Moose Jaw’s Stray Cat Rescue and Protection Society (SCRAPS) is selling its latest Christmas calendars filled with pictures of the cats and kittens it works to help.
This year’s SCRAPS calendar is called “Compassion in Action 2023.”
The calendars are being sold at multiple locations throughout Moose Jaw including Pet Valu, DDK Pets, Gary Overs, Moose Jaw Animal Clinic, and more.
“The work SCRAPS does is absolutely, hugely important,” said Anne Marciszyn with SCRAPS. “We’re dealing with an overpopulation of animals, and there are already too many cats, too many kittens, and there’s just not enough homes for all of them.”
The SCRAPS calendar helps the non-profit fund their trap, neuter, release or re-home (TNR) program. Marciszyn said theirs is the only program in Moose Jaw that aims to directly care for the stray cat population while also reducing it over time.
“Our specialty is the free-roaming, often feral cats that live outdoors,” she explained. “These animals typically don’t have owners. They’re often quite wild. They probably started off as family pets at some point, and generations later we have the cats we’re working with.
“We set humane traps for them and capture them. Then, we take them to the vet, they get spayed or neutered, they get a vet checking any wounds or illnesses, and they’re fully vaccinated against diseases like rabies. And they’re microchipped.”
Many people think that’s where the SCRAPS program stops, Marciszyn added, but their compassion and care are ongoing.
Volunteers with SCRAPS monitor the stray cat colonies in Moose Jaw. They are not able to house them all, but they can still care for them.
“We set them up with shelters, like now in this really cold weather. A lot of the cats we care for have insulated shelters with straw matting. They can survive for years in that kind of environment. We feed them once or twice a day, they have dedicated caregivers that look after them.
“If anybody is sick or has wounds, we recapture them and take them back to the vet. We get their wounds treated and get them fixed up, then once they’re healthy they can go back to their outdoor home.”
Kittens are an exception. Cats that are too young are never put back outside. Instead, SCRAPS does their best to find permanent homes for them. Until that happens, a network of local fosters cares for the kittens.
All the money that it takes to operate the non-profit is from donations. SCRAPS has no regular, formal source of income — making their holiday calendar all the more important.
They are supported by sponsors including Moose Jaw Carpet One Floor & Homes, Gale Toews, and Penna’s Welding.
“We’re always so grateful to our community for their great support of us,” Marciszyn said. “We’ve been operating since 2011 and we’re just getting bigger and taking in more animals all the time.
“Purchasing our calendar helps people be part of a program that does so much more than just find homes for cats. It actually cares for the ones that can’t find homes, too. It helps to reduce their population and keep healthier animals in our community.”
Unfortunately, Marciszyn said, despite all their work the stray cat population continues to grow. The main obstacle is a lack of awareness of how important spaying and neutering is. A spayed or neutered cat has a higher quality of life, less risk of disease and injury, and less strain from multiple pregnancies.
A Christmas calendar could help create a future where all the community cats have warm, safe, compassionate, loving homes.
For more information or if you’re interested in volunteering, reach out to SCRAPS (306) 684-9048, at scraps-mj@hotmail.com, or on their Facebook page.
