A Message to Our Volunteers

Dear KittiCo Volunteers:

This is an update on KittiCo's recent decision to redirect our mission by phasing out our foster care and adoption program in order to completely focus on spay neuter and trap/neuter/return (TNR) of feral cats. We are associating with experienced groups that specialize in foster and adoption, and will offer adoptions on that basis from now on. Please contact Leigh Sessler 214-766-6741 if you have any questions. At the present, KittiCo will have a daily presence at the PetCo Store in Dallas at 5301 Belt Line Road, Suite 106, Dallas, Texas 75254, near the intersection of Montfort (972-788-0460).

While we initially anticipated that we would significantly minimize any involvement in adoption events – and still anticipate that these activities will not be as routine as before – store managers have encouraged us to remain, and are willing to work with us on a collaborative basis. As our spay neuter and TNR programs move to the forefront, we will inevitably find cats that need homes. Therefore, we will continue to support pet stores that have worked with us in the past as we work collaboratively with other groups to offer joint adoption events.

Although there are many groups in the Dallas Fort Worth area doing rescue and adoption work, KittiCo is one of the few groups in the area pursuing TNR and spay/neuter on a large scale. In 2007, over 7,000 cats have been spayed/neutered at the KittiCo clinic. And recent statistics are showing a noticeable reduction in the number of cats taken in by Dallas Animal Services, and this new evidence has helped KittiCo validate the decision to redirect our mission.

This past June, KittiCo posted a notice on our website relating to the plan to phase out our foster care and adoption program. The time has now come to implement this decision. At this time, we ask that all volunteers currently fostering cats and/or kittens contact Katherine Hall within the next 2 weeks By Nov. 27 th 2007) to let her know if you want to bring in your fosters to the designated KittiCo representative or if you intend to make your own adoption arrangements. You may reach her by either calling 214-826-6903 ext 1 or e-mailing her at surrender.foster@yahoo.com. We would very much appreciate your letting us know your intent. If you choose not to contact KittiCo by Nov.28, 2007, we will assume you have elected to either keep your fosters until you adopt them out or that you have made arrangements with another organization.

This is also to let you know that KittiCo no longer has mobile adoptions at this time. Cat adoptions will be available from the permanent store locations listed above during the stores' normal operating hours.

This is also to inform you that KittiCo's responsibilities under our adoption agreements regarding cats previously adopted have not changed. KittiCo recognizes there will continue to be situations where a previously adopted cat is returned by the new owner. No cat or kitten in KittiCo's possession will be left without a route to a new home.

For all of you who have volunteered under KittiCo's foster care and adoption program, I thank you for all of your work, dedication and time spent doing all the things it takes to find rescued cats and kittens loving homes including fostering, working at KittiCo's mobile adoptions, screening potential adopters, feeding bottle babies, and nursing sick and injured cats back to health.

On behalf of KittiCo Cat Rescue, I thank you.

Sincerely,

Angie Thomas
Executive Director

CHANGES IN OPPORTUNITIES, CHANGES IN FOCUS

This is an important announcement about a change in KittiCo? mission and direction.

Over the past nine years, through dedicated volunteers and staff, KittiCo? mission has been to help homeless and unwanted cats through both spay neuter programs and foster care/adoptions. Our programs for Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) and low income spay neuter have placed steadily increasing demands on KittiCo for spay neuter services. To help meet this need, two and a half years ago KittiCo set up a mobile clinic in a converted recreational trailer to sterilize cats and kittens coming through the KittiCo system. The volume of cats treated (over 12,000 in two years) wore out the mobile clinic, requiring us to open a permanent clinic location in 2006. This clinic, in turn, very quickly required expansion, which is nearing completion thanks to funding for that purpose.

Currently, in addition to our ongoing programs, we are operating a project underwritten by PetsMart Charities and the George & Fay Young Foundation to provide spay neuter services for cats in 14 City of Dallas zip codes with the largest population of low-income residents. In addition, following two years of effort by our organization and others, we were successful in helping convince the City of Dallas to amend its municipal ordinances to exempt caregivers of feral cat colonies from municipal leash laws. The change in this ordinance is a major step in improving the conditions of homeless and feral cats in the City of Dallas. (read more about this in a letter from the City of Dallas) We are now offering the City of Dallas revised ordinance as a model for similar changes in other cities throughout Texas. All of these efforts now allow us to spay neuter as many cats each year as were treated during our first five years.

The very hard work of our volunteers and staff has directly helped reduce the number of cats in North Texas, and we believe that no other group in Texas is working so extensively to implement TNR programs for homeless cats. Now it is time for the next step.

