Faithful Friends and Humane Animal Partners are teaming up to keep outdoor cats warm this winter by distributing 50 feral cat houses in Sussex County.
In Delaware, cats who cannot be domesticated or taken indoors aren’t uncommon.
“Not all cats are made to live indoors. We have an ample feral and semi-feral cat population here in the state of Delaware. In this case in particular, a lot of outdoor cat colonies living in Sussex County,” said Corey Topel, Senior Marketing Manager at Humane Animal Partners.
There are no First State agencies that pick up free-roaming cats, making welfare organizations and community members responsible for their management and care.
Topel says these feral cat houses are an important tool in providing that care, and while they’re free for colony caretakers, donations are welcome.
“We’re offering folks the opportunity to sponsor a cat house. So for only $50 you can sponsor one of the colony cat houses,” explained Topel. “That money will directly go back to cover the cost associated with assembling these cat houses, and assure that other cats throughout the state of Delaware are warm, safe, and cared for throughout the harsh winter months.”
To sponsor a cat house through Humane Animal Partners, the donation form can be found online.
The cat houses are built with the health and safety of community cats in mind, and are compact and easily moved.
Faithful Friends, the animal welfare organization that assembled these houses, also works to manage feral cat populations through their Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) program.
“They have folks who will go out, they’ll trap feral or semi-feral cats, bring them in, spay/neuter them to make sure they’re not reproducing and overpopulating. And then they go back out in the wild and continue to live their happy lives,” explained Topel.
HAP also offers spay/neuter services at a low cost with the goal of keeping the population of cats and dogs more manageable, and reducing the number of homeless animals in the state.
The feral cat houses will be available at HAP’s Rehoboth Beach adoption center on Thursday January 12th and Friday January 13th between 9 AM and noon- and Topel warns they go fast.
And for those in Northern Delaware interested in obtaining a cat house for their local colony, they can reach out to Faithful Friends for information on making one, or to locate a Northern distribution point.
Both Faithful Friends and HAP also provide free pet food year round, which cat colony caretakers can pick up along with their cat shelter.
