By July 30, 2009, Pets of MF had been instrumental in getting 650 cats and 50 dogs spayed/neutered for the year. 150 of the cats were from Walla Walla county in Washington, and the remainder of cats and dogs were from Umatilla County in Oregon. This work was mostly funded by a $20,000 grant from Oregon Community Foundation - Ed Cauduro Advised Charitable grant, a $5,000 PetSmart grant, a $3,000 grant from Blue Mountain Community Foundation, and $1,000 grant from Petco Foundation. The Cities of Athena and Weston also contributed a total of $1,000 for 2009.

In December, 2008, four area animal welfare groups officially teamed together to implement Cat Management Coalition, a trap-neuter-return program in Walla Walla, Washington. The City of Walla Walla Animal Control officer, Sallie McCullough, identifies problem areas and will work with Pets of Milton-Freewater, Inc. to mass trap cats for specially arranged spay/neuter clinics. Saving Wonderful Animals Team (S.W.A.T.) will handle education and the media and will set up an answering service so people can call in to let us know where unsterlized free-roaming cats can be found. SWAT will educate the neighborhoods prior to trapping so residents are aware of what is happening in their neighborhood and will obtain information about the cat population to share with the mass trapping teams. Blue Mountain Humane Society will provide administrative support handling fiscal matters and will handle the recordkeeping duties including registering the microchips implanted into all free-roaming cats. With the microchips (as well as tattoo in the ear) if a microchipped feral cats is captured by Animal Control or turned into the humane society shelter, the cat will be returned back to their home area rather than being killed. All groups will seek to help raise funds for the TNR effort through grants and other fundraising efforts.

Pets of Milton-Freewater received a $5,000 grant from Handsel Foundation in December, 2008 for spay/neuter of free-roaming and owned cats in four trailer parks in Walla Walla, WA. In November, 2008 we received a $1,000 grant from Petco Foundation for spay/neuter in the City of Walla Walla. We also received a $3,000 grant from Blue Mountain Area Foundation to support the joint efforts of several groups to introduce Trap-Neuter-Return of free-roaming cats in the City of Walla Walla. Blue Mountain Humane Society received a $4,000 grant from the same organization for the Walla Walla TNR effort.

A trial run was done with mass trapping and spay/neuter on November 21-22, 2008 with a mobile spay/neuter clinic set up at Blue Mountain Humane Society. 72 cats were captured in Walla Walla by the animal control officer and eight volunteers and were transported to the spay/neuter clinic where the cats were sterilized, vaccinated, and microchipped. After being held overnight they were released back to where they came from. The spay/neuter clinic was staffed by Spokane-based high-volume shelter veterinarian Dr. Colette Begram, DVM and her two vet techs, Carrie and Becky.

In October, 2008 we received a $1,000 donation from The City of Milton-Freewater
for spay/neuter within the City of Milton-Freewater. These funds are currently being used for spay/neuter of feral cats within the City of Milton-Freewater.
An additional grant of $5,000 was received from PetSmart around the same time. This grant is for spay/neuter before adoption and is used when we take in a stray cat or tamable feral kittens to later adopt out.

In June we received a $5,000 grant from the Handsel Foundation to complete spay/neuter efforts in Operation Milton-Freewater Trailer Parks.

In May 2008 we received a $30,000 grant from the "Ed Cauduro Advised Charitable Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation" for TNR in Helix ($7,000) and spay/neuter of cats and dogs on the Umatilla Tribal Reservation ($23,000).

Also in May, Wildhorse Foundation awarded Pets of MF a $5,000 grant for TNR of cats on the Umatilla Tribal Reservation.

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Pets of Milton-Freewater, Inc. wishes to express their appreciation
to those who made the February 10 & 17, 2008 Weston Spay Days successful with 98 feral and stray cats spayed or neutered. Veterinarians T. Patrick Kennedy (Milton-Freewater) and Fiona Hillenbrand (Weston) donated a full day or spay/neuter surgeries each. Veterinary technicians from Kennedy Mobile Veterinary Service, Lori Moore (Weston) and Kara Udy (Athena) donated two days of work and Kelli Kidd (Milton-Freewater) donated one day. Pendleton veterinary technicians Anita Valeztena and Jenn Christensen
donated a day's labor each for the cause as well.

