There are many ways to evaluate whether a fundraiser is a success. I always lean towards whether the participant has a good time, feels that they made a difference, get something back in more than one way. Our in-person events are a great way to do that and I'm missing them SO much. Sunday was the drawing for the Raffle and each of the eight people were very happy to hear that they were winners and had stories of their own. One winner told me about more cats to TNR that we didn't know about and they will be on the list for when we resume. Another told me about how she has started doing TNR herself, done 10 adults and rescued 16 kittens – I warned her that this can become addictive 😊. To share positive news makes a big difference! Our goal was to try to replace the Silent Auction and Door Prizes at Frosty Claws and we came very close – we raised $6300 and sold 1,260 raffle tickets. Many other donations come in the day of Frosty Claws but this was definitely worth it and we'll do another raffle in a few months, around Kitten Shower time, stay tuned.
Raffle Item |
Winner |
Everything Cat | Dean K. |
Spa Day | JoEllen I. |
What's Cookin' | Pat J. |
Play Time | America D. |
By the Sea | Jacklyn G. |
What A Dog Needs | Joan N. |
Quilt | David G. |
Party Like It's 2021! | Rose H. |
Sample of Raffle Spreadsheet | Winning Tickets |
Other TNR Groups
It is good to share among TNR groups, we have geographical and resource differences and definitely different views. I wanted to share a post from a group in Florida The truth about that free cat trapper. Seems like many of the trappers in this post work on their own and don't have centralized support. What is different with Feral Fixers is that we have funding from our donors, supplies (surgery slots, chips, newspaper, towels, traps, recovery space) and we don’t feel as alone as the writer of this post. Because we have support, we don't get AS upset when people call demanding instantaneous service for the problems that THEY have usually created. When you share our info and say "call Feral Fixers, they'll help you", try to also share that we cannot do everything, we need some involvement from those closest to the cats. Just wanted to share how tough things could be for us without YOU!
TNR in San Francisco Bay Area 09 30 2020
Most information supporting TNR is anecdotal, there just isn't the time and bodies to conduct a finite study of TNR in one location, with a big enough sample to show the impact. This study (Abstract is here. Full report is here.) took place in the San Francisco Bay area from 2004 to 2020, starting out with an initial population of 175 cats. TNR was performed by Project Bay Cat. At the end of the study, one cat remained in the area thru the use of TNR. The population was reduced thru relocation, adoption, disappearance, and euthanization of those who were ill. Information like this is simply not available on most news feeds, definitely worth a quick read. It does show that the number of cats can initially increase due to kittens being produced but the first impact can be no further growth as the kittens are removed and the adults are neutered. That is how one of our colonies may start out at 20 cats and we end up doing TNR on 35+ very easily. Project Bay Cat and the researchers who put together the study are to be commended for their efforts – TNR is difficult enough, managing data is an extremely tough job!
“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” Mother Teresa