The Estuary Apartment cat saga is over.
Apartment management and Kirk Cats, with the help of Lifeline Animal Project, have reached an agreement to allow volunteers to feed dozens of community cats at the Estuary Apartments.
After Rough Draft’s March story about volunteer cat feeders being banned from the complex at the Henderson Mill Road-area apartments, negotiations began between management and Kirk Cats, a volunteer group started in 2014 by neighbors concerned about the plight of free-roaming cats in the Kirkwood neighborhood.
“Representatives from Kirk Cats, along with Rebecca Guinn [the CEO of Lifeline] and the management group met, and we explained the dilemma of these cats and worked out an agreement to continue to feed them,” said Kirk Cats’ Catharine Tipton.
The stable population of about 30 cats, most of whom had been left behind when their owners moved out of the apartments, had been part of a TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) program for years.
The animals, after being left behind, are often feral and therefore ineligible for adoption through DeKalb Lifeline.
Community cats defined
Community cats, according to DeKalb Lifeline website, “are free-roaming cats who can be feral from lack of human interaction. Before LifeLine brought TNR to Atlanta, community cats were routinely picked up, taken to county shelters, and euthanized.”
Now, thanks to TNR, cats are trapped, neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped (to identify them as neutered), and returned back to their neighborhoods,” the narrative continued.
More than 55,000 cats have been funneled through the TNR program, which serves 35 counties in Georgia, according to DeKalb Lifeline’s website. It receives 700 requests a month through the program.
Feeding program resumes
“We’ve now got two great volunteer feeders, with three stations, and the apartment complex is on board to continue the program,” Tipton said. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”
Matea Blazevic is one of the new volunteer feeders at the complex. She is a veteran of the TNR program, and takes care of five other cat colonies in the area.
“It’s very hard to get apartment complexes on board about the fact that the cats live there and this is their home,” Blazevic said. “Too many people think if you stop feeding them they will go away.”
Blazevic said she appreciates Estuary Apartment management for their forward thinking in allowing the program to continue. Right now, the colony is mostly stable, but one mother with two kittens has recently joined the group. Blazevic said she is working with Lifeline to TNR the trio when the time is right.
Hope for the future
Tipton and Blazevic both hope that other complexes in similar situations will adapt Estuary’s philosophy when it comes to feeding programs.
“We hope this will be the start of something all over DeKalb,” Tipton said. “We all really appreciate the fact that Estuary reached out to us, listened, and agreed to adapt such a forward-thinking practice.”
