09/19/2026
Hi everyone, this is Patti Horn with Richfield animal control and I wanted to tell you what i’ve been up to. For the first time i’ve been allowed to address the feral/community cat issues. I have been TNRing community cats. What is TNR? it involves humanly trapping, spaying or neutering, vaccinating and returning community cats to their outdoor homes. TNR improves the lives of feral cats, improves their relationships with the people who live near them and decreases the size of the colonies over time. The obvious benefit of TNR is females don’t go through cycles of producing more and more kittens and the males mating behaviors like roaming, yowling, spraying and fighting should cease. The cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated against rabies and FVRCP (feline distemper) and ear tipped, meaning during surgery the tip of the left ear is cut, allowing people to recognize from a distance that the cats are fixed. A key fact to point out is female kittens reach sexual maturity at 4 months of age, they can get pregnant before they even look like adult cats, an unspayed female can go into heat every 2 to 3 weeks and have multiple litters a year.
My count to date is 54 with 2 additional trapping dates scheduled. I have only been able to do this because I teamed up with ALTERPET.
Alterpet is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non profit organization whose mission is to combat cat/dog overpopulation and euthanasia through low cost spay and neuter programs. Without the resources, support and guidance from Dr. Fran Terry my hands would be tied.
Any and all donations are greatly appreciated and needed. You can donate earmarked specifically for Richfield animal control and they will set aside the monies for future trappings or to Alterpet in general and they will use the money to help so many animals and their people. In the kennel I accept any and all donations of supplies, if I don’t or can’t use it I pass along or give away to help people in need.
AlterPet Inc�P O Box 552�Sharon Center OH 44274
330-321-6243�419-853-4043�[email protected]
