News from the Kauai Community Cat Program

Looking for news about our Lydgate sanctuary? Go to this page!

Year End 2025 and January 2026

Aloha!

Sorry for the lack of communication – my fault A misunderstanding – so lets get going.

Let’s wrap up 2025 and then jump into 2026!

Spay/Neuter – Year End was 2202 spay neuters.

Those are pretty awesome numbers with an average of 183 a month. It takes an dedicated team to accomplish that. As with most projects/teams, there were times that I think everyone involved with the bus was frustrated or angry or disappointed but when you step back you can see that everyone cares and everyone has the same goal. Fix cats which will reduce the overall homeless cat situation. You appreciate how much we do with so little. We don’t have a bunch of volunteers (anyone interested, let me know) and sometime the volunteers have different ideas on what to do but in the end in an odd funny way it works.

If you think about it is a different way – about 51% of the cats we fix are female. If you look at 1 unfixed female cat – they can have 3 litters a year with an average of 4 kittens. That one mother cat can be responsible for about 144 kittens in 2 years. After is 5 years that one unfixed cat could be responsible for 20,000 kittens.

Wow! Think of that. We fixed over 1,000 female cats last year….Yep. Pretty amazing. OMG

Thank you to all in the bus, lead by Dr Maya. Also thank you to the outside group. There is one person I will mention – who since the bus started has been there every time and that is Susan (the other Susan as I call her). Very dedicated and I appreciate her and all the others that give of their time to help the kitties.

So when someone says it doesn’t matter if a cat is fixed or not you now have some ammunition and it’s powerful.

Adoptions/Sent to the Mainland:

Anyone who has been following KCCP knows last year was not our best transfer year. Very long kitten season on the mainland reduced the space available, and for months it seems like we would never be able to send again. We have a new partner in RAIN – Rescue Animal In Need, and we continue to send to The Noah Center. We sent to our friends at RENKO in Illinois a couple of times and a few other places once, but we were still not at the level we wanted to be at. We are always looking for other opportunities but we want to ensure where we send our kitties are the right people and they are taking care of our kids like we would.

As you all remember Minnie got a sister named Calamity Jane…

and lots of people realized it was not as hard as they thought it was to take their cats when they moved.

And don’t forget Alani, who’s new dad did not visit Kauai with the intent of adopting a new member of his family but he saw a cat and well you guys know the story. Alani is now a Connecticut kitty and not a Lydgate guy and yes he did see snow but from the comfort of his kitty tree.

What else happened in 2025. Well Lydgate Sanctuary really happened and is currently full. We are planning phase 2 hopefully coming soon.

Another 2025 thing that happened was Tropicats. We have an arrangement with Tropicats to provide them with personable cats and kittens for their guests to fall in love with! It’s a brand new arrangement and looking forward to a new way for people to fall in love with Kauai kitties. We have already sent cats to Las Vegas and New York.

Lots of expensive medical things with kitties last year and somehow it all worked out. My plastic really works well when it needs to.

January 2026 you ask?

Yep that happened too.

We hit the street running with 210 surgeries (yep still around 50% female so keep the formula in your head about how many homeless cats that were not born (remember the above formula). We were able to adopt locally/send to the mainland 38 cats in January. Thank you Noah and RAIN.

With Tropicats this week we have a kitty going to St Louis and next Detroit! Who know where will be next.

A new development is we are assisting a volunteer group who had to jump into action when a HOA decided no more cats. So very proud of Nicole and the others on how they handled things. Within a week the group found someone who loves cats and was willing to help. They trapped 16 or half the colony in 10 days time and have them in a temporary location and have found funding and are working toward a small area for these kitties permanently. KCCP loves this and welcomes this type of activity. I did not hear – what are you going to do but what can I do. Way to go!

Coming up soon will be the 2026 Charity Walk!

So with that I think I will close for this edition of “What’s Happening” in our world.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

You may donate directly to KCCP by one of three methods:
– Via PayPal: PayPal.Me/kauaicats
– Via our website

– Send a check in the mail, made out to KCCP, and address the envelope to KCCP, PO Box 143, Kekaha, HI 96752

– Venmo

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!
Thanks in advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

2-12-26

November Results AND Giving Tuesday December 2 Reminder

Aloha!