During the past year, a major underwriter approached KittiCo to help fund a four-year program designed to spay neuter and vaccinate 45,000 cats, primarily in the North Texas area. This grant will fund the purchase of a heavy duty, ambulance-style vehicle, the attached modular body, and finish out the vehicle and body with insulation, climate control equipment, and a back-up generator to insure the ability to maintain even temperature and lighting within the body of the vehicle. We will be able to transport 100+ cats to our clinic from a 100 mile radius of Dallas and Fort Worth. This is an important area, and we already have clients driving long distances to reach our services. (See list below) The grant will also fund purchase of veterinary equipment which can be transported in the vehicle to outlying areas where the vehicle will become the central element of a ?ASH type temporary clinic. Our expanded permanent clinic along with the new mobile clinic will significantly increase the effectiveness of ours pay neuter work, including our TNR programs and our spay neuter program for Dallas residents living in low-income zip code areas. This will allow us to reduce suffering for more of the homeless cats that many of our neighbors are unable to help, and will allow us to provide more help for elderly, disabled and low-income residents who normally do not have access to a veterinarian.

To date, KittiCo has done well at managing two kinds of services, the spay neuter and the foster care/adoption programs However, we are essentially the only group pursuing such large scale Trap Neuter and Return programs in Texas. While some of our volunteers dedicate their time to helping both adoptable cats (through rescue, foster care, and adoption) and feral cats (through Trap, Neuter, and Return), it has become increasingly difficult for KittiCo as an organization to focus attention everywhere. After much careful consideration, we have determined that the success of expanding the spay neuter programs requires the focus of our resources strictly on these.

As a result KittiCo will begin winding down our foster care and adoption program. At the end of the transition period, KittiCo? direct role in administering foster care and adoption will come to an end. Instead, we will enter into a relationship with a group, separate from KittiCo, that primarily focuses on helping adoptable cats and kittens. As part of this relationship, we will provide veterinary and other support through our clinics in exchange for our ?artner group? incorporation of KittiCo adoptables into their programs. Thus, two things will happen. First, adoptable cats and kittens currently in foster care through KittiCo will be transitioned into the system of a group or groups with whom we affiliate so that our current foster volunteers will have assistance if they so choose. Secondly, adoptable cats identified in connection with our continuing TNR and low cost programs in the future will be placed in the foster and adoption programs of our ?artner group. This arrangement will allow us to focus our efforts on TNR and low cost spay neuter while insuring that adoptable animals are not abandoned.

We believe that this step is necessary to the success of our expanded TNR and low income spay neuter programs, and will allow us to have the greatest impact in humanely controlling the population of homeless and unwanted cats. These are the cats in great need that both individuals and communities are often unable to help in large numbers. We are making plans to transition adoptable cats and kittens currently in foster care through KittiCo to be cared for through a new affiliate so that our current foster volunteers will have fostering and adoption assistance if they so choose. We will be posting more information on the details of this transition plan in the near future.

The success of our programs is a result of the dedication and hard work of our volunteers and staff. We could not have improved the lives of the many cats and kittens we have reached without them. We hope all who have a passion for animal welfare will wish us success and will join with us in this new chapter for KittiCo Cat Rescue.

Reviewing one six month period alone, we found that people from over 72 communities had driven cats for spay neuter at the KittiCo Cat Rescue Spay Neuter Clinic, coming from areas far and wide around Dallas and Forth, including:

1. Addison
2. Aledo
3. Allen
4. Alvardo
5. Alvord
6. Arlington
7. Azle
8. Balch Springs
9. Bedford
10. Benbrook
11. Ben Wheeler
12. Burleson
13. Canton
14. Carrollton
15. Cedar Hill
16. Cockrell Hill
17. Colleyville
18. Corinth
19. Cresson
20. Dallas
21. Denton
22. Edgewood
23. Ennis
24. Euless
25. Farmers Branch
26. Farmersville
27. Ferris
28. Fort Worth
29. Frisco
30. Fruitvale
31. Garland
32. Granbury
33. Grand Prairie
34. Grand Saline
35. Grapevine
36. Haltom City
37. Haslet
38. Heath
39. Highland Village
40. Hurst
41. Hutchins
42. Irving
43. Keller
44. Kopperl
45. Lakeside
46. Lancaster
47. Lewisville
48. McKinney
49. Mabank
50. Mansfield
51. Mesquite
52. North Richland Hills
53. Palestine
54. Plano
55. Prairieville
56. Quinlan
57. Red Oak
58. Richardson
59. River Oaks
60. Roanoke
61. Rockwall
62. Rowlett
63. Saginaw
64. Sanger
65. Scurry
66. Seagoville
67. Tolar
68. Van
69. Watauga
70. Waxahachie
71. Wills Point
72. Wylie