before his freedom ride back home this morning - his ear is tipped, he’s neutered, he ate his breakfast, and now it’s time to go home.