Giving Tuesday first – As you all know, this is a world wide day which encourages people to give back in whatever way they can. It presents non-profits an opportunity to raise more money than they normally would on an average day and lots of fundraisers are seen on Giving Tuesday. This year December 2 has been designated as Giving Tuesday.

As most of you know I like to make sure everyone has an opportunity to support their favorite non profit (yes I am talking about KCCP) so we started last week with our celebration and will conclude at midnight tomorrow.

As an added bonus our president Liz Stewart has agreed to match donations up to a total of $5,000!

How about November stats?
*TNR: 209 (month), 2044 (year to date).
We have 3 bus dates in December and we are totally booked and taking appointments for January!

*Transfers/Adoptions: 30 (month), 206 (year to date).
We are hopeful we will be able to send at least 2 transfers in December but everything hinges on the capacity at our mainland partners! Fingers crossed.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

You may donate directly to KCCP by one of three methods:
– Via PayPal: PayPal.Me/kauaicats
– Via our website

And introducing Venmo!

– Or, send a check in the mail, made out to KCCP, and address the envelope to KCCP, PO Box 143, Kekaha, HI 96752

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!
Thanks in advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

12-1-25

Miso Update!

Aloha!

I want to thank everyone that donated toward Miso’s surgery. We raised about 1/2 the amount needed but it’s amazing how well that little square of plastic called a credit card works. If you would still like to help, donations are still being accepted toward his bill.

A short update on Miso. He had his surgery on Tuesday. Miso had what is officially called a “Bilateral femoral head ostectomy” without complications. Yippee!

Miso is on “bed rest” for 2 weeks. So no running or jumping. He is getting pain meds and cold compresses. At about 3-5 days, he will be starting his physical therapy which consists of passive range of motion conditioning and some stretching.

He will get the staples out in 2 weeks and then start additional PT.

If you can see it in your heart to help Miso, it would be so appreciated.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

You may donate directly to KCCP by one of three methods:
– Via PayPal: PayPal.Me/kauaicats
– Via our website

And introducing Venmo!

– Or, send a check in the mail, made out to KCCP, and address the envelope to KCCP, PO Box 143, Kekaha, HI 96752

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!
Thanks in advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

11-20-25

October Results and Meet our Friend Miso!

Aloha!

Today I have a few updates and then an important request.

Updates:
For October we did 210 spay/neuters for a year to date total of 1835 year to date. November its business as usual with 4 dates scheduled!

Transfers/adoptions as I have mentioned have been slow with 9 for the month and 173 for the year. We have some exciting news for November. We send our first transfer yesterday to RAIN (Rescue Animals in Need). They are in the Seattle area and we hope this is one of many transfers!

Miso
I want to introduce everyone to Miso. He is a beautiful kitty in the above photo but he has a sad story. He is about 2 years old and born out in the world. He was lucky enough to run into one of our volunteers and she took him under her wing with the intent of possibly finding him a good home at some point. She decided he was such a great kitty that he was probably just going to become the resident kitty.

A couple months ago he started having trouble walking and went to the vet. Xrays showed nothing and we were told to just watch him. He seemed to just get a little worse and worse. Back to the vet and they were able to detect a slipped capital physis on both hips. The fix for that is a procedure called an Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO).

The good news is once the recovery is complete he should be almost as good as new. He really needs to be an inside guy just for his safety and that is not going to be an issue. So what is the bad news? Well, surgery is about $8,000. Miso, as his foster said, “is an affectionate and gentle guy who deserves a chance at a pain free life”.

If you can see it in your heart to help Miso it would be so appreciated.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

You may donate directly to KCCP by one of three methods:
– Via PayPal: PayPal.Me/kauaicats
– Via our website
– Send a check in the mail, made out to KCCP, and address the envelope to KCCP, PO Box 143, Kekaha, HI 96752
– Or scan the QR Code

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!
Thanks in advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

11-7-25

September Results and a Tiger and Buddy Update

Aloha!

It’s October and I have September and year to date results plus I do have some miscellaneous updates!

In September we fixed 198 cats. This brings us year to date 1625. At this point we are looking at a normal schedule for October and November and maybe a modified schedule in December. Not quite sure what it will look like at this moment.

Transfers/adoptions are still lagging previous years for all of the facts I have mentioned almost every EBlast for the last year. Mainland shelters are exceptionally full and in some cases the decision has been made by the shelter to take no out of state transfers and focus internally on their state. I will keep asking but the future in some cases is sort of bleak. We are always reaching out to other groups and feel very excited when new opportunities come our way.

