Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return (TNVR)

Some cats are used to living outdoors and roaming free. They’ve developed a “home” that works for them, even if it may be harsher than the one that luckier cats, house cats, have. With help from kind people who feed them and offer them some shelter, they can survive and often be content.

There is not enough space in any shelter for all of these cats.

Moreover, these free-roaming cats can quickly multiply, if humans don’t help them. When that happens, no one, not people or cats, are happy. People are either worried or angry. Cats starve because even the people who want to help them are overwhelmed.

The solution, verified by studies, is a system labeled Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return (TNVR). The GCFOS operates a large TNVR program, working with the community to alter as many as 700 cats per year.

Those cats go “home” to live out their lives. Because no new kittens are born, the number of cats in a particular location gradually goes down.

And, while the cats are living their free-roaming lives, we try, when people help us with donations of funds and cat food, to help the kind people who care for these cats feed them.

To learn more about all of this, visit the section on this website that covers Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return (TNVR).

Emergency Veterinary Care for Homeless Animals

The shelter staff would like to help every sick or injured animal that comes to them. However, there are many more needs than taxpayers’ dollars cover.

Meeting those needs, and saving those blameless, homeless, and suffering animals, is one of GCFOS’s missions. Finding the funds and members to help these animals is one of the most challenging, but, also, the most rewarding and important activities of the group.

Read the stories and see the faces of these real animals throughout our website.

Outside of TNVR Efforts and Emergency Veterinary Care, the GCFOS also:

• provide funds for improving the quality of life for animals living in the shelter. Those needs can be simple, such as buying off-the-floor Kuranda beds for all of the dogs and puppies, stainless steel food and water bowls, leashes, and collars. The needs can be much larger, too. For instance, the GCFOS helped fund the construction of several shelter buildings, and bought cat cages, and even a transport van.
• participate in community events and festivals to let people know about their mission and services. They also try to educate people about pet care and the wisdom of choosing the right pet for their lifestyle and living situation.
• act as the shelter director’s go-to for help with improving a particular animal’s chances of finding a home. That sometimes means transporting shelter animals to rescue groups, veterinary appointments, and adoption events. Other times it might mean fostering an animal for a while, either while it recovers from bad treatment or illness or grows old enough to go to a forever home.