San Saba County Friends of Animals is very excited to announce that the Walmart Foundation has awarded us a total of $1,000 in community grants to help fund our 2020 trap/ neuter/return program (TNR) for community cats! Applications for these grants are initially reviewed by the management of a store in the community (in our case, the Brady Walmart), then forwarded to the Foundation for further review and funding. We are very grateful to Ms. Maria Bickett, manager of the Walmart store in Brady, for approving our grant request and to the Walmart Foundation for funding this award.
In TNR, community cats (also referred to as “feral” or “freeroaming” cats) are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, given other medical attention as needed, then returned to the property where they reside. The process includes “tipping” the left ear to show that the cat has been altered and is part of a managed colony whose cats are fed and monitored by a caretaker.
SSCFOA typically takes a group of 20-25 community cats from San Saba County to Austin Humane Society’s low-cost clinic each month. The AHS clinic is an affordable program, costing only $27 per cat for spay/ neuter, rabies and FVRCP vaccinations, and ear-tipping. Unfortunately, AHS has temporarily suspended its clinics because of the coronavirus situation, so we are not actively conducting our TNR program at this time. But we will be back in action as soon as AHS resumes the clinics. So if you are a San Saba County resident and would like to get on our list for help, please send us a message through our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/San-SabaCountyFriendsOfAnimals) or call or text 720-849-4201.
The Walmart Foundation was created in 1982 to help support the communities Walmart serves. For more information about the Walmart Foundation, please visit <www.walmart.org>. And the next time you visit the Brady Walmart, please stop by and thank Ms. Bickett for helping us help community cats in San Saba County!