For September our transfer adoptions are at 31 which gives us a year to date of 240.

Good news stories! I made the plea and you guys heard. We had 2 larger vet bills. One was a foster that had broken its leg and the other was a kitty in the community that had an altercation with a dog and the owner was just not able to financially support the vet bills. This kitty did have a broken jaw. I am happy to report that Tiger visited his favorite vet last week and was able to get his “hardware” removed and is back to 100% normal. His owner is so very happy and of course is Tiger. He gave Dr Nishimoto a big wet kitty smooch in appreciation.

Additionally Buddy (who i accidentally said was Champ – well they are brothers) also went for a follow-up visit. We were not sure what to expect since, if things had not progressed properly we were prepared for an amputation. Well they kitty angels were smiling on Buddy and he too was given a clean bill of health – no amputation needed! Everything is healing perfectly!

Thank you everyone who saw it in their hearts to support these 2 guys.

We will have a Lydgate update in a separate Eblast shortly!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!
Thanks in advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

10-7-25

Who is This Pretty Girl??

Aloha!

We have officially made it to September! I promised you a few days ago I would be speedier with the August roll up so here it is.

August the Spay Neuter Bus did 242 over a 4 day period. Those number are about as awesome as they come. Of course those working at the bus might have called a couple of those days something other than awesome at the time I think they will all agree with me after the fact. That brings our Year to Date to 1427. So what does the future hold? At this moment is looks like we will be operating as normal for the remainder of the year which means we will be open 4 days a month!

For August, Transfers were challenging We had one scheduled but that was postponed by the receiving shelter due to the Uber getting COVID at the last minute We did help a couple move their kitties and then…

DRUM ROLL… I am sure a lot of you remember our precious Minnie. She was the one that had been hit by a car and she had to have extensive work done. Almost like a bionic kitten. Minnie moved to her home near Indy at the beginning and is doing excellent!

Well. DRUM ROLL again. Minnie has a new sister! Her new sister is none other than Calamity Jane (Picture below)! Calamity has also had a run in with a car and her new best friend Jeremy saved her and took her home and helped her get better (well Paradise Animal Clinic helped a lot too!). CJ got brave and flew clear to Indy to meet her new sister Minnie. Just think of the kitty stories they will tell each other. They are still checking each other out and taking turns saying “fine I don’t care” and walking away but so far so good. The referee is their doggie sister Abby who said come on in and join the fun! So happy for everyone!

So how do transfers look for September and through the end of the year? History will tell us during Mid November through the end of December, it is challenging due to weather and the limits Alaska Cargo has for kitties. Our big months typically are September and October and then after the beginning of the new year. We do have several scheduled for September and even have hope that at some point Seattle Humane and/or Kitsap Humane will be able to help again.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!
Thanks in advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

9-4-25

Charity Walk Update and July Review

Aloha!

It’s been a long time since I did an update and figured I needed to do that before the beginning of September. I apologize, I really intended to do this earlier but so much has been going on!

July and the Future:

TNR
July TNR: 128
Year to date: 1178
Future: August has been great so far – which I will update you on after the first of the month. Future looks like we will continue to have our bus in operation 4 times a month. Additionally KHS has had several big clinics recently and I would imagine we will see more in the future. Also the SPCA has put out information that they are starting their Hope Clinic again soon. All good for the kitties.

Transfers/Adoptions/Return to Owner
July: 31
Year to Date: 152
Future: this is an ongoing work in progress. The Noah Center has been our strong supporter over the last several years. They were able to take more than one transfer a month several times to help when no other partner was able to accept cats. I continue to reach out to Kitsap and Seattle Humane monthly but their new policies are pretty strict on taking care of issues within the state of Washington and I understand but would still love to send to them once every couple months. Seattle Area Feline has been good and has tried to do once a month which is a lifesaver. We are also looking for new transfer partners and if I was more sensitive my feelings might be hurt – they are nice when they say no but it’s no none-the-less. We have a couple of long distance transfers in the planning stage now and I appreciate Renko for saying it’s looking promising and our new friends at CARMAH Rescue in Massachusetts say they might be able to help! Full speed ahead

Charity Walk. As discussed before, the Kauai Charity Walk is one of the yearly events we look to for donations. I am happy to announce our donors donated $26,6514 and the Kauai Visitors Bureau added 13.5% for a total of $30,000! This was much needed and appreciated. Thank you everyone that supported us.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

You may donate directly to KCCP by one of three methods:
– Via PayPal: PayPal.Me/kauaicats (Kauai Ferals)
– Via our website
– Send a check in the mail, made out to KCCP, and address the envelope to KCCP, PO Box 143, Kekaha, HI 96752

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

8-27-25

A Monumental Day!

