Two Vicksburg women who set out to help neighborhood cats and kittens but found they were only hurting them have now turned it around and become guardian angels for the felines.

To neuter

For more information on MS SPAN or spaying and neutering pets or strays, visit www.msspan.org or call 1-866-901-7729 (SPAY).

For more information on PAWS Rescue or spaying and neutering stray and feral cats in the Vicksburg-Warren area, visit www.pawsrescuepets.org or call 601-529-1535.

Johnette Armstrong began feeding the feral cats on Smedes Street near Oak Street when she moved to the neighborhood in January 2006,  but quickly realized they were going to become a nuisance.

“We were kind of being our own worst enemies by feeding them,” Armstrong said of herself and soon-to-be-neighbor Jill Waring.  “So we started fixing them.”

Armstrong has spayed or neutered about 20 stray and feral cats using the Mississippi Spay and Neuter Clinic in Pearl.

SPAN is a collaborative effort of several nonprofit and animal welfare organizations across the state to provide an affordable way for owners and stray or feral cat lovers to control the population in their area.

Waring began to help out when she noticed several feral cats hanging around her fiance’s house on Oak Street. Waring had seen the cats at Armstrong’s house and asked her if she knew anything about them. When she learned about Armstrong’s efforts, she wanted to pitch in. 

PAWS Rescue, a nonprofit organization in Vicksburg, provided Waring with cat traps. PAWS also pays for the spaying and neutering of the stray and feral cats at the Animal Medical Clinic through a grant from Operation Feral Feline Fix.

PAWS Rescue volunteer president Leigh Conerly said the benefits of having feral cats in the neighborhood, as long as they are fixed and have their vaccinations, include pest control and saving taxpayers money because of fewer euthanizations.

The Pearl SPAN clinic charges $45 per animal, which is between $20 and $40 cheaper than usual, or two for the price of one of the same species  The clinic’s voucher program provides pet owners living outside of the Jackson area with a voucher honored by veterinary clinics across the state.

SPAN has a 22-foot traveling spay and neuter surgical unit called the Little Fix Rig that is capable of traveling to areas in need. The agency’s 53-foot traveling clinic, the Big Fix Rig, is on the way to Florida. Since the opening of MS SPAN on June 12, 2002, the agency has spayed or neutered 17,948 cats in Mississippi. 

“The No. 1 disease that kills cats is euthanasia,” said MS SPAN vice president and director Elane Adair.  “If you have a managed cat colony and someone is feeding them and they have their rabies shots, they won’t bother people and will be beneficial to the neighborhood.”

Armstrong is determined to keep up the effort.  “When I see one that is here and I can touch it, I go ahead and make an appointment and bring them in,” she said. 

Not all of the cats are released back into her neighborhood.  For those cats that can be tamed, she tries to find a home.  For others she keeps on the lookout for “jobs.”

Bonnie and Clyde, two cats from the first litter she took under her wing, for example, now work as mousers at Faulk’s Garden Shop and Nursery on Clay Street.

*

Contact Katie Carter at kcarter@vicksburgpost.com