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Community Opportunity
Since 2023 Friends of Plumas County Animals and Plumas Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) have worked together with community members to curb the feral cat populations in Plumas County. Together they formed the Plumas Feral Spay/Neuter Project and have earnestly tackled the county wide issue of the overpopulation of community cats. Through a series of Spayathons—in October ‘23, March ‘24 and again in October ‘24-these two non profits have been responsible for the spaying or neutering of 215 community cats, preventing these animals from reproducing and repopulating the feral colonies. The animals are also vaccinated for rabies before being released into their home territory. The TNR (Trap, Neuter and Return) program has been a huge success and kitten populations are down because of the work of the TNR program. Veterinarians, Frank Merrill and Michelle Kelly, who both have ties and history with Plumas County, and veterinarian Maggie Lin all come and bring vet techs from their practices in the Bay Area to assist with the preparation and the surgeries. Volunteers from PAWS and Friends and volunteers from every community in the county, trap and transport, house and care for the animals before and after the surgeries. Volunteers provide the “grunt work” during the Spayathon,they clean Dr. Rolston’s offices after the event and make sure everyone working is well fed during the day. It is exhausting work, but most necessary to get and keep the numbers of feral animals down and kittens born without homes, under control. Each Spayathon has expenses which have been funded in the past by grants from the Almanor Foundation, The Common Good Foundation, Bread for the Journey, The Summerlee Foundation and kind hearted citizens. The veterinarians do the work for a mere $25 per cat, Dr. Rolston rents his offices for a minimal fee, medications for the surgeries are purchased, as well as, vaccines and all the cats are vaccinated for rabies before being released. There are costs for lodging and food and reimbursement for travel costs for the vets and the techs. Each Spayathon is about a $7,000 event. The non profits have another Spayathon scheduled for March 29, 2025—hopefully before females go into their Spring heat cycle and “kitten season” begins. This event is not fully funded and The Plumas Feral Spay/Neuter Project is looking to the generosity of our community to help with the funding. Ideally we will raise enough support to fund the March Spayathon and be confident in being able to do the work again in October 2025. The Project has done incredible work in our small county and consistency is vital to be able to keep the numbers of cats under control. Tax deductible donations can be made out and sent to Plumas S/N Project at PO Box 182 in Quincy, CA 95971. Thank you
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November 2023
Dear Friends and Supporters-
There were a lot of goals set this year for our rescue and all of those goals have been achieved.
To date, Friends has managed to house and re-home over 80 domestic cats and kittens; we have managed to trap and spay/neuter 96 feral animals since we began our own TNR program in March. Fifty four of those feral were female and 20 of those were pregnant. We trapped in Greenville, Quincy and Portola areas and absorbed all the costs for those surgeries.
Friends also initiated a countywide TNR program and that event, the Plumas Feral Spay-Neuter Project of October 14, was an overwhelming success with 2 veterinarians doing non stop surgeries for 12 hours and altering an additional 82 feral cats. Trappers from every town in the county came together and trapped , then volunteers worked all day alongside the veterinarians Dr. Merrill and Dr. Kelley to finalize this achievement. The costs (food, supplies, surgery, building rent, motels etc) were paid for by very generous donations from private citizens and the Lake Almanor Foundation, The Common Good Foundation and Bread for the Journey. Plans are already beginning to be made to repeat the Spay-Neuter Project- but this time with 3 vets and for possibly 2 days.
Volunteers spent many hours planning and working on the above 2 projects, all the while caring for the animals in house and keeping the rescue open to the public so our lovely animals can be seen and adopted into new loving homes.
Been a busy year.
We now need to focus on the needs of our physical building. Our first major project is getting funding for a new roof..our current composition roof will make it through winter, but it will need to be replaced in 2024. Estimates come in at about $16,000 for a metal roof and we are about $11,000 short right now. Baby steps to get to the goal, but we know it can be reached.
When we look at all we have achieved, with your financial help and support, it is truly amazing. The dream of owning our own building and making that old tired spot into the
fresh, clean and happy place it is now is a testament to what can be built together. Friends is a safe place for the animals and the volunteers- politics, religion, differences of opinion have no place in the everyday work of Friends. All the volunteers and the Board support each other totally and work solely for the good of the animals. I am so proud to be part of such a great team of people.
As you are aware, Friends of PCAnimals is a 501 (c) non-profit corporation and all donations are tax deductible. All monies go directly to the care and comfort of the rescued animals and no money goes towards salaries or administrative fees. Donations can be sent to Friends at PO Box 182, Quincy Ca 95971; they can also be brought to the site at 1093 Lee Rd, in Quincy or can be submitted electronically through our website. See our donation button as well as our beautiful animals at plumasanimals.org.
Thank you for your past support and your generosity. It is MUCH appreciated! May your holiday season be filled with Peace and Kindness.
For the good of the animals, Rose Buzzetta,
Executive Director of Friends