‘I call them my furry inmates and they have a decent life, but it could be better. I feel bad for them because they deserve to be in a loving home.’

Bethpage

“I’m a member of the medical staff at Rikers Island, and in my spare time, I trap cats there for TNR – trap, neuter, return. I have worked there for 22 years and we always had a feral cat population on the island.

“A retired correction captain is still involved and comes onto the island a few days a week to do cat rescue. She said, ‘We could use your help.’ That kind of changed my life. I was bitten by the cat rescue bug.

“We’re called Rikers Island Cat Rescue, a 501c3; we have a Facebook page and we’re short-staffed. COVID threw a monkey wrench; it was a ‘cat-tastrophe’ because the ASPCA had offered us free neuter services, but they closed down during kitten season, so all these kittens were being born.

“We try to get the population under fairly good control, but people dump unwanted cats here. They figure they get fed here and we have shelters.

“Thankfully, the ASPCA reopened and we were able to work out some mass trappings with 30 cats in September, then we did another operation in November, another 27 cats.

I started making winter cat houses and feral cat feeding stations and selling them to donate the profits to the cat rescue. I can’t keep up with the demand — someone saw a picture of the cat house I built and asked to buy one, and it spread by word-of-mouth.

“Right now, we’re running out of food. We go through 1,000 pounds of food per month. We estimate there are 350 cats and there are other critters that come around that eat the food. I started making winter cat houses and feral cat feeding stations and selling them to donate the profits to the cat rescue. I can’t keep up with the demand — someone saw a picture of the cat house I built and asked to buy one, and it spread by word-of-mouth.

“About 60 percent of the cats on the island are neutered, but 40 percent are not and that can change very rapidly. One female has a litter, and the kittens can get pregnant at 4 months and it grows exponentially.

“We have a cat house with 28 cats in there now, they were dumped, they were someone’s pets, and they don’t do well in the feral communities. We take them in and get them neutered and we try to get them adopted, but we’re so busy doing the caretaking of the colonies and the TNR that we’re slacking on the adoption process.

“I call them my furry inmates and they have a decent life, but it could be better. I feel bad for them because they deserve to be in a loving home.”