UW News

April 2, 2009

Organization of the week: Friends of Campus Cats

Editor’s note: There are many organizations open to the UW faculty and staff. Some have been around for years and some are new. Some are structured groups with officers and committees; some are much more informal. University Week provides a space for campus groups to publish their information, and this quarter we’d like to introduce you to one group a week. This week, Sharon Talbert of Friends of Campus Cats and program assistant for the Information School, discusses her group and its work.


Who can join? Anyone who loves cats and wants to help. In fact, even those who don’t love cats can contribute by helping us spay and neuter (makes for fewer cats, don’t you know).


What does the organization do? We take care of feral cats and kittens, both on the UW campus and in our own neighborhoods. We trap the cats in a humane manner, have them checked by a veterinarian (vaccinated, sterilized, treated for parasites or whatever else that ails them). We foster and socialize kittens, as well as cats we suspect are tame. We return feral adults and make sure they have food and water on a regular basis. We also provide shelter as needed. When we started back in 1988 there were more than 100 cats on the UW campus. Now, thanks to our care, there are only a handul on campus, all sterilized and well fed. I started this organization because I figured feral cats have fewer friends than just about any other creature, except maybe rats and flies. People are afraid of them, thinking they’re either dangerous or full of disease. The truth is, they mostly just want to stay out of sight, and with humane management can lead a quality life.


Recent or typical activities: Our members do everything from trapping the cats to taking them to the vet’s, providing foster care and socialization and feeding the ones who can’t be socialized. We also hold fundraisers twice a year to pay for the food and vet’s bills.


How can I get involved? Our greatest needs right now are for people to provide foster care for cats and kittens that need to be socialized (essentially, that means holding and playing with them), and people to help with our fundraisers — a rummage sale and an auction. Contact me at sharon@campuscats.org.


To see more detailed information for this organization and all the others on the list, go to http://uwnews.org/uweek/organizations.aspx.


Would you like to list your organization with University Week? Our organizational listings are open to groups that are either sponsored by the University or meet on the University campus. They need not be formally chartered (a book group, for example, is eligible). To qualify for a University Week listing, groups should be open to all UW employees or all employees within a particular classification, e.g. the Professional Staff Organization. Groups that are for students only are not eligible. To list your organization, go to the URL above and click on “Post your UW organization.”