Gift a Life: Spay and Neuter.

Black & Orange Cat Foundation (or “B & O”) is named for two very special and very spoiled cats, Butler and Oswald, adopted from the Union County Humane Society in Marysville, Ohio. 

While these two mongrels were adopted from our local shelter, the rest of the cats who have padded into our lives have come looking for us. Like the hobos during the Great Depression who marked “X's” on gates to let other hobos know where a kindly person lived who would give them a meal, these cats seem to have marked our homes to lead other unfortunate felines to our doors.

Stray and abandoned, often very ill or injured, these cats led us to the idea of starting an organization to spay and neuter feral and stray cats in order to decrease the overpopulation problem and help cats who have no other angels looking out for them. Working primarily in Madison and Union counties, Ohio, B & O Cats uses a method called Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) to trap feral or “wild” cats in humane traps baited with tuna or other yummy cat food. 

Once trapped, the cats get a ride to the vet's office for vaccinations and sterilization. Then the cats are returned to the location where they were originally cuaght.

Feral cats are also “ear tipped.” A tiny portion of their left ear is removed in a universal symbol that tells everyone who might later come in contact with the cat that it is a feral cat that has been fixed.

The primary focus is stray and feral cats, however B & O Cats also assists low-income residents, who cannot afford the cost of sterilization and medical care for their cats.