Sharon Vanorny
Director Colin Steinke: “Our focus is generally the cats that don’t have other options.”
A large windowed room in MadCat’s new warehouse store on Willy Street is scattered with toys, carpeted cat trees and comfy furniture for humans. Presiding atop the tallest structure sits Tavra, a two-year-old tabby with a white chest and wise green eyes. Two sleek black kittens, Hank Williams and Waylon Jennings, come careening out of a hiding place, purring and rolling around, ready for play time. They tap at the window to play with the store’s cat, Paulie, on the other side of the window facing the store.
Tavra arrived in Madison from the Coulee Region Humane Society, and Waylon and Hank came from Chicago Animal Care and Control. They were transferred to the Madison Cat Project (formerly Friends of Ferals), a rescue operation that provides a second chance for hundreds of felines in the region.
“Our mission is saving cats’ lives through community solutions. Our focus is generally the cats that don’t have other options,” says Colin Steinke, director of Madison Cat Project. “Ultimately, our goal is to make sure that cats are not dying in shelters due to space constraints or behavioral issues.” With an extensive foster network of more than 100 homes, the organization is able to place cats that would otherwise likely face euthanasia. This year, so far, the organization has adopted out 671 cats.
“As we’re grown and as our capacity has grown, we have been able to take in cats that have medical challenges, behavioral challenges, cats from other high-volume shelters,” says Steinke. So far this year, the organization has transferred 332 cats from the Dane County Humane Society. It also works with Chicago Animal Care and Control to help them “increase their live release rate,” as Steinke puts it.
And good news for farmers struggling with rodent infestations, the Madison Cat Project also has a barn cat program that provides spayed and neutered cats, or colonies of cats, to rural residents. That has worked out great for Corie Klaustermeier, who lives with her husband and five kids in Arlington, near DeForest.
The six cats the family adopted for a minimal cost have helped control the critters that were breaking into their horse’s feed. With two small children with cerebral palsy, Klaustermeier wanted to avoid traps and chemicals. “It’s effective,” she says. “I used to have bottom of bags torn open, and I would always see little mice running around.” Now the rodents have departed, and the cats are living happily in the barn. Klaustermeier found the Madison Cat Project after Googling how to get barn cats, and couldn’t be happier. She says the volunteers helped her teach the cats to stick around, and five out of six have chosen to stay.
Margaret Johnson
Madison Cat Project volunteer Tiffany Zhou with Ambrosia, who was adopted during an event at MadCat on Willy Street.
Most of the cats keep their distance from humans, says Klaustermeier. “The two original ones were about a year old. When you fill their food dish they’ll rub against your leg and they want to be petted, but they are really looking for just minimal interaction. The other ones want none. We don’t know their background, but you get the feeling that maybe somebody wasn’t nice to them. But now they know we are safe.”
Steinke says the barn cat program is suited “for any cat that has decided that they don’t want to work on that shyness and that they would rather not be around us.” This program sets Madison Cat Project apart from other rescues, he notes. “It has helped us save a number of cats that we wouldn’t have otherwise.”
Madison Cat Project also offers extremely low-cost spays and neuters once a month, by partnering with the UW vet school. Overhead is kept low by utilizing volunteers for much of the non-surgical work. “We do get a lot of folks that want to do something, but they would never be able to neuter or spay all their cats at $300 or $400 a pop at a private practice,” says Steinke. “I think a lot of people want to do the right thing when they are able to. We will happily waive that suggested donation if they want to work with us and can’t pay at all; that’s absolutely fine with us. People want to do the right thing; we just create the opportunity.”
Steinke says the spay and neuter program and the adoptions all serve the goal of giving each cat the best life possible, even if that means sterilizing an animal and then returning it to the place it came from. Says Steinke: “The goal is just to reduce the free-roaming cat population in a scientifically proven way.”
For more information, see madisoncatproject.org.
