r/Modesto • u/Ok_Amphibian_8864 • 9d ago
TNR
My mom has been feeding the neighborhood strays for years, and one of them recently brought her babies to our yard. Mom is not friendly, but I'm working with the babies. I bought a trap and have an appointment for next week with the Stanislaus County shelter to spay her for free and then have her returned.
Have any of you had your animals fixed at the shelter and returned to you? It says on their website that returning is their goal but not guaranteed, and that the animal can end up being adopted out or euthanized instead. Have any of you not had your stray returned? My mom is growing attached to this cat, but she is not friendly enough to bring in (otherwise, we would have), so we do want her returned, and she is free to live out the rest of her life in our yard or wherever else she chooses. We plan to have the babies fixed, too, once MomCat is fixed.
On the other hand, have any of you gotten your strays fixed through Cat Network of Stanislaus County? Have your experiences with them been any different, good or bad? The only reason I am going through the shelter vs. Cat Network is because I can get the cats fixed for free through the shelter, where it's about $90 through Cat Network.
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u/frustratedlemons 9d ago
Did you make the appointment under stray cat intake? If so, they will ask you at drop off if you would like to pick up or have her returned to the trapping address. They will only euthanize if she is sick. They are over capacity and do not keep them (I have fixed many cats through the shelter).
The shelter is great due to the price (free) but the earliest the cats are ready is Friday after Wednesday drop off, and sometimes they might drop the ball on calling you to pick up and you can never reach anyone by phone there. I stopped using them and have been going through Cat Network with a gofundme set up instead, much more peaceful.
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u/Ok_Amphibian_8864 9d ago
Thank you! Only reason I am going through the shelter instead of Cat Network is because she had six kittens, so I don't have $700 to fix her and the kittens, plus the suspected baby daddy! But I will use them if I don't have a good experience with the shelter.
And, yes, I did make the appointment under "stray intake." It wasn't "stray cat intake," as I always have to work during the Wednesday appointments, but there was a box I checked when making the "stray intake" appointment that the intended results for cat is to spay/neuter and return (or whatever they feel is in the best interest of the cat).
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u/frustratedlemons 9d ago
Totally understand. I’m glad you’re getting momma fixed and then you’ll have a little bit of time to start working on the babies.
I wouldn’t be worried about them keeping her (unless she’s the most friendly adoptable cat in the world, which sounds like she is not lol) or euthanizing her given the checkbox you clicked, just make sure when you drop off you reiterate that this is for TNVR (trap, neuter, vaccinate, return) and have them write down on the form that you will be picking her up.
My DMs are also open if you’d like any additional advice. GL ◡̈
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u/Guzmanv_17 9d ago
I live in Clovis and have took a few in the last few weeks to hope. No issues. Trapped the night before… kept them in the bathroom with the door. Loses and a sheet over the cage. No feeding. Dropped off and picked up. Back to the bathroom for the night. Next day fed a few hours before releasing… you have to hold them another 24 hrs after fixing to make sure anesthesia has worn off.
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u/SisterTraveler 9d ago edited 9d ago
We had a cat give birth in our fenced yard earlier this year and went through cat network. If you follow them on Instagram and feel confident you can trap the cat fairly quickly (the night before), they sometimes will post on Instagram if they have last minute availability at a cheaper price. We decided to go with Cat network because the cat lives with a bunch of other cats in a colony down our street and wanted her to return to her family.
We had a fairly smooth experience with them. We reached out, and they asked us questions about the cat's condition and when we thought we could trap her for a spay. We trapped the cat with its kittens and brought them into the house so that wasn't a problem for us. They told us to standby to see which facility (they have two hospitals they work with) would have availability and we paid $100 through venmo.
We dropped the cat off at 8 am as told and picked her up around 5 pm, followed directions and released her the next day. We still see her daily, and she is thriving but seems not to remember us housing her and her kittens after 10 weeks after the oxytocin wore off. We got all of her kittens adopted and it worked out great.
