08/03/2026
Modoc Feline Humane Society Expands Services To Help âNobodyâs Catâ
This is for the folks who ask for our help. If weâve heard it once, weâve heard it a 1000 times. Someone asks our volunteers for help with trapping feral or stray cats and says, âBut, itâs not my cat!â YesâŚ. we know these arenât cats you own. We quite likely couldnât help you if they were your cats!
Modoc Feline Humane Society (MFHS) was founded and exists to help the cats that no-one owns. These are the cats that were born outside and survived an unvaccinated kittenhood (less than ½ of kittens born outside survive) and now make their home in your neighborhood. Or they were abandoned when someone moved and left their cat behind. These are the kittens that were born under your porch. Or they were from an âoopsâ litter because someoneâs female cat had kittens at five months of age and they didnât think a cat could get pregnant that early. Or worse yet, these are the cats that because someone wanted the fun of kittens, intentionally let their cat get pregnant and then opened their door once the kittens grew up. This is where these cats come from and why we have a cat overpopulation crisis in Modoc County.
Since November of 2020, the volunteers running our Trap/Neuter/Return Program (formerly operating under the High Plateau Humane Society), our low-cost Voucher Program and our rescue Foster/Adoption Program has fixed and vaccinated over 1,000 cats. Iâll let you calculate how many unwanted pregnancies and the resulting suffering this has prevented.
Now we are expanding our Voucher Program to have low-cost vouchers available for sale in Adin and Cedarville, along with Alturas. We also have traps available to loan. A Community Cat Voucher covers the spay or neuter, FVRCP and rabies vaccines and any minor necessary treatment such as for ear mites, worms or abscesses. Your cost is a co-pay of $40 and MFHS subsidizes the balance with our fundraisers. Modoc Veterinary Center (MVC) gives us a substantial discount, but our monthly bills still average $3,300 a month.
To purchase vouchers or borrow traps contact:
⢠Leslie in Alturas at 530 708-0987
⢠Heather in Adin at 530 640-2284 (text preferred)
⢠Mary in Cedarville at 209 742-8834 (text preferred)
MVC has clinics in Alturas, Cedarville and Adin where they can perform spay/neuter services. Once you have purchased a voucher, make an appointment before you bring the cat to the clinic.
MFHS conducts a Spay Day with the Alturas MVC clinic once a month on the 2nd Wednesday. Contact Karen at 760 898-4373 or [email protected] to be put on the list to participate. To take part, you trap the cat(s) on the Monday and Tuesday before the Spay Day. We then hold them before and after their surgery and transport them to the veterinary clinic. You must make arrangements to participate before the Spay Day. We do not take unscheduled drop offs.
Managing the un-owned, free-roaming cat population in Modoc County cannot be done by one small grassroots volunteer-run organization alone. It takes a village. We know these arenât your cats that are causing whatever problem you are having. Hereâs the thing â they arenât our cats either. But, here we are â willing to volunteer our time, work to raise money to pay (most) of the expense, provide guidance on how to trap and come up with a plan to fix the problem in your neighborhood. YOU are an essential part of the solution!
The main things that need to be done to resolve the problem are 1) trap and fix ALL the cats in the colony. If any unfixed cats remain (yes, even the males) the population will rebound; 2) fix the kittens by five months of age before they breed and have kittens themselves; and 3) be on the lookout for any new cats showing up that havenât been fixed already and have them altered right away. Thatâs it. Thatâs how itâs done.
There are many locations in Modoc County where there was once an out-of-control cat colony that now are stabilized and not breeding more kittens. Many thanks to the caretakers who have followed these guidelines for keeping their colony from rebounding. We can help, but you also must help.đ
