………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Heather Green loves cats. She also realized she loved them more than she thought when three little kittens came into her life and changed everything.
As a freelance writer, often you are given assignments to which the deliverable content must be passionate (even without knowing the subject to that level of intimacy), analytical (requiring copious amounts of research that may, or may not, be usable), or unbiased (difficult, particularly when a personal opinion is strong one way or the other). However, when a writer has the opportunity to write about a subject of one’s own choice, it can be a whole different, and engaging, story.
Such is the case with Heather’s new book, To Catch a Cat (just released and available at Amazon), her insightful and humorous tale about becoming involved in the world of cat and kitten rescue. Life With Cats had the opportunity to ask Heather about her inspiration for the book and others might want to consider becoming involved.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Life With Cats: How did you become interested in cat rescue?
Heather Green : Kicking and screaming. Ok, not actually. But to be honest, for most of my life, I never gave a second thought to cat rescuing. But it all started one summer morning about 10 years ago in Union City, NJ. My then-boyfriend’s cat, Teevee, was taking a stroll on top of the backyard wall when she spotted feral wild kittens living in the next-door neighbor’s yard. I went outside to check them out and at first I saw nothing. But then this head pops up out of the grass. This was the kitten we’d come to call Number Three. He was adorable, of course. I mean, he was a kitten! But he just sat down and studied me. I realized that though this little guy was wild, he could be tamed if someone did something. And if I didn’t, then who would?
LWC: When did you realize that you wanted to create a rescue on a more formal basis?
HG: This first rescue project was what made me realize that Matt and I could do this. We didn’t start out thinking we’d become rescuers. We thought we’d catch these three kittens, tame them, find them homes, and get their feral mom fixed. And then we’d be done. Sort of a pop-in visit to the rescue world. Things didn’t turn out that way!
LWC: What was the catalyst for you becoming a rescuer?
HG: It was the community that we discovered through rescuing this first litter. We needed help—getting a trap, figuring out how to trap and how to socialize them. So we started reaching out to cat rescue folks locally. Everyone was up to their ears in kittens because it was kitten season. But they all made time for us novice rescuers.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
LWC: What is the hardest thing about doing advocacy for cats?
HG: Union City is an urban area that’s overrun with cats. There are always more cats, more people to help. That can be daunting. Still, from when we started 10 years ago, there’s a huge increase in the number of rescue groups and resources. It’s only getting better. I really admire the work that community groups like Austin Pets Alive are doing. This kind of community provides an inspiring, positive blueprint for where animal rescue can go.
LWC: What have your learned over the course of time with your rescue?
HG: When people learn about what you’re doing, they want to help. Of course there are bad actors out there. Part of advocacy is learning to navigate people who don’t support you. But generally, most people want to help animals. I learned the right times to jump fences, the right age to grab a young kitten, the right moment to pull a string on a drop trap. I learned skills I never expected to have! I learned how to reach out, to speak out, to learn from my mistakes and to just keep rescuing.
LWC: Do you have a network with which you coordinate efforts?
HG: Absolutely. We couldn’t have helped the more than 150 cats we helped on our own and the others we helped other folks trap and rescue without a network. In Hudson County, we’ve working closely with Jersey Cats, Companion Animal Trust, Companion Animal Placement, and Neighborhood Cats. We eventually specialized in trapping and fostering cats and kittens and then working with Jersey Cats, a remarkable group, that found them homes. Facebook and Instagram have also been amazing networking groups, for raising money and awareness about kittens and cats in need of homes.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
LWC: What should people know about your rescue that might come as a surprise?
HG: Your first impulse when you see a young kitten outside is to grab it. Don’t. Wait to see if the mother does come around. When kittens are young, under 6 weeks of age, it’s best to leave them with the mother. Kittens are delicate. They can’t regulate their own body temperature, they are healthiest when they nurse. The best thing you can do for them is feed the mom and wait for them to grow.
It’s hard to do this. Our first litter of kittens, they were four or five weeks old and we had to wait. It was a risk, because Oona, the mother, might have moved them away from us. But we bet that that if we fed them, she’d stick around. Which she did–though after pretty traumatic event involving machetes and a BBQ, she ended up moving them into my boyfriend’s back yard.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
LWC: What were some of your craziest times with the kittens?
HG: Our moments of madness included disrupting the weed whacking of our substantially built, machete-wielding neighbor in a vain attempt to get him to postpone his plans for a BBQ in his yard, which happened to be the kitten’s hideout. Another time I convinced Matt to cover his sliding back door with silver duct tape and a black sheet so the kittens and their mother wouldn’t be disturbed after they moved onto Matt’s patio. And then of course, there was the evening where we tried—unsuccessfully—to use a makeshift net made out of cheesecloth, a wire coat hanger, and (more) duct tape to catch a sick kitten through the sliding door.
LWC: What can people do to help?
HG: Any little bit helps. Do what you’re capable of doing. Give money to a shelter or rescue group. Foster kittens. Follow and like rescue groups on social media. Trap if you can. Alert other foster groups to cats in need outside if you can’t. The network of rescue groups is growing. There are things we can all do and resources available online to get involved as little or as much as you want.
LWC: Anything else?
HG: Just that you can learn so much from a project like this. Rescuing the kittens and all the decisions, the ups and downs, the cooperation and negotiating that was required between my boyfriend and me forced me to define for myself what I wanted out of life. I owe so much to rescuing.
Heather’s book, To Catch a Cat, is now available on Amazon.com, and for more information about Heather, please check out her website, Heather Green Media.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
