25/03/2026
My name is Toni. My voice is the one you hear when you call our hotline and my job is to help you! That involves many things from helping you with TNR, vetting a cat, needing food and supplies and explaining to you why we cannot intake your cat. In most cases, we are able to either help you or refer you to someone that can help you. The one thing that is the hardest part of my job is to say no. We get numerous calls a day asking help in relocating cats or intaking them into barns or indoor homes. Now I want to explain why that is the hard part of our job at Barn Cat Buddies. First, we do not have a brick and mortar building to house cats. We do not have a large adoption center. We do not have unlimited foster homes and we receive very few requests for barn cats.
When Judy and her team is out there trapping, we are always hopeful that we are beating back the kitten season. After spaying and neutering over 900 cats last year, we were hopeful that this would be a better kitten season. What is happening now is that we are trapping pregnant moms. In one day a couple of weeks ago, we took in 14 pregnant females. If we are lucky, they are early enough to be spayed but we get that call from our vet's office. This momma cat is ready to deliver any day. At this point, our choice is to intake momma and let her have her kittens. What that entails is at least four months!!! We let momma have her kittens and we let her nurse them until they can eat. We now have momma to find a home for and we have numerous kittens to care for until they are old enough to receive vaccinations and be spayed or neutered. This falls on Judy who has our kitten sanctuary. Judy works 7 days a week up to 10 hours a day doing TNR and whatever else she has to do to save lives. If we are lucky a foster home will open up but we are already full there!!
My point to this post is to reach out to you to understand when we have to say no to intake a cat or kitten that has shown up at your house....a neighbor that has discovered kittens....your mom can no longer care for her cat...the new cat you adopted does not get along with the other cats....we have to say no. We have no room. We have no resources. We will always offer to do what we can...we can provide TNR, we can offer food and litter, we can try to offer advice. What we cannot do is intake your cat. We cannot recommend other rescues that can intake your cat because every single one of us is in the same position. We are at capacity and facing kitten season head on.
What we ask now is your understanding and your support. Just know that if we can help, we will. We appreciate each and every one of you for caring and wanting to do the right thing. Please spread the word to your families, your neighbors and whomever will listen to you...please spay and neuter your cats. That is the only solution!!!
From the heart....Barn Cat Buddies and Feline Friends
