Nora Springs Community Cats

10/04/2026

‼️Community Cats‼️ The Hard Truth‼️ Please Read‼️

*Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids is receiving no less than 10 requests each day for assistance with what we call community cats. These kitties reside in every town and city throughout Iowa and the entire country. The term reflects both feral cats and kittens along with “domestic strays”. These are the animals who have lived life with people at some point, then discarded or lost, forcing them to live a cruel life outside. The majority are unaltered and go on to propagate the crisis.

*Every animal rescue that accepts cats, is under seige from this heartbreaking epidemic of homelessness and neglect. Many of these animals are tossed outdoors when owners move or are no longer wanted. Many are sick and injured. This crisis is also a disease of inhumanity.

*Critter Crusaders does our best to respond to the unending calls for help. But we just cannot assist them all. We are not a rescue. Before we take any medical case, we need a rescue or shelter on board to handle adoptions when pet patients are healthy and released from care.

*We have no foster homes. That is the function of rescues and shelters.

*We have limited funds due to very expensive veterinary care. With so many dogs and cats already in our medical system, funds need to be reserved for those pets undergoing lengthy medical care, surgeries and recoveries. Because we take the worst cases, the specter of complications is built into our estimated costs for every pet patient under our medical care.

‼️ When you call or message for help, we need you to understand the overwhelming crisis that all of our animal welfare organizations are experiencing. We are not kidding about this.

‼️YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED TO DO YOUR PART. This includes keeping kitties in a secure, safe location until resources open up to assist.

‼️ If the cat needs immediate veterinary care, consider developing a call list of family, friend and coworkers who can donate to make that happen. This is not optional. If you call with the expectation of immediate help, you will be disappointed, though absolutely no fault of our organizations. This crisis includes ALL OF US WORKING TOGETHER.

‼️We ENCOURAGE local veterinary clinics to greatly reduce their spay/neuter costs for community cats that are coming through legitimate organizations and will be re-released outdoors. These would include The Straygency, S.A.I.N.T. Rescue (Saving Animals in Need Today), Paws of Hope Animal Rescue, Funky Paws Animal Rescue of Buchanan County,Cedar County League for Animal Welfare, Last Hope Animal Rescue, A Purposeful Life Animal Rescue & Sanctuary, Hero's Haven Animal Rescue, Better Together Animal Rescue, Inc. and so many more. These clinics could donate their time and resources to do the right thing in overwhelmed communities, to assist the cat overpopulation. Iowa Humane Alliance is an amazing organization but they cannot handle it all. Members of the Eastern Iowa Veterinary Association should add this to their meeting agenda and develop a plan of action for participating. Imagine the effect that one Saturday a month spay/neuters at a variety of clinics (after business hours), could have on trimming the cat overpopulation in the Cedar Rapids area.

❤️ It is imperative that you know how much we care. This heartbreaking situation takes a toll on all of us in animal welfare as well as you, the public. If we could wave a magic wand to alleviate the disease of homelessness and suffering for community cats, we could all sleep better at night. With the upcoming advent of a TNR program in Cedar Rapids, hope of a better, more humane future for these animals is on the way, though it will take significant time. No organization can adopt their way out of this. The numbers of homeless cats is too great.

❤️ If you care about this crisis, please share this and many other posts from multiple organizations on how you can assist. Saving our community cats is a responsibility shared by all. Please help us by becoming part of the solution.

❤️🐱 We Thank You. ❤️🐱

09/28/2026

The most cutting-edge cat shelters aren’t investing time and dollars in new facilities: They’re expanding a network of people who care for community cats. My latest article is all about the building blocks of a successful community cat program! | 22 comments on LinkedIn

08/30/2026

🐾 Wally Wonders… Can We Do It? 👀

Okay, friends… Wally has a question. 🐱

We set our first fundraising goal at $25,000, and thanks to YOU, we’ve already raised $20,000! ❤️

That means we’re just $5,000 away from our first big milestone.

And while $25,000 won’t open the doors by itself, every dollar gets us closer to making SNIP Iowa a reality—a place where affordable spay and neuter services can help prevent unwanted litters, support TNR efforts, and give our communities a better path forward.

So… can we get him to $25,000? 👀

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to donate, this is it. Even $5, $10 or $25 gets us closer. And if you can’t donate, sharing this post helps more than you know.

🐾 $5,000 to go.
🐾 One community.
🐾 One big goal.
🐾 One very curious cat.

Let’s show Wally what we can do. ❤️

Together, we can FIX THE FUTURE.

https://www.thestraygency.com/snip

08/30/2026

Good to see

Here’s a look at today’s front page. Check out The Gazette's daily digital edition. https://mygreengazette.com

08/26/2026

WE’VE BEEN KEEPING A BIG SECRET. ✂️🐾

For months, we’ve been quietly working on something we once only talked about as a “wouldn’t it be amazing if…”

Today, we’re ready to say it out loud.

The Straygency is working to open a high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter clinic.

