So Many Cats
Cat overpopulation is a problem right outside many area residents’ windows – and sometimes in their trash cans and flower beds. It's at their neighbors' houses, abandoned structures, apartment complexes and mobile home parks, in wooded areas and behind stores. It has implications for wildlife conservation. Free-roaming cats are both predator and prey in an ecosystem that isn't natural to them.
A pair of feral marmalade tabby cats sun on the trunk of a vehicle parked in a West Side Evansville alley Friday afternoon, March 18, 2022.
A feral cat meanders around his colony near Pigeon Creek in Evansville Tuesday afternoon, March 30, 2022. This long-time colony of feral cats has been around for probably two decades and a caregiver keeps them fed, watered and sheltered in old dog houses and cat carriers.
Vanderburgh Humane Society employee Mackenzee McKittrick gets eye-to-eye with five small kittens hiding in a mobile home park in Posey County, Ind., Friday morning, June 10, 2022. McKittrick would later return with cat traps to capture the feral adults and older kittens to perform TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) before returning them to the same area they were trapped.
A litter of feral kittens and nurse near the steps of a vacant mobile home at a mobile home park in Posey County, Ind., Friday morning, June 10, 2022. The kittens used the small openings in the steps to take shelter when any humans got too close.
Tracy Allin with Feline Fix hauls a cat trap to set up in an upstairs apartment in Evansville Tuesday evening, April 26, 2022. They were trying to catch a pregnant cat who wasn't willing to make herself available. Feline Fix practices Trap-Neuter-Return to control the overpopulation of cats in the area and was successful in capturing the cat later that night.
A juvenile cat voices its displeasure of being in one of Feline Fix's cat traps outside an Evansville home Tuesday evening, April 26, 2022. Feline Fix practices Trap-Neuter-Return to control the overpopulation of cats in the area.
Feline Fix workers Tracy Allin, left, and Jamie Taylor take cats to their vehicles after gathering them from an Evansville home Tuesday evening, April 26, 2022. Feline Fix practices Trap-Neuter-Return to control the overpopulation of cats in the area.
Maddi Hargett applies dilute epinephrine to the ear of a cat who had just gone through ear-tipping at the Davidson Rausch Spay and Neuter Clinic at the Vanderburgh Humane Society Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 25, 2022.
Dr. Laura Molinet, left, finishes a spay/neuter procedure as Maddi Hargett checks on post-operative patients at the David Rausch Spay and Neuter Clinic at the Vanderburgh Humane Society Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 25, 2022.
Morgan Ward, a kitten foster for New Hope Animal Rescue in Henderson, Ky., bottle-feeds a kitten at her Evansville home Monday afternoon, April 25, 2022. Ward is fostering seven kittens of varying ages.
"Public Vet" Dr. Tess Peavy of Bloomington, Ind., far left, works with her three sons, Job Armendariz, second left, Elijah Armendariz, far right, and Gabriel Armendiraz, not pictured, at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Fairgrounds Activities Center Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. The traveling spay/neuter clinic saw 68 cats and four dogs on this particular day.
Job Armendariz of Bloomington, Ind., tattoos a cat's belly after it had been spayed by "Public Vet" at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Fairgrounds Activities Center Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. The tattoo alerts others that the cat has already been spayed so it doesn't mistakenly have to go through the process again.