Those who assisted in trapping and transporting feral cats in Weston included Paula Babb (Athena), Lyla Lampson (Milton-Freewater), Marjorie Rakestraw (Milton-Freewater), and Dawn Adams (Walla Walla) as well as Weston residents Lori & Randy Record, Lisa Greer and Carolyn Rencken. Individual caretakers also assisted in trapping cats in their yards.

The City of Weston donated $2,000 to help pay the expenses of these special Spay Days. Lisa Greer, Cheryl Bonham and Ann Davis all of Weston have thus far raised nearly $400 through donations and raffle sales to help complete the feral cat spay/neuter project in the next six weeks.

It is estimated that about 40 cats remain to be spayed/neutered in Weston and about 20 on Weston mountain, hopefully in the next six weeks, if sufficient funds can be raised. Approximately $2000 needs to be raised to finish the Weston Feral Cat Project for this year.

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CITY OF WESTON - TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN PROJECT - January 2008
To the surprise of many Weston residents, the Trap-Neuter-Return project proposed by Pets of Milton-Freewater to the City Council on January 9, 2008, was well received. The City Council voted to support the effort by donating the $2,000 requested to Pets of Milton-Freewater to implement a TNR program. All but one of the city council members was fully in favor of the plan,
with the single dissenter concerned about liability issues that might arise. Resident Lisa Greer pointed out that every household will be
visited prior to the trapping and advised to leave their own cats inside on the trapping days, plus she will be posting flyers around town to
remind people when the trapping events are to be held.

The program Pets of Milton-Freewater offered to the City of Weston centers around two Spay Day events in which local veterinarians T. Patrick Kennedy of Kennedy Mobile Veterinary Service in Milton-Freewater and Fiona Hillenbrand, a Weston resident working at Pendleton Veterinary Hospital in Pendleton, will each donate a day to spay/neuter cats. The staff of Kennedy Mobile Veterinary Service are also donating their time and their facility for the Spay Days. The $2,000 the city is donating will go to pay for supplies to spay/neuter 100 cats for the two Spay Days, saving the City of Weston thousands of dollars.

Lyla Lampson, of Pets of Milton-Freewater, Inc. who presented the proposal to the City Council, noted that 75 feral cats is what you would expect in a city of that size based upon national averages. However, those familiar with the feral cat situation in Weston guess there are probably more like 200 feral cats present, though perhaps 75 of them have already been spayed/neutered by individuals in Weston and/or by Pets of Milton-Freewater. A major goal of the project is to complete the spay/neuter of the vast majority of the feral and stray cats in the city by the end of February, before kitten season is in full swing.

To address the spay/neuter needs for the cats that remain to be spayed/neutered after the Free Feral Cat Spay Days, $2,000 or more is to be raised by Weston residents Lisa Greer and Ann Davis who will be surveying every household in Weston in the latter half of January. They will be asking questions to determine where and how many feral and stray cats are in the area, to get permission to trap on their properties, and to seek donations to assist in completing the initial TNR project. Several raffles of Lisa Greer's cat furniture will be held to raise money for this project as well. If more than enough money is raised to spay/neuter the feral and stray cat population, financial assistance will be offered to those of limited income to spay/neuter their owned cats.

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NEUTER SCOOTER - December 2007
During the recent Neuter Scooter visit, Dr. Peavy and her crew spayed/neutered 91 cats in Pendleton on December 11 and 75 in
Milton-Freewater on December 12. Numerous e-mails to Sallie McCullough, Walla Walla Animal Control Officer, received from clients of the Neuter Scooter in Milton-Freewater reflected the satisfaction with service received.

Pendleton hopes to bring the Neuter Scooter back in early March for two weeks to work on altering the 1000 feral cats along the dike. Pets of Milton-Freewater is interested in getting them back to start a Trap-Neuter-Return program for Walla Walla in fall or winter of 2008. It has not been confirmed whether the Neuter Scooter can be confirmed for either of those time slots.

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BERNICE BARBOUR GRANT - December 2007
Pets of Milton-Freewater, Inc. received a $1,600 grant from the Bernice Barbour Foundation to purchase live traps for their
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program. Secretary/Treasurer Lyla Lampson reports 49 live traps have been ordered and should be on hand for the Weston TNR Project which is to start early February. The traps will also be available for use in the Pendleton Dike TNR project that Pet Utopia is doing.

Dale McKain - webmaster
Last update - August 2009
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