Chattanooga Feral Cat Alliance

06/11/2026

This week we started on the RuPaul’s Drag Race Colony, but unfortunately the neighbors missed the message about not feeding so we showed up to a well-fed group of cats who mostly milled around our traps giving us weird looks. But you can almost always count on a kitten falling for some tuna, so we were at least able to trap, neuter, and return Raja Gemini. 🐈‍⬛

We’ll be back in a few weeks to try again!

🎉 Thanks to Nicole for donating to name this colony! If you’d like to donate to name a colony and support us in our TNR work, please visit the link in our bio. We pay anywhere from $35 to $100 to TNR one cat, so every donation helps us continue our work.

06/09/2026

This myth is one of the most concerning misconceptions in TNR and makes experienced trappers cringe, as leaving traps unattended puts animals at serious risk.

Raccoons and coyotes can smell food in traps and have been known to attack or even kill cats stuck in traps overnight. Plus, humane traps aren’t cheap and raccoons or opossums might damage or destroy them while trying to escape. (And we don’t want to cause them stress, either.)

During the day predators are less of a concern, but animals in traps are still susceptible to stress, extreme weather, or humans who interfere—with either good or bad intentions. As soon as an animal is trapped, it’s your responsibility to ensure they’re safe by covering the trap and moving it to a quiet, secure indoor space immediately.

Staying with your traps and monitoring them from a distance is imperative. If you don’t have a clear line of sight from your vehicle, ask a resident to keep an eye on the traps from indoors and text you as soon as a cat is trapped. You can also use tools like a bluetooth baby monitor or cellular-powered trail cam for a live view of traps if a direct line of sight isn’t possible.

🔔 Remember: If you can’t actively watch your traps, don’t set them.

06/09/2026

🐾 Kitten Season is Here… and Here’s the Hard Truth 🐾

We know how it feels. You see tiny kittens all alone and your first instinct is to scoop them up and help. 💔

But in most cases… the best thing you can do is nothing at all.

Kittens have their highest chance of survival when they stay with their mom. She knows how to feed them, keep them warm, and protect them. Even if you don’t see her, she is very likely nearby—out searching for food and will return.

As hard as it is, sometimes helping means stepping back.

👀 So how do you know what to do? Hopefully our Flow Chart will help!

Take a moment and assess from a distance:

✅ Kittens are clean and dry
✅ They’re tucked in a relatively safe spot

👉 Leave them be.
Keep an eye from afar and reach out to your local shelter or rescue for guidance if needed.

🐾 Still not sure? Sprinkle a ring of flour around the nest, and check back several hours later. If mom has come and gone you will see footsteps in the flour : )

🚨 When should you step in?

If the kittens are:
❌ Covered in dirt, waste, or appear weak
❌ In immediate danger (near a road, predators, unsafe area)

Then it’s okay to intervene.

Place them in a box with a soft towel or blanket and provide warmth immediately (heating pad or a warm rice sock).

⚠️ Warmth is critical.
Cold kittens cannot survive, and they should NEVER be fed until fully warmed.

📌 A few important tips:

🚫 No cow’s milk — kitten formula only
🚫 Do not move kittens unless they truly need help
🚫 Bottle feeding can be dangerous if done incorrectly—research first (The Kitten Lady is a great resource!)

💬 When in doubt, ask for help before acting.

🐾 The takeaway?
The best place for kittens is with their mom—even if you can’t see her right away.

Let’s work together to give them their best chance this kitten season. 🐱💛

If you would like to sign up to be a foster parent, click this link - we can use every ounce of help we can get! https://form.jotform.com/doobertrescue/walker-county-as_foster-app

06/05/2026

In the eight years we’ve been doing trap-neuter-return at CHAFCA, we’ve heard our fair share of misconceptions about the process. So today we’re kicking off a series called Myth vs. Truth: TNR Edition, where we’ll tackle some of the most common claims we’ve encountered over the years—and share the facts behind them.

First up: the myth that you need to be able to touch a cat in order to trap them. We’re not sure where this idea came from, but we’ve had several caretakers tell us they’re worried trapping will be difficult because they can’t pick up or pet their colony cats.

