Benefit to help raise funds for Community Cats.

By Kate Krieger. Senior Correspondent.

LUDINGTON – Community Cats TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) is a 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to achieve population decline of the unaltered, free-roaming, feral and/or abandoned domestic cats in our area through education and the use of a humane technique known as Trap-Neuter-Return.

Volunteers humanely live trap the cats and transport them to a local veterinarian clinic where they receive a general health check, are spayed or neutered, receive treatment for parasites and a rabies vaccination.  After release, caregivers continue to provide food, water and shelter and monitor the colony. The Community Cats program has trapped, neutered and returned nearly 300 cats in just over two years, preventing the birth of approximately 40,000 kittens in the next seven years.

Community Cats TNR has received a $400 grant from the Great Lakes Energy People Fund. The grant will be used to purchase four additional live traps to meet increasing demand for assistance to caregivers who are feeding and sheltering feral, free-roaming cats.

Joanne Kelley, Community Cats TNR treasurer, said not only starving artists, but also cats and neighborhoods in need of help will benefit from some sales at the sixth annual Ludington Arts Center Holiday Craft Show on Saturday, November 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Local author, C. L. Rossman will be selling copies of her books during the craft show and for every book sold, she will donate money from the profits to Community Cats TNR.

As a fitting coincidence, C. L. Rossman’s three novels, “Renegade the Hunter,” “Renegade the Warrior,” and “The Mission to Earth” are about people who have great cats in their ancestry.

“They are fierce carnivores who must hunt to live,” Rossman said; “How they learn to cooperate with each other, and how they keep technology from spoiling their worlds, is an underlying theme in the books.  “First of all, though,” she went on; “The books are thrilling adventure stories which have been highly praised by reviewers.”

Community Cats TNR relies on donations, memorial contributions, small grants, and fundraisers to provide veterinary services. Pizza Hut will host the next fundraiser/bake goods sale on December 16.