One summer day in 2007 I came upon a large colony of cats and kittens living behind a carwash in a little wooded area that borders a municipal golf course. It appeared someone was pouring dry food out in the dirt and driveway in the mornings. The cats looked very unhealthy and were in desperate need of a TNR program. I decided to clean up their environment and serve their dry food in clean cardboard boxes.
That first day I gave some canned Science Diet kitten food to the malnourished kittens. There was a sickly little blue-eyed Siamese kitten that let me pick him up and put him on the mound of food. He growled in joy as he gorged on the canned food. There were about 45 cats in this colony at that time. I put out dry food in boxes in the wooded area away from the driveway as well. The next morning I prepared the boxes of dry food, filled water bottles, and drove to the carwash. I decided I would attempt to adopt the Siamese kitten since he let me pick him up. As I pulled into the carwash the Siamese kitten appeared to be sleeping on the driveway where the other person had been dumping food. As I got closer I realized someone had run over the sleeping kitten with a large dirt bike wheel and he was dead. I wanted to scream and cry, but realized all too quickly this was just the kind of thing I would be facing in an attempt to help save these cats and I must be strong.
Since that painful day I have spayed/neutered/rescued and found homes for 34 of these cats and kittens. One dog was rescued there as well. There were no new litters of kittens for over a year. I got the colony registered with our local Animal Control as a TNR pilot program. The colony is protected from being rounded up and euthanized. The carwash owners like me coming around because I report drug dealers and other shady people to the police. The owners have put in three surveillance video cameras as well.
Last year I decided I must start a TNR program and No Kill rescue shelter/adoption center in my city. We have none in Fort Worth. My organization is Kindness Connection Animal Rescue. A grant from the Ralph and Virginia Mullin Foundation helped Kindness Connection Animal Rescue obtain 501 © (3) status and become a tax-exempt organization that donors and contributors want to support.
We have received occasional TNR services and loaner traps from some Dallas groups, but there is not a local TNR clinic in Fort Worth. We want Kindness Connection Animal Rescue to be there for the stray animals of Fort Worth.
I lived in Manhattan for 10 years in the 90's and was impressed by all the no kill animal shelters and lack of stray animals there. I want Fort Worth to be like that. We need a place for overwhelmed, kind people who feed 15 cats or more to get TNR help. The need for stray animal rescue and sterilization cannot be overstated. New website-check it out--www.kindnessconnectionrescue.org