Program Spotlight: Outdoor Community Cats
Because kitties Margot and Leon are sight impaired, their other senses are heightened. So when their mom, Jill Chapman, started coming home smelling like other cats, they knew something was up.
They were right, because in August, Jill started working with the Community Cats Program (CCP) at BARCS, and in November, she became the program’s manager. In some ways, because of the pandemic, and then the outbreak of panleukopenia in the shelter in late 2021, the program has had to start over.
“The Community Cats Program at BARCS has been incredibly successful,” Jill says, “but because it was on hold for so long, I want to get out into communities and let them know we are back and want to be partners.”
Right now, Jill is the sole staff member of the CCP, but another staff member will be added soon, enabling the program to do more outreach.
“Even with another staffer, we will still need to rely on community trappers and BARCS volunteers who would like to learn more about what we do,” she explains.
Now that cat volunteers are back, Jill hopes some of them will be interested in working with the CCP.
“We have a number of tasks that I would love volunteers to get involved with,” she says. “Everything from feeding the cats in the shelter to answering emails and to learning how to trap.” She says she has reached out to Jeanette Davis, who has long worked with BARCS and other organizations in the area, and Jeanette is willing to teach volunteers everything she knows about trapping. A session will be scheduled in the near future.
“I hope volunteers will come and learn from Jeanette,” Jill says. “She really is an expert, and she can take some of the mystery out of what is really a fun activity that is invaluable to the community.”
One of Jill’s priorities is finding the “hot spots” where colonies have grown over this period of reduced TNR. Her mission is to get these areas under control with as much TNR as possible. But, she adds, she can’t do it alone.
“There are a few areas I want to focus on initially,” she says; those include Cherry Hill and Greenmount/North Avenue.
“Both areas have a number of cats that need to be trapped,” she explains, “but they are also low-income areas where a lot of folks don’t have cars to pick up traps or transport animals to the shelter.”
Jill hopes to find volunteers and other resources to help. She is working with Community Pets Program Coordinator Kaitlyn Thomas because their missions overlap—helping community members with dogs and cats. Jill will be joining Kaitlyn at community events to help spread the word that the CCP is ready to help.
“This program, just like so much of what BARCS does, is about community,” Jill says. “It has so much potential, and the more people—both in and outside of BARCS—who get involved, the bigger impact we can have on our city.”
If you are interested in volunteering with the BARCS Community Cats Program and/or are seeing stray cats in your Baltimore City neighborhood who need help, please email communitycats@barcs.org.
A big thank you to Petco Love for their many years of support of this program. Vital programs like CCP continue to make a impactful and lasting changes in further reducing shelter intake and euthanasia.
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