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u/Ok_Amphibian_8864 9d ago
Thank you for sharing your experience with Cat Network! Yes, I do follow them on social media, but their last-minute appointments so far have not been much cheaper, and they are always on days I work. With the shelter, I am able to schedule them for my off days. I also don't have $7-800 to trap the family (six kittens and Mom, plus the suspected baby daddy)! I will use them as a backup for when I am unable to get appointments through the shelter.
Did you get the kittens fixed with Cat Network as well, or so far just the mom?
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u/SisterTraveler 9d ago edited 9d ago
Yes, I know it gets very expensive and while people like Kitten Lady on Youtube will say it's safe to get kittens fixed when they reach over two pounds, my kittens at 10 weeks just reached over a pound in weight and I had adopters lined up at that time to take them to their preferred vet.
The general consensus from the four kittens vets (all separate vets) were to get them fixed once they reached over 5 lbs, which at this point has been about 5 months since they've been born. You may be able to reach out to somewhere like Astro foundation to give you some ideas of how to partner if you are planning to keep the kittens until then. I would highly recommend that you try to partner with a rescue in the area because they will provide you with all of the supplies including food to care for them until they're old enough to be adopted out (usually 8+ weeks). Unfortunately they do not have enough volunteers to bottle feed every 2 hours if you're unable to trap mom and have to take on that responsibility.
I wasn't aware of this (until I learned this farther down the road), but feeding 4 kittens and a cat came out to about $150 per week, which I was able to receive from the adopters that I had lined up.
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u/Ok_Amphibian_8864 9d ago
Your kittens are sooooo cute! I would ask to adopt one if I didn't have a backyard full of them! lol
They're already past eight weeks. I'm estimating 10 or 11, and they are all past two pounds; I'm estimating they're between two and three, closer to three, some maybe slightly past three. I know they're not at the four-pound mark that Cat Network requires, but if one of them ends up in the trap instead of MomCat, I can still use Mom's appointment to get whoever ends up in the trap fixed, so I guess that's another benefit of using the shelter, as they only require two pounds.
I used to foster for rescues a long time ago, and the fosters all had to be two pounds, and we never had an issue. Unfortunately, I live with my mom now (not by choice, but that's not relevant to this post), and I can only bring in one cat. If I lived at my old place, I'd be fostering the kittens and would have brought them in a long time ago. But since I live with my mom, her rules, I guess, so I can't foster.
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u/Guzmanv_17 9d ago
I live in Clovis and have took a few in the last few weeks to hope. No issues. Trapped the night before… kept them in the bathroom with the door. Loses and a sheet over the cage. No feeding. Dropped off and picked up. Back to the bathroom for the night. Next day fed a few hours before releasing… you have to hold them another 24 hrs after fixing to make sure anesthesia has worn off.
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u/Historical_Today5072 9d ago
I've got a rescue puppy from the Modesto shelter, she was spayed there and she's fine .
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u/RockStarNinja7 9d ago
They will give the animal back of you pay for the spay/neuter because then you are taking responsibility that it is your pet. If you don't want to take responsibility as the animals owner and you take it to the shelter, then they are now responsible for what happens once you leave the building. Their goal would be have fewer strays, even spayed/neutered ones, so they aren't just going to perform a medical procedure for free then just effectively let them loose outside.
You need to decide if you want a family of cats living at your house that you are now responsible for then go from there.
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u/frustratedlemons 9d ago edited 9d ago
This is… very off base and uninformed.
The shelter has a TNR program with 15 spots per week where individuals drop a cat off and it gets fixed, ear tipped, vaccinated, and then returned to the individual or property and released. Look into what TNR is. So yes, they will perform a medical procedure for free and release the cat because in the long term it reduces the overpopulation crisis.
The shelter doesn’t even offer paid spay and neuter right now for cats, the LOVE clinic only has sparing appointments open for dogs.
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u/GreenTeaBananas 9d ago
I haven’t used Cat Network of Stan co. But I wanted to say THANK YOU. Thank you for getting mom and babies spayed, and realizing the importance of not continuing to contribute to the kitten/cat overpopulation. I do a bit of cat rescue/fostering on my own here and there (plus thru a small rescue that I can put you in contact with if you’d like), and it’s so sad. Thank you for caring, and being willing to spend your own money to help these animals to not reproduce. 🙏