Campgrounds seem to be magnets for stray and feral cats, and Welaka Lodge and Resort is no exception. There are several ‘campground cats’ that have made this their home. Fortunately, most of the campers here love cats and make sure they get fed and get any attention they need. There are also a lot of feral cats in the town of Welaka. Friends of Welaka is a local organization that organizes days to trap, neuter, and return these cats. Once they are treated the veterinarian clips one of their ears so it’s easy to tell which cats have already been fixed.

We volunteered to help transport the cats to and from the veterinarian that takes care of them. We both love cats and would have our own but Candi is allergic and can’t live with them. However, she can be around them for short periods of time and we’ve been feeding two cats and making sure they get plenty of attention! These cats had been part of a previous trap and return so didn’t need to be caught this time. They are both affectionate and would love to come into our camper if we’d let them. Sometimes it’s hard to keep them out! One of them, named Paul, is a lap cat and would happily sit in Mike’s lap for hours. The other one is called Juju and we often refer to her as ‘Princess Juju’ since she thinks she rules the campground. In the last few weeks another one has been hanging around. The third one is easy to recognize since he doesn’t have a tail! We have been calling him Bob. His ear isn’t clipped so we were hoping to catch him.

Friends of Welaka has done several traps in the past so they were very efficient and organized. They had about 30 traps to use. The day they set the traps out they asked everyone to stop putting out any cat food so the cats would be more attracted to the food in the traps. We put a trap near our site hoping to catch Bob. Within about 5 minutes we had captured Paul, who has already been neutered. We let him go and reset the trap. About 10 minutes later Bob was in the trap. Once a cat was caught they were gathered in once place. The cages were covered with towels which helps to keep the cats calm. They were given food and water and fans were setup to make sure they had air flow thru the cages.

After trapping for 2 days, 26 cats had been trapped. We reported for duty (in the wee hours of the morning) and loaded 8 cages in our truck while other drivers took the rest.

We drove them to Flagler Cats spay/neuter clinic in Bunnell where they were attended to and given a rabies shot. The veterinarian also looks them over to make sure they don’t have any other major health issues and clips an ear. The veterinarian called us around 2 to say all of the cats would be ready to be picked up by 3 or 3:30.

We loaded up the cats and brought them back to the campground. They will stay here in their cages for one night where they will be given food and water and then tomorrow, they will be taken back to the areas they were caught and released.

This was an interesting experience and we are glad we were able to be a part of it and give back to the community!!