Helping animals has no boarders so I will be featuring different animals rights groups, rescues etc. from different areas on this blog periodically. This one happens to be in Arizona and you will find a link for them on the right hand side of the blog under "Helpful Links".
Suzie Jones spent 30 years as an educator, much of it teaching learning-disabled students in middle schools and high schools in Scottsdale, AZ. Pam Kalish spent 29 years as a systems engineer, helping to design flight control systems used on commercial airliners. These days, the retired Jones and Kalish spend much of their time trapping, neutering and returning feral cats. "We've found a second calling," Jones says.
Jones become acquainted with feral cats in the spring of 2000, when a mother cat and her three kittens suddenly appeared in her backyard. A local group gave her instructions on how to do trap/neuter/return (TNR), and after she retired she decided to volunteer with the organization. "It's a victory one cat at a time, " Jones says. "I feel like every day I do something that matters."
Between March 2009, when the Spay-Neuter Hotline TNR Program was started, and November 2009, Jones, Kalish and other dedicated volunteers trapped, neutered and returned 7,000 community (a.k.a. feral) cats at homes and businesses in the greater Phoenix area.
Kalish says her skills as a systems engineer have come in handy. "The TNR process is complicated and requires a lot of problem solving, something I've always been good at. I did a lot of this while working as an engineer. Logistics of trapping large numbers of cats can be challenging, but I love figuring out how to fix all the cats in a large colony, and trapping difficult-to-catch cats."
Story by Sandy Miller/from Best Friends magazine (March/April 2010) issue.
Jenniene
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