Aloha!

Exactly TEN YEARS AGO today, July 7, 2015, KCCP did its first kitten transfer to the Seattle area, to Kitsap Humane Society. Eight kittens were sent to Kitsap Humane via what we called at the time a “flyer” or “escort”. Becky Cross was our original “escort”. Since then hundreds of kittens/cats have flown to the mainland to various shelters and private parties eventually finding their forever homes.

A transfer looked different then. The escort made reservations. We took the cats to a vet’s office for a health certificate. You met the escort at the regular ticket counter and waited sometimes an hour or longer for a counter person that knew how to check in cats. There you were – usually 2 or 3 of us and the escort waiting and waiting. If that wasn’t enough then you had to go to TSA and take each cat/kitten out of the crate in the middle of the airport and hold it while the crate was checked for explosives or other contraband. I would say in every transfer most of us lost skin – I guess you could say we had skin in the game? Once checked in we went to the parking lot and cleaned our wounds and left. Total time of 2 hours if lucky. These cats went typically as checked baggage or occasionally in cabin.

Today we make the cargo reservations. Usually get our health certificates at the bus and we go to cargo to check in. No cat comes out of the crates. We pay and hopefully are out of there in 30 minutes. Sounds simple but it is not really – lots of moving parts.

But i just want to acknowledge the group that first started what we called Wings for Whiskers. Martha Girdany, Sue Scott, Mary Wilder and various fosters. Little did we know that 10 years later I would be sitting at my keyboard writing about this monumental event!

Then as now – none of this would have been or be possible without our supporters. We appreciate each and every one of you.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

7-8-25

Calamity Jane Update

Aloha!

Wanted to give everyone an update on Calamity Jane. She is the little girl that was found in the street that had been hit by a car.

The person that saw her said he saw her lift up her head. He did a u-turn and went back and saw her start to run away but she was limping and got her hind leg stuck on a clump of weeds.

Fast forward – off to the vet the next day who did x-rays and confirmed she had a broken femur.

The vet said he was willing to use this as a teaching experience with the other vet at the office and would insert a rod and a pin instead of amputation. It was also noticed that there was an issue with her tail that might require an amputation.

The surgery appears to have been successful. Calamity Jane had a follow-up yesterday and things are healing. We have a 3rd appointment to take more x-rays to confirm everything is OK and then they will remove the rod. While under anesthesia, they will do a spay. They will also check her tail since is appears to have been partially broken.

Of course this is something that you can’t plan or budget for and it is hitting us at a real tight time. My ask today is if you can help us help this little girl, it would be very appreciated.

None of this could be done without our supporters and we appreciate each of you!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

7-4-25

A Little Help With Critical Care

Aloha!

Lydgate:
This weekend we hope to make a lot of progress on the Lydgate Sanctuary so we can start the long process of moving cats! We have people scheduled today to help us with fence installation. As we progress, I will be having my hand up in the air asking for a lot of help and I hope those of you that are local will be willing to help. Those not local can help by donating so we can purchase all the supplies that will be required (including a shed to put supplies in).

I have had lots of people (I can’t even tell you how many) want to bring their cats or want us to pick their cats up. This is not what the Lydgate Sanctuary is meant to do. We would love to be able to help all cats but with minimal area and fencing we have to focus on the reason we are doing this – which is the Lydgate cats.

We will be needing some additional long term volunteers to help feed. If you have items you think may help or want to volunteer, email me at susan@kauaicats.org and I will run it by our Lydgate Team. Sometimes you don’t know you need something until you don’t have it and need it.

What else you say?
We have had multiple huge vet bills in last couple weeks and several other procedures scheduled. What kind of vet bills? Newly diagnosed kidney issues, thyroid, cancer, several dentals at which are at least $1,800 each and several amputations which are about $1,500 each.