But the truth is that TNR uses humane traps specifically designed for feral cats who by definition aren’t socialized to humans, so handling the cats isn’t necessary at all. In fact, trapping is safer and more successful when people avoid approaching the cats and instead allow them to investigate and enter the traps on their own.

As long as the colony is on a consistent feeding schedule, food has been withheld on trapping day, and the site is calm and quiet, the process usually goes smoothly.

What myth about TNR have you heard lately? Share your favorite in the comments, and stay tuned for more of ours!

06/04/2026

This batch of TMNT characters was a smelly one 😅 and we had to dig deep for character names! Karai, April (the only girl and the master of side-eye), Hamato Yoshi, Casey Jones (who liquefied himself into the shape of the trap) and Splinter all received surgery, vaccines and ear tips yesterday and were very happy to be returned home this morning.

There are only a few cats left here who need TNRd, but they’ve evaded our traps twice now so we’re going to give the colony a little break while we head over to a new one for the next couple weeks. But we’ll be back! ☢️ 🐢
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We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit providing TNR services for managed colonies in near-downtown Chattanooga neighborhoods. If you’d like to support our work, request our help, or learn how you can start doing TNR in your neighborhood, please visit the link in our bio. 🏡 🐈 🐈‍⬛ 💚
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Please donate to help feral and community cats! Donations allow us to continue to spay/neuter and vaccinate—we pay anywhere from $35 to $100 per cat depending on the clinic, so every donation helps. Link to donate is in our bio.

06/02/2026

We started off the week strong, trapping these 🧀 cheese kitties 🧀 Stilton and Gorgonzola in about five minutes (hooray for a caretaker who keeps their cats on a strict feeding schedule! 🎉). They both received neuters, vaccines and ear tips (and Gorgonzola was treated for an upper respiratory infection), and this morning were returned to their lovely garden home. Their mama Roquefort moved down the block a couple weeks ago to shack up with a tom cat, so those folks are working on getting them on a feeding schedule so we can TNR them, too (hopefully before there are more 🧀 🐱 made).

We’ll be back at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Colony ☢️ 🐢 tonight, hoping to trap the remaining cats who still need TNR there.

We’re still fundraising to Fix Ferals By Fall! Find the link in our bio or go to fff.chafca.org to donate or buy one of our limited-edition The Trapper t-shirts. We pay between $35 and $100 to spay/neuter and vaccinate one cat, so every single donation counts!

05/28/2026

The MAC C.A.R.E.S. Center is hosting a free vaccine and pet care clinic this weekend!

We’re teaming up with Dr. Miller from Cornerstone Veterinary Services and Petco Love to bring no-cost pet care directly to Hamilton County residents.

📅 Saturday, May 30 | 1–4 PM

📍 MAC C.A.R.E.S. Center | 4001 Rossville Blvd, Chattanooga, TN

Services include:

✅ Free DHPP, FVRCP, and Rabies vaccines
✅ Microchips
✅ Pet food & supplies available as needed

No appointment required. Services are first-come, first-served and available to Hamilton County residents only.

05/28/2026

This week we visited the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Colony and TNRd Shredder, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael 🐢 ! Donatello received a spay abort, which we were extra-glad to be able to provide after we heard she’d previously been spotted with one deceased kitten. It’s hard out there y’all, and kittens born outside are more likely to die than make it past six months of age. Even with a dedicated caretaker and shelter. Spay aborts will always be the kindest, most compassionate option.

Thanks to Andrea B for donating $100 to name this colony! While we ✨ very quickly ✨ met our match goal for the grant program, we are still running the fundraiser until August! If you’d like to donate to support us (or buy one of our limited-edition shirts), head over to https://fff.chafca.org. We pay between $35 and $100 to spay/neuter one community cat, so every donation helps us continue our work. Thanks as always for your support!

05/26/2026

Reminder for folks trapping cats to bring in on Community Cat Day! Mckamey rents traps for a mostly-refundable deposit.

As a reminder, any cat brought in for our Trap Neuter Release program MUST be brought in a cat trap. Bringing feral cats in pet carriers is a hazard for our staff, and we cannot accept cats in cat carriers.
You can borrow traps from MAC! Learn more about our Trap Neuter Release program here: https://mckameyanimalcenter.org/community-cats/