Guidelines:
We need an intake sheet filled in and signed for each owner whose cats are brought. We need a separate vet card filled in for each cat that is brought. We need the zip code where the cat was trapped, not just where the trapper lives, and this should be written on both the intake sheet and the vet card. We supply intake sheets and vet cards at the Clinic, and they can also be downloaded from our website.
All cats sterilized at the Clinic are eartipped. This is approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association as a universally recognized signal that a cat has been fixed.
The only exception to this will be cats for whom a $55 donation is made to cover the subsidized cost of their surgery. When residents are able to make a donation in this amount, that demonstrates that they are able financially to care for the cat and keep it indoors.
Area shelters are filled with escaped and abandoned cats, and euthanize thousands each year. Eartipped cats, as recognizably sterilized cats, have an enhanced likelihood of survival since they can be adopted out as fixed cats and, if feral, can be safely released.
Anyone who transports 5 or more cats to the Clinic on a single day must notify KittiCo at 214-826-6903, ext 1 or 469-865-4438 twelve hours in advance and get permission. That person may be asked to bring the cats another day if the day they are coming is an especially high volume day.
We ask that people who can afford to make a donation please make a donation. No suppliers of veterinary medicines or instruments, and no veterinarians or veterinary technicians, work for free. Every one of them must be paid. The landlord, water and electric utilities, and all suppliers must be paid. We do fundraising and ask for grants to support our work, but no foundation or members of the public cover all our costs. We work hard to cover costs, asking for a donation of $55 per cat, which is a subsidized amount that and is less than our actual cost.
Area rescue groups may contact KittiCo to request our guidelines for working with them. We offer special discounted rates to these groups for each cat. Our mission of helping elderly, disabled, and low-income residents means that we help people, not groups. It is important to us to meet with our individual clients whenever possible because we ask even the indigent if they can contribute toward a cat's cost of surgery, and accept what they offer with gratitude. We have limited funds, which we must use for specific, funded programs; for training individuals and neighborhoods; purchasing humane traps; buying veterinary medicines, surgical instruments, rabies and other vaccines, and antibiotics; paying rent, electricity, and water bills; and being financially responsible for many other obligations.
Rescue groups that have people, volunteers, the ability to raise their own funds, and leadership have far more resources than elderly, disabled and low-income residents. We offer these groups a discounted rate because of economies of scale and hope you will be able to work with us in this way. If your group has not yet contacted us to work out an agreement, please visit with them about this, and ask if they'd like to email our Executive Director at exec_dir@kittico.org or call 214-826-6903, extension 4.
We are able to keep our doors open only by using a business model. We do not incur debt. Please be responsible if you are using our services and contribute what you can.
Before you come, check our website at www.kittico.org or call 214-826-6903, extension 2 to make sure the Clinic is open the day you want to come since the Clinic (on rare occasions) may be closed for bad weather or emergencies.
Services: Animals will be spayed or neutered. Along with a spay or neuter, each cat will receive a rabies vaccination (in accordance with age and health) and feral cats will have the ear tip notched. The ear notch is a universal sign that a cat has been fixed. Donations are requested from those people bringing in cats in carriers unless financial hardship exists.
Donations:
We greatly appreciate any donations. It costs KittiCo $55 per cat for this care and we have limited funds. Any amount helps us to help more cats and cut down on the number of feral and unwanted cats and kitten births. Please give donations (check/cash/credit card) to our volunteers at the drop off site, or mail a check or money order to: