10/11/2026
‼️Community Cats‼️ The Hard Truth‼️ Please Read‼️
*Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids is receiving no less than 10 requests each day for assistance with what we call community cats. These kitties reside in every town and city throughout Iowa and the entire country. The term reflects both feral cats and kittens along with “domestic strays”. These are the animals who have lived life with people at some point, then discarded or lost, forcing them to live a cruel life outside. The majority are unaltered and go on to propagate the crisis.
*Every animal rescue that accepts cats, is under seige from this heartbreaking epidemic of homelessness and neglect. Many of these animals are tossed outdoors when owners move or are no longer wanted. Many are sick and injured. This crisis is also a disease of inhumanity.
*Critter Crusaders does our best to respond to the unending calls for help. But we just cannot assist them all. We are not a rescue. Before we take any medical case, we need a rescue or shelter on board to handle adoptions when pet patients are healthy and released from care.
*We have no foster homes. That is the function of rescues and shelters.
*We have limited funds due to very expensive veterinary care. With so many dogs and cats already in our medical system, funds need to be reserved for those pets undergoing lengthy medical care, surgeries and recoveries. Because we take the worst cases, the specter of complications is built into our estimated costs for every pet patient under our medical care.
‼️ When you call or message for help, we need you to understand the overwhelming crisis that all of our animal welfare organizations are experiencing. We are not kidding about this.
‼️YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED TO DO YOUR PART. This includes keeping kitties in a secure, safe location until resources open up to assist.
‼️ If the cat needs immediate veterinary care, consider developing a call list of family, friend and coworkers who can donate to make that happen. This is not optional. If you call with the expectation of immediate help, you will be disappointed, though absolutely no fault of our organizations. This crisis includes ALL OF US WORKING TOGETHER.
‼️We ENCOURAGE local veterinary clinics to greatly reduce their spay/neuter costs for community cats that are coming through legitimate organizations and will be re-released outdoors. These would include The Straygency, S.A.I.N.T. Rescue (Saving Animals in Need Today), Paws of Hope Animal Rescue, Funky Paws Animal Rescue of Buchanan County,Cedar County League for Animal Welfare, Last Hope Animal Rescue, A Purposeful Life Animal Rescue & Sanctuary, Hero's Haven Animal Rescue, Better Together Animal Rescue, Inc. and so many more. These clinics could donate their time and resources to do the right thing in overwhelmed communities, to assist the cat overpopulation. Iowa Humane Alliance is an amazing organization but they cannot handle it all. Members of the Eastern Iowa Veterinary Association should add this to their meeting agenda and develop a plan of action for participating. Imagine the effect that one Saturday a month spay/neuters at a variety of clinics (after business hours), could have on trimming the cat overpopulation in the Cedar Rapids area.
❤️ It is imperative that you know how much we care. This heartbreaking situation takes a toll on all of us in animal welfare as well as you, the public. If we could wave a magic wand to alleviate the disease of homelessness and suffering for community cats, we could all sleep better at night. With the upcoming advent of a TNR program in Cedar Rapids, hope of a better, more humane future for these animals is on the way, though it will take significant time. No organization can adopt their way out of this. The numbers of homeless cats is too great.
❤️ If you care about this crisis, please share this and many other posts from multiple organizations on how you can assist. Saving our community cats is a responsibility shared by all. Please help us by becoming part of the solution.
❤️🐱 We Thank You. ❤️🐱
