She named the cat Pricilla and made Theresa promise to feed her from the bag of cat food she bought. When Marsharee told me about a friend of hers who sends money every month to a website that helps stray cats, I got the idea for the S.I.F.C.P. The Smith Island Feral Cat Project addresses the issue of ownerless cats here. The website invites people to sponsor individual cats. Sponsors will be able to choose a cat, name it, and follow its progress over the Web. If it works, the islanders who feed cats will get paid to have them spayed and neutered as well.
Early indications are encouraging.
The traps will be used to capture cats who won t allow themselves to be handled. The trapped cats will be transported to the Worchester Animal Clinic in Pocomoke where Dr. Hafez has agreed to a special rate for S.I.F.C.P. participants. Smith Island s remoteness makes it different from other areas where stray cats are a problem. New cats coming in from other neighborhoods do not replenish the feral cat population here. That makes it possible to control the population through dedicated spaying and neutering.