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A new office and holding location for cats is being refurbished at 722 Kingston
Avenue.
Thrilled to be moving their operation into a real building instead of their houses,
Berry and Jorgenson said they can now begin catching colonies of cats a few
days before scheduled spaying and neutering rather than rushing to catch them
the day before.
The ladies do the trapping themselves with humane traps, which do not harm the
cats and allow them to go inside but not out. The traps are covered during
transport to keep the cats calm.
"Everything we do here is humane" explained Bill and Pat Hutchings, new public
relations volunteers for the organization.
Makes good sense to the animal lover who run The Sterile Feral. Berry has 11
dogs and 14 cats on her farm, while Jorgenson has 6 dogs and 6 cats and the
Hutchings have 19 basset hounds and 4 cats on their farm.
"My husband is very understanding," said Berry, who has a hard time not picking
up every stray she sees.
Even a summer-time helper, Jorgensons's step daughter Jessica, has become
a cat lover. She adopted one of the first cats that was spayed and sleeps with 3
cats at Jorgenson's house during her summer stay.
Berry and Jorgenson received rabies shots before starting their project. It has
turned out to be a good thing since they have both been bitten twice by the wild
cats, which are not used to being handled by humans.
The first time Berry and Jorgenson spayed a group of feral cats, there were
seven. The second time they spayed a group of 44 cats. Now, The Sterile Feral
averages 10 to 12 cats on a given day, with about 20 to 25 cats each month.
The Sterile Feral hopes to neuter 365 cats this year. So far 210 wild felines have
been sterilized.
Several veterinarians come in during their off hours to sterilize the cats using
disolvable stitches and give them a three- year rabies shot. The cats are also
tested for feline leukemia, and FIV-- the feline version of AIDS, but which is not
transferable to humans.
The new building will have a room for surgery, making life easier for everyone
involved in the process-- including the cats who spend the night after surgery at
the office for observation before their release.
The only requirement for release is finding someone to feed them. Sometimes
the person who reported the wild colony is moving, or can no longer afford to
feed the cats, so The Sterile Feral helps relocate the cats so they are taken care
of. Barns are an ideal place for cats to live, explained the women.
"Most cats you'll never even see," said Jorgenson. "They just need food and a
place to stay."
The Sterile Feral also has volunteers who help socialize some of the wild
animals after they are sterilized so that they are more adoptable.
The first group of cats The Sterile Feral sterilized had made a home for
themselves at Plant Life Nursery & Landscape Design.
It turned out to be a very profitable service. The nursery had a special week,
June 11 through 17, when 30% of it's profits went to The Sterile Feral, giving the
organization it's largest donation to date.
As The Sterile Feral grows, it's needs grow as well. Bill Hutchings said that the
monetary donations can be made in honor or in memory of a loved one; be it an
animal lover or actual animal; they will be published in The Sterile Feral's
newsletter. The Sterile Feral also collects Purina weight circles to be sent in for
coupons.
"The community has been very supportive," said Jorgenson, "They really see
this as the service that it is.

Two Rome Women
are trying to help reduce
the local feline over-
population problem
through a new program.
By Marie Hodge
Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
MHodge@RN-T.com/706-290-5256

"Two cat ladies" is how Jane Berry and Mary Kate Jorgenson, president and
vice president of The Sterile Feral, describe themselves when joking around
together.
And it's really a perfect description these days. Since a meeting at the Rome
Floyd Humane Society function two years ago, the ladies have been working
together to help the cat community across Floyd county.
Feral cats are domestic cats that have been abandoned or born in the wild.
The Sterile Feral is the name of Floyd County's only feral cat spay and release
program.