The most recent was a little kitten hit by a car on Tuesday afternoon. One of our volunteer’s friend saw her lying on the road, with just her head up to show she was even still alive. He did a U-turn and saw her start to try to run away, but she was limping and got her back leg stuck on a clump of weeds, so he took off his jacket and got her all bundled up and into his truck – and took her to the volunteer. She was surprisingly easy to handle and look over, but definitely in need of a vet for her leg.

After-hours vet care is almost nonexistent here (sometimes the only option is to fly the pet to Oahu if it can’t wait) and she didn’t seem to be bleeding badly or in shock, so it was decided to monitor her until morning. In the morning, a call was made to the vet and we were told – bring her over right now. The x-ray showed a broken femur. The vet offered to try to utilize a pin rather than amputation but charge as an amputation since they were not sure it would work. Surgery was the next day. Calamity Jane as she is now known is doing well! Hopefully this is her permanent fix!

None of this could be done without our supporters and we appreciate each of you!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

6-27-25

Exciting KCCP News Regarding Lydgate Cats!

Aloha!

Here we are June and I am seeing a lot of posts on number of days til Christmas – stop that!

Anyway. Let talk about May and what will be happening this month.

TNR. We did 140 in May with a year to date total of 829! Plans for June and onward? June should be a regular TNR month. We have a pretty full schedule already and are scheduling into July.

Transfers. Sad story. In May we really only had two transfers for 14 with a year to date total of 96. We are seeing most mainland shelters are holding off due to lots and lots of local cats. Calls to places we have sent to occasionally get the same results. We did learn that for the most part keeping the transfer with the destination in the Seattle area or a place we can get to easily is much better for the kitties. With the merger of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian based on an email I just received the 3 cats per flight limit is going to be lifted for Hawaiian which then might open up some other locations. Unfortunately with Hawaiian there is always a stop in Oahu (they don’t seen to put live animals on their direct fights) but at least no overnight. Hopefully more clarification on that from my cargo friends soon.

A great story was Ralph. He was an older guy that had been in a colony his whole life. A volunteer picked him up way far from his original location. She said he is pretty friendly! He was past the age most shelters will take then. Was in good health. So, we worked with one of our mainland friends and they agreed to take him. She reported to us on day one her toddler went over and checked out Ralph’s ball he had brought with him. Her son went and got one of his balls and offered it to Ralph so now they are good friends. Maybe Ralph has already found his new home already?

What’s coming up? We have been working on the transition of the Lydgate project to KCCP. Looks like we need some more fencing ordered which we will do today or tomorrow and plans are in the works for fence day June 21.

We are looking for volunteers for heavy duty work as well as the daily stuff. If you are interested. please fill out the volunteer form on our web page. We can use help really, no matter where you are on island. Please help.

None of this could be done without our supporters and we appreciate each of you!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

6-5-25

Exciting KCCP News Regarding Lydgate Cats!

Aloha!

As everyone remembers, KCCP first started at Lydgate with feeding the colonies and getting cats fixed so this area has always been special to KCCP.

Most of you have heard me talk over the years about Lydgate and the struggles around the cats in the park. Over the last 4 years the situation has gotten worse with cats actually disappearing.

Lots of people asked why KCCP didn’t do something. We tried to stop the legislation in 2022 to ban cats in county parks and failed. As difficult as it is to accept, I think most of us realize that to accommodate both saving cats and the county’s legal requirement to protect endangered birds something different needed to be done. We are stretched so thin with the spay neuter bus and transferring cats to the mainland we didn’t believe with our current group that we could do much more without help.

A couple of our longtime friends, Regina and Michelle from Kitty Cat News Kauai, decided to take matters into their own hands and do something rather than saying someone else should. They started making plans to save the cats. Enter Mary Ann a part time resident and a huge Lydgate cat supporter. She started working with Regina on ideas and planning. They enlisted several others, including the dedicated colony caretakers. More than 40 Lydgate cats have already been adopted on island and the mainland. Regina did fundraising, purchased secure cat fencing and made arrangements with another long time supporter to erect the fence on her property. Over the last 6 months, Regina has worked non stop and put everything else on the back burner to see this dream come true.

Regina accomplished what I thought we would never see – a safe place for the Lydgate cats. I knew this project would work – they just needed a little help, non profit status, clearances with the county that might open the door for grants and and a larger audience.

KCCP is happy to announce as of May 23, 2025 the Lydgate Sanctuary will now be part of KCCP. Our goal is to have the fence erected and the location to be move in ready by end of June.

