Even though the CatSnip ad appeared just once in the local paper [ February 26 ] the dust hasn't settled from the stampede it engendered in Vernon. Within less than an hour on the 26th, I'd approved 20 cats and, even today, the phone is still ringing. Luckily, we've been able to handle most of the other applicants through our own spay/neuter assistance program. As a result - since January 1 - 140 cats and 5 female dogs have been altered.

Thanks to CatSnip, some very desperate cats have been spayed, including one young pregnant female with a raging infection. The vet told me that, left unspayed, she would have died in agony. "Blister" - a seven-year-old female - will no longer be supplying the local pet stores with several litters of kittens a year.[Her "guardian" complained that it was getting harder and harder to get rid of her kittens.]

Two females who were the only survivors of a litter tossed in a dumpster had their change of life last week. Their guardian told me that she had phoned the SPCA last year when she found the kittens but the SPCA had told her they were unable to take them in. She took the two babies home but now they were grown girls and she could not possibly afford to spay them.

Thanks, Animal Advocates. Your program has been a wonderful lifesaver.