
Among all the many projects we have going at the moment (including fostering a mom with her litter of kittens), we have a troubling situation afoot. Our long-standing feral Blue has been missing for several days. (more…)

I wasn't sure if this was actually going to air but it looks like our ferals will occupy some key footage in an upcoming episode of USA Network's "Character with a Cause." This show documents individuals who are making a difference with some sort of charitable work. The episode in question is all about Bryan Kortis, one of the founders of Neighborhood Cats, he's currently working for PetSmart Charities (who give tons of grants to animal rescue and TNR groups).
While of course entire feature films could be made about our back yard colony, in this case they're background players, "b-roll" footage to illustrate different kinds of managed colonies. As you might expect, in New York many colonies are in parking lots, boardwalks or in vacant plots, so they wanted to get some shots of cats who live in a backyard. Thanks to the recommendation of a friend, we were asked to use our yard and our cats!
The filming was a lot of fun, all we had to do is not feed the cats for one meal and they turned out in force when the cameras rolled. I'm not sure how much you'll see our gang in the finished product but in any case it was great to help out.
A few more photos here: Filming the ferals.
Update: Check out the finished promo at USA Network's site! You can see our cats at 9 seconds in and at 18 you see me skritching Motown's chin. I am unsure if this is the final piece or if there will be a longer version. I hope so, since there's lots more footage to show!

Moe, from the gene pool that brought you "Jake" and "Marbles"
Meet Moe. Because we're TNR-certified, we get email alerts when an eartipped cat comes into Animal Care & Control. Normally this happens when a person traps a feral cat and brings the cat to the pound. When they see the eartip, they know the cat is fixed and may belong to a managed colony. Shelter workers then send word to Neighborhood Cats (the main TNR resource in NYC and beyond) who tries to determine who the cat belongs to. If they can find the original TNR person, they can reunite them with the cat. If they can't find anyone willing to claim the cat, it will be put down almost immediately since it is feral. In these cases the cat's eartip is the only thing that gives it a stay of execution at all; the shelter can barely handle all the tame animals it houses, you can imagine its attitude towards unowned, unsocialized cats with zero adoptability. (more…)
March 20, 2013 – 12:04 pm

Mabel at the top of the tree
Mabel's energy levels continue to be through the roof! She climbed to the top of this weird cat tree we have, she's only the second cat ever to reach the summit. She is making up for all that lost time when she was sick by constantly scampering around, chasing all the other cats, and trying to eat everybody's food (she keeps trying to eat our guacamole, what's up with that?)