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Half-a-dozen scraps of fluff might just be the tiny mascots of Ottawa’s massive LRT project but they’re definitely emblems, however adorable, of a population of stray and feral cats that’s gone off the rails, advocates say.
So young that they’ve just opened their eyes, the week-old kittens were rescued after being spotted with their mom, who’d hidden them beneath a construction trailer at the light rail project’s Cyrville Road site.
The kittens – three black, two brown tabbies and a calico – were discovered by workers on the project now keen to help name them.
“(The workers are) very excited and want to be involved,” foster mom Claire Castell said. “They’re being called the LRT litter.”
Castell, a volunteer with Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue, was called in Tuesday to help capture the frightened mother cat, using her kittens and food as bait in a homemade drop trap. She said the furry family was lucky to land a loving foster home until they can be adopted.
“They jumped the queue,” Castell said. “There are cats waiting, people with colonies at their home – we can’t get to them. It’s really sad. We don’t have enough foster homes, money and adopters. There are too many cats.
“We are hoping that this raises awareness of the problem.”
Veterinarian Katie Jones, the founder of Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue founder, hopes the attentions the LRT litter is getting will serve as a “wake-up call” to what is a too-often invisible problem of animal suffering, especially during Ottawa’s bitter winters.
The no-kill organization has so far fostered about 2,500 cats from the streets and found them new homes since 2011, entirely with volunteers.
But Jones is aware of 18 colonies of cats, ranging from five to 50 animals, living wild across the city.
“Ottawa has a huge problem with cats,” she said. “They’re all over our city. Because people don’t see them all the time, they’re hidden. We have these stray cats that reproduce. The problem is that people don’t spay and neuter their cats or they dump them outside and they get more and more wild.
“It’s the wild ones people don’t see.”
The group also monitors and feeds colonies of feral cats, who are first trapped, spayed or neutered and released. Other animals, that will likely never make good pets, are placed as barn cats with farmers.
Yet the group has to turn down daily requests for help from people who have strays or groups of strays around their homes because they don’t have enough resources. They need foster homes, money to spay and neuter cats and even farmers willing to house animals in their barns.
“It’s frustrating,” Jones said. “You think you’re making a dent then this is the worst summer since we started. This year, it feels like we’re not getting anywhere.”
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Humane Society says its shelter population is reaching “crisis levels.”
It issued an urgent plea for foster volunteers earlier this month when 70 animals were waiting for temporary homes. About 50 animals are arriving at the shelter every day, more than triple the number at other times of year.
Most of the animals needing foster homes are cats (and dogs) waiting for dental surgery, cats with respiratory infections and kittens being monitored for weight gain.
“These animals need caring people to give them temporary homes outside the shelter to become ready for adoption,” executive director Bruce Roney said. “Foster volunteers help save the lives of the most vulnerable animals. We couldn’t do it without them.”
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So young that they’ve just opened their eyes, the week-old kittens were rescued after being spotted with their mom, who’d hidden them beneath a construction trailer at the light rail project’s Cyrville Road site.
The kittens – three black, two brown tabbies and a calico – were discovered by workers on the project now keen to help name them.
“(The workers are) very excited and want to be involved,” foster mom Claire Castell said. “They’re being called the LRT litter.”
Castell, a volunteer with Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue, was called in Tuesday to help capture the frightened mother cat, using her kittens and food as bait in a homemade drop trap. She said the furry family was lucky to land a loving foster home until they can be adopted.
“They jumped the queue,” Castell said. “There are cats waiting, people with colonies at their home – we can’t get to them. It’s really sad. We don’t have enough foster homes, money and adopters. There are too many cats.
“We are hoping that this raises awareness of the problem.”
Veterinarian Katie Jones, the founder of Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue founder, hopes the attentions the LRT litter is getting will serve as a “wake-up call” to what is a too-often invisible problem of animal suffering, especially during Ottawa’s bitter winters.
The no-kill organization has so far fostered about 2,500 cats from the streets and found them new homes since 2011, entirely with volunteers.
But Jones is aware of 18 colonies of cats, ranging from five to 50 animals, living wild across the city.
“Ottawa has a huge problem with cats,” she said. “They’re all over our city. Because people don’t see them all the time, they’re hidden. We have these stray cats that reproduce. The problem is that people don’t spay and neuter their cats or they dump them outside and they get more and more wild.
“It’s the wild ones people don’t see.”
The group also monitors and feeds colonies of feral cats, who are first trapped, spayed or neutered and released. Other animals, that will likely never make good pets, are placed as barn cats with farmers.
Yet the group has to turn down daily requests for help from people who have strays or groups of strays around their homes because they don’t have enough resources. They need foster homes, money to spay and neuter cats and even farmers willing to house animals in their barns.
“It’s frustrating,” Jones said. “You think you’re making a dent then this is the worst summer since we started. This year, it feels like we’re not getting anywhere.”
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Humane Society says its shelter population is reaching “crisis levels.”
It issued an urgent plea for foster volunteers earlier this month when 70 animals were waiting for temporary homes. About 50 animals are arriving at the shelter every day, more than triple the number at other times of year.
Most of the animals needing foster homes are cats (and dogs) waiting for dental surgery, cats with respiratory infections and kittens being monitored for weight gain.
“These animals need caring people to give them temporary homes outside the shelter to become ready for adoption,” executive director Bruce Roney said. “Foster volunteers help save the lives of the most vulnerable animals. We couldn’t do it without them.”
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