Since she replaced the former president of Cat Crazy Villagers, Lee Brockman in 2019, Marlene Girouard is dedicated to promoting the health and well-being of feral cats. Girourad hails from the Village Rio Grande.
She has trapped several feral cats for spaying or neutering.
Surprisingly, without intervention, seven felines can multiply within months to more than 40. Cats and kittens continue to proliferate and due to lack of shelter and food, mostly end up being the helpless prey of other animals.
“Whenever I look at a feral cat and her kittens, they multiply in my head. Kittens are precious, but when they have no homes, that is no life for a little feral kitten,” Girouard said. “It is so deplorable.”
By working closely with YOUR Humane Society in Lake Panasoffkee, Nine Lives Cat Sanctuary in Ocklawaha, and Sheltering Hands in Ocala, “We have rescued many feral cats,” she said.
Cats can be impregnated at only a few months old. That’s why it becomes a vital task to control their numbers.
After she was appointed as the new president, Girouard continued Brockman’s vision for a veterinary school scholarship and added few plans of her own, like the emergency medical fund.
The club is not only helping cat lovers with veterinary bills of important medical treatment of their adored felines but also with the adoption of rescued cats and kittens.
“I really wanted it to be a working club. We get a lot of donations to keep the medical fund going,” Girouard said. “We also donate cat food once a month to the Wildwood Food Pantry.”
Girouard asks residents to keep an eye on unfamiliar or strange ferals in the locality.
“People shouldn’t just ignore a cat in a yard; it could be lost,” she said. But the cat could also be feral, furthering the cycle of undesired, hungry, sick, and unsanitary cats and kittens.
– Attributed Source, The Villages Daily Sun