Dozens of cats have a new lease on life thanks to the Okanagan Humane Society stepping in to help an Osoyoos property inundated with them.
Last August the rescue program stepped in to help out with a property that had a large group of cats and kittens that came from their next doors neighbours and had multiplied.
While there have been cases of hoarding animals throughout the province, OHS said it was not the case here. Rather the property owners inherited them from the neighbour's place and called in the rescue when they realized how many cats had settled in.
OHS volunteer Darlene Hillson took charge of the project to help to catch the cats and get their health looked after, along with spaying or neutering.
"As we got involved, initially, we thought we were involved for about 10 to 12 cats, and these are all basically feral animals, so not socialized and not easily re-homed or handled for that matter. And as we got into it, we found out that there were actually a lot more animals there," board president Romany Runnalls said.
"To finish up finally, after about four months of working in this colony, we ended up with fixing 24 adult cats and about 28 or so kittens. Almost every cat was also very sick, which is, unfortunately, the way it goes with a lot of these stray cats and feral cat colonies."
Many of the cats were dealing with upper respiratory infections and had to be treated with antibiotics before they can go undergo surgery for being spayed or neutered.
Several cats also had severe infections in their eyes and a few of them had to have one eye enucleated.
Since then, all the kittens were fostered. spayed or neutered, and then adopted out.
In total, the rescue cost roughly $30,000.
"That's at special rates that our veterinarians give us as well. So we're very fortunate otherwise, these colonies, we just wouldn't even be able to get into them if we didn't have our veterinary partners able to give good rates and have their doors wide open to us on a moment's notice when we do have these animals coming in as well," Runnalls added.
Since the OHS relies on support from the community, receiving no government or municipal funding, keeping donations coming in is their lifeline.
"We do get a few small grants for rescue projects. But we are basically month to month, we have to have donations flowing in every month in order to keep on going otherwise, we can't do it.
"We have a whole year ahead of us. We've got colonies all over the valley that have been reported to us even last year that we're waiting to mobilize on."
The society has been overwhelmed with requests and is trying its best to keep up.
Runnalls said they've asked for help from other rescues, but their work on feral cat colonies is less of a priority.
"Any animal that suffering out there, we feel as a priority to relieve that by fixing the situation, stop the breeding, get them fixed up, get them off to homes and moving on to the next colony," she added.
"We don't like to see animals breeding and having difficult lives in the Okanagan. Otherwise, you see them freezing in the winter, overheating and dying of this and that in the summer."
The foundation of what the Humane Society is for Runnalls has been to try to minimize the number of animals that are suffering in the valley.
Runnalls urges everyone to get their animals fixed.
To find out more about the Okanagan Humane Society, or to donate, visit their website here.
