Feral Cat Solutions

By Janet Vormittag

Most retirees enjoy traveling, grandkids and sunny days in southern states during the winter months. Not Maureen Herendeen. When the Grand Rapids woman retired from nursing in 2020, she decided to advocate for community cats in Kent County.

“I like the challenge of it,” she said.

Maureen has a passion for cats, especially outside cats. She believes in trap-neuter-return (TNR) and in July 2022 she turned her passion into Feral Cat Solutions, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Her goal is to get feral cats neutered/spayed and to get friendly cats off the streets.

Over the years, Maureen has volunteered for several cat rescues including Carol’s Ferals. When Carol’s closed, Maureen continued TNR on her own. She approached Kent County Animal Shelter and asked if they could help with the spay/neuter surgeries of cats she trapped.

“I couldn’t ask for more cooperation from them,” she said. The shelter has a staff veterinarian and a grant to help cover surgery costs. They’re able to give Maureen 16 surgical appointments each week.

People with outside cats who need to be fixed can contact Maureen. She loans traps and people are expected to do their own trapping. She will help trap for seniors and disabled people.

Trapping is scheduled for five days each week. When the cats are caught, they’re taken to Maureen’s home in northeast Grand Rapid and she transports them to surgery. She has ten cages in her garage where cats stay before and after surgery. “It’s an elaborate dance of a schedule.”

When there is a need, Maureen also uses local veterinarians who offer discounted spay/neuter services.

If there are kittens who can be socialized and adopted to inside homes, Maureen finds them a foster home. The same goes for adult cats who appear to be friendly.

In 2022, Maureen had 534 cats and kittens spayed/ neutered. Of those, 329 were placed in local adoption programs including those at Second Chance Cats, Crash’s Landing, Kent County Animal Shelter and the Humane Society of West Michigan.

Maureen is an action person. “I move at warp speed,” she said. “I do all the interacting with trappers, planning, collecting the cats, caring for the cats and transporting.”

Maureen gets a lot of help from fellow cat advocate Lynnette Wieck, who has also volunteered for numerous rescues over the years.

Lynnette is laid-back, detail oriented and spends a ton of time doing behind-the-scenes work. She also feeds feral cat colonies several days a week.

Maureen has a network of rescues and fosters who help as needed. “I love all the people I meet in animal welfare. There are so many awesome generous people. It’s so satisfying.”

When she can’t find fosters for adult cats, Maureen puts the cat in her Socialization Boot Camp, which means she lets the cats loose in her house and gives them time to become friendly. “It can take a long time, but it’s so rewarding. I feel like I won the lottery when they let me pet them.”

Besides being a lot of work, helping cats is a big expense. There are intake fees for cats accepted into adoption programs, veterinarian expenses, and the cost of supplies including live traps. Occasionally, Maureen will do a fundraiser on Facebook, but when donations don’t cover the expenses she opens her own wallet.

Often Maureen sees people willing to feed cats and even provide them shelter, but they don’t get the cats fixed. “Spay/neuter costs money,” she said.

Maureen has a wait list of people needing help.

“It’s astonishing how many starving cats there are—in parking lots, abandoned buildings, yards.”

Maureen no longer wants to hear sad stories. She’s more than willing to help but doesn’t have the heart to hear depressing stories involving cats. “It hurts my soul,” she said. Some of things she has witnessed haunt her.

“Hearing a tragic story doesn’t compel me anymore,” she said.

Unfortunately, there are some folks who don’t want to do the work involved with TNR. Maureen said she’s heard many excuses of why people can’t trap.

“People can be so disrespectful. They don’t understand we do this for free,” she explained.

Lynnette agreed. “It’s not fun. It’s a need. It’s our choice to help animals.”

As much as Maureen, Lynnette and other rescues have done, the calls for help haven’t slowed down. “It’s discouraging not to see an end in sight,” Maureen said.

If you need help with outside cats contact Feral Cats Solutions through their Facebook page. You can also call the Kent County Animal Shelter for a referral.