Feeding Stray Cats
Feeding a feral or stray cat comes from a place of compassion and concern for the cat’s well-being. But being a responsible feeder involves more than just putting food out and water. If you decide to feed feral or stray cats, it is your responsibility to ensure that they don’t multiply and contribute to overpopulation.
Left unaltered, free-roaming cats continue to reproduce, creating more homeless kittens and adding to the homeless cat population. Many often end up becoming feral (wild) themselves if not handled from birth, and the problem only escalates.
Regina Cat Rescue receives calls throughout the year; even more so in the late fall when people want assistance rescuing homeless cats from the street before winter. Our capacity to help, relies on volunteers, just like you!
What You Can Do
Build an insulated shelter and provide food and water. Water should be kept in heated bowls throughout the winter. Regina Cat Rescue has shelters available by donation. Email us to see if we have any available or make one yourself. There are ideas and instructions here. If you’re caring for an outdoor cat in winter find more winter care tips here.
Once the weather is conducive for trapping, these cats should be captured as soon as possible and spayed/neutered to prevent them from adding to the severe cat over-population problem. Recognizing the costs associated with a veterinary visit, there are a few options:
payment plans: some veterinarians offer financing
canvas the neighbourhood to see if others might be caring for, or interested in the well-being of feral or stray cats and pool together financial resources to alleviate the burden
request assistance of family and friends
start a fundraiser
the Regina Humane Society offers a subsidized spay/neuter program
If the cat is tame, you can utilize your personal networks to see if anyone is interested in adopting the cat. Share information about the cat on your social media accounts to reach a wider audience. Although it requires effort, helping a cat find a loving home is rewarding.
You could welcome a new family member by keeping the cat.
Read the complete list of How you Can Help Stray Cats
In Canada, there are an estimated 5.4 – 9.6 million free-roaming cats, with 1.5 – 4.1 million of these being feral or unowned.
What Regina Cat Rescue Can Do
Regina Cat Rescue (RCR) is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. Our programs include foster/adoption for tame stray cats, and community cat colonies for feral cats. To assist in helping abandoned and community cats in Regina, we offer:
Winter shelters available by donation, contact our Community Cats Team for availability
We may lend humane traps to responsible citizens
If the cat is tame, and is a candidate for adoption, our rescue team can assist. Fill out an intake form to help us assess and prioritize requests. Please note that Regina Cat Rescue does not operate a shelter location and we rely on volunteer foster homes to take in cats. Foster capacity remains very strained and we evaluate on a case-by-case basis dependent on available resources.
If the cat is feral, our community cat team can assist. Fill out an intake form to help us assess and prioritize requests.
Regina Cat Rescue's resources are limited, and the need is so great. For that reason, we strongly encourage citizens to facilitate the rescue and placement of needy cats they come across, and to take financial responsibility, even by fundraising among family and friends, to cover the associated sterilization costs. Again, we are more than happy to provide advice every step of the way.