And we’re not starting from scratch.

We’re onboarding our medical team, consulting with our network partners and putting the pieces in place to turn this idea into something real.

Meet SNIP Iowa — the Spay Neuter Impact Project.

So…how did we get here?

The Straygency started pretty simply. We saw community cats that needed help, so we started helping.

First in our own neighborhoods. Then for friends. Then friends of friends.

Eventually, the need became bigger than one person could financially carry, and The Straygency gave us a way to bring together funding, donations and volunteers so we could help more cats, more consistently.

But the more we helped, the more we saw.

We connected with veteran TNR volunteers who had been doing this work in Cedar Rapids and Marion for years—some for decades. They showed us colonies. They shared their experiences. And they helped us understand just how much bigger the problem was than we ever imagined.

Before long, our conversations kept ending the same way:

“We have to do more.”

“We just don’t have enough resources.”

So we stopped asking how many more cats we could help...

and started asking:

What if we helped create the resource our community is needing?

For the last several months, we’ve been researching, planning, surveying, building relationships and figuring out what it would take to make that happen.

Because we've learned something through doing this work:

We cannot rescue our way out of pet overpopulation.
We have to prevent it.

Affordable, accessible spay/neuter means fewer unwanted litters. Fewer community cats born outside. Fewer animals entering already overburdened rescues and shelters. And more families able to access basic preventive care for the animals they love.

There is still a lot of work ahead.

But we have a plan. We’re building the team. And we are ready to begin fundraising.

This isn't something we want to build for our community.

We want to build it WITH our community.

The Straygency started because there were cats in front of us that needed help.

Now we want to build something that changes how many will need us tomorrow.

Here we go. ❤️

SNIP Iowa.
Spay Neuter Impact Project.
FIX THE FUTURE. 🐾

More details—including our plans, fundraising campaign and how you can help build this resource—are coming next.

Facebook.com/snipiowa

07/02/2026

06/03/2026

If you can help, please do. Fixing this entire colony would give an opportunity to demonstrate that spay/neuter and TNR work to control the populations. Cerro Gordo Trap Neuter Return has helped Nora Springs folks, too. We’re working as collaboratively as we can on a humane solution.

🚨 Trailer Park Cat Project: We Need Help to Finish the Job

Hi everyone,

I’ll be making a more detailed update about the trailer park cats soon. Things are a bit chaotic right now, but I wanted to reach out because I am officially out of funds.

Thanks to Jerry Kurash and his friends raising money for the trailer park kitties, we were able to get a LOT accomplished. However, there are still a few cats left. If we don't get the last ones fixed, the cycle can restart very quickly and undo much of the progress we've made.

I also don't currently have a vehicle that's reliable for long-distance trips, so I would love to coordinate appointments around the availability of volunteer transporters.

My trapping schedule is:

• Sunday nights for Monday morning appointments
• Wednesday nights (I get off work at 7:30 PM) for Thursday morning appointments
• Thursday nights for Friday morning appointments

If any of those times work for you and you're willing to help transport, please let me know. I need to move quickly to stay ahead of the curve.

I know of at least two more litters. One litter is already reaching the age where the kittens may be too old to socialize, so getting them fixed as soon as possible is critical. The mother has already been spayed. The second litter I'm still trying to locate so I can determine the kittens' ages.

I believe there are approximately five outdoor adult cats left to trap and fix. On top of that, there are owned cats that are allowed outdoors and remain unaltered. Those cats also contribute to the problem and need to be addressed.

I need help identifying every cat in the park. I've spent countless hours driving through the area at all times of day, taking photos and tracking cats to make sure none are missed. If you live there, know someone who lives there, feed cats there, or have cats that spend time outdoors there, please send me photos and contact information as soon as possible. I need photos of any and all cats anyone has seen at the park. If anyone wants to spend time out there and take pictures, that would be awesome. I know I am missing some.

Soo, right now, I need:

🐾 Monetary donations to continue funding spay/neuter appointments
🐾 Reliable transport so I can schedule more appointments
🐾 Help gathering information and identifying cats in the park

We've come too far to stop now. Every cat we fix prevents countless more kittens from being born into a difficult life. Life out there is not easy. All of the kittens from there have been very sick. Same with the adults. On top of that, people are shooting them with BB guns I've buried a few that have been hit. I've seen people purposely swerve at them. 😭💔. Thank you to everyone who has supported this project so far.

05/09/2026

Had an amazing time collaborating with Cerro Gordo Trap Neuter Return for some trapping and short-term fostering which ended with Floyd County and Cerro Gordo County community kittens getting into adoption programs!

04/30/2026

Seven cats (6 were females!) transported to Cedar Bend Humane Society, Inc..Makes for a long but satisfying day! Could not have done it without the teamwork with Cerro Gordo Trap Neuter Return, North Iowa SNAP, the neighbors, and the caregivers! Teamwork makes TNR work!

04/18/2026

Grateful we caught this female and helped a fantastic couple get another of their colony fixed!