No sense in sugar-coating it; the stray cat population in Rhode Island is out of control. Shelters are over-populated and the rescue groups are doing all they can to help cut down on feral cats multiplying non-stop. A female cat’s pregnancy only lasts about two months, and she gives birth to an average litter of four kittens. Within a few months, those kittens are able to reproduce and it starts the cycle all over again. And older cats can still get pregnant and produce a small litter. The number varies, but do the math: 4 kittens per litter, three times per year, for as long as that mama cat is alive and well… Then those babies can make babies.
Paws Watch, Rhode Island’s Volunteer Network For Feral Cats, has made it their mission to decrease the stray cat population in RI, and they constantly are educating the public on how easy it is to help.
Paws Watch was started in Newport in 1997 and has branched out across the Ocean State using only volunteers and donations. They are dedicated to improving the lives of community cats (feral, stray and abandoned) throughout RI, and all event proceeds go toward ongoing trap, neuter and release (TNR) efforts.
Dianne Lapointe is on the board of managers and has been dedicated to this cause for some time. She met Mike Greico Jr. while trapping feral cats at a condominium complex, and when he asked what she was doing, she explained. He wanted to build shelters on the property for the feral cats to survive the New England winter weather, but people wanted the cats out of the area. He had a nearby building that wasn’t being used and allowed her to use it for TNR efforts. That year, they saved 383 cats. The building was then leased and they had to continue their rescue work elsewhere. Soon after, a space opened up in a plaza on Route 44 in Johnston, and the inside was gutted and made suitable for Paws Watch. The Greico Automotive Group Community Cat Center was born, and Dianne and her volunteers are able to continue doing good for cats in need.
The new facility has seven rooms, including an intake room, food room, quarantine room and play rooms. Another organization, Scruffy Paws, also leases a space from Paws Watch. They are currently and constantly looking for volunteers. Volunteers are needed as fosters, cuddlers, construction and plumbing services, and the biggest need is finding a veterinarian to work with them. They also are looking for people with barns where they could release cats to for natural rodent control.
The cat center’s hope is that volunteer groups will come together in communities around the state. They can come to the center to learn how to properly and effectively trap the cats to be brought in for spaying, neutering and vaccinations before being released into their habitat again. Kittens and adult cats that were abandoned are often adopted out after being socialized, but they are not known as an adoption agency. They are still focused on catching the wild cats and fixing them to reduce the population and then releasing them again. If each community takes responsibility for their own cats, then the situation will be under control a lot sooner.
Paws Watch is also educating the public on how to help, whether by encouraging people not to abandon their cats, or to make sure they are spayed and neutered. They even teach people how to build a cat shelter for the outdoors for under $20 with minimal supplies so neighborhoods can care for the cat colonies and let them live out their lives with dignity once they have been fixed and released.
On October 16, 2019, Paws Watch will be recognized at the State House as a non-profit organization improving the lives of the community. And on October 18, an event called Cats Alive will be held at Harbour Lights in Warwick. Cats Alive is a silent auction to help the cause. and you can read more about that on the Paws Watch website or Facebook page.
Finally, Paws Watch would like to thank the Greico family for all of their help with this mission. For more information, pawswatch.org or communitycatcarecenter.com