We have consulted with the folks at the Lanai Cat Sanctuary about adequate space for the cats, and we will not have space for more than the cats chipped to Lydgate. But we hope this location will serve as a model for others.

What can you do to support this project? We have more mouths to feed daily, vet bills to pay, shelving ton purchase and maintenance to do. Your support for the Lydgate group is imperative. We are looking for local volunteers to help with erecting the fence, daily chores and shopping!

We will also be looking for permanent homes for the friendly cats and will continue to fly kitties to the mainland as the situation warrants.

None of this could be done without our supporters and we appreciate each of you!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

5-27-25

Meet Kuhio!

Aloha!

It’s Charity Walk time of the year. This year May 3 is the official walk this year. Hopefully, we will have lots of KCCP supporters this year.

KCCP is participating and is encouraging everyone to participate by donating. All donations received in KCCP’s name will come back to us along with a matching percentage. We never know that percentage until the event is over and they count the proceeds and determine the match the participating non-profits will receive.

Over the next several weeks I wanted to share some recent accomplishments. People ask why do I always share adoption stories considering we are not a rescue. Because it’s more fun and interesting. Would you really want to read – OK fill out the form, you forgot your email, you need to press harder so all 3 sheets can be read….. No you want to hear fun stories!

We do have a number of visitors to the island fall for a kitty or two and want to take them home. A recent story is pretty exciting.

It started for me as an email asking for help because the new airline soft side regulations had almost stimyed a visitor cat-napping the kitty of his dreams. We have encountered this ourselves and it’s pretty frustrating. Only issue is they are flying that day. Well, in a couple hours. Sometimes things are just meant to be. That’s the way I look at it. Pam jumped into action and before you know it, kitty was on the plane.

Next day kitty went to the vet and was scanned for a microchip and of course it came back to KCCP but from the other side of the island. I let the trapper know what had happened and she said you are kidding and sent me a picture of the kitty, siblings and Mom that another visitor had taken that had prompted Mel to get them fixed months before. On top of that as I looked him up, we discovered that several weeks before we had sent his mom to a mainland shetler for adoption as well.

Now Kuhio as he is known, has 2 orange brothers (from Kauai via a mainland shelter) and he quickly made friends with all of his new family both kitty and human.

His proud papa, Rick, posted this on line:

“When we visit Kauai we like to check in on the local cat colonies and support the non-profit that does the trap and release program to keep these colonies healthy and safe. Well one boy in the colony next to Prince Kuhio park captured our hearts pretty thoroughly with his charisma. He would rub all over us and get us to leave food, and then he would wait until all the other cats had eaten before eating himself. on our third visit, he followed us almost all the way back to our place. The next day, he was waiting for us near the highway where he last saw us. He led us back to the colony, stopping at each cat, laying down to calm the scared kitty, waited for us to leave food, and slowly walk away so the kitties could approach and eat the food. After he followed us again, and did a bunch of fake stretches and laying in our way to get us to stop (my wife and I), I started thinking about how hard it would be to fly him home with us. I contacted the local community cat project group, and they were ecstatic about the idea- the resort wanted to completely get rid of the colony asap, and they all need new homes. With only a day left in our trip, we frantically went and found a soft sided cat carrier, added a cat to our flight itinerary, identified his medical records from the nonprofit trap and release org, and had our fingers crossed that getting a stray into a carrier, through TSA, through a 6 hour flight and home would actually work. He let us pick him up, and he even purred and leaned into my chest. We thought he was socialized enough that this might work. And it did. He let us plop him right into the cat carrier, and he was very scared, but a perfect gentleman, even through TSA. The Kauai Community Cat Project ladies were incredible with tips and guidance, and helped us every step of the way. We call him Kuhio, after Prince Kuhio, the last prince of Hawaii. He was a prince in his colony, and we found him the week of Prince Kuhio’s birthday. Interestingly enough, he is about one year old, so he has about the same birthday as Prince Kuhio too.

Upon arriving home and keeping him quarantined from our other 3 cats (two orange brothers also from Kauai, and a 3 legged bengal cancer survivor), he discovered how awesome cat beds are, and has been hard at work making biscuits all day long, as if it’s bread week on baking show. The local vet gave him a clean bill of health and the vet techs fell in love with his sweet, calm demeanor, and definitely agreed he’s the most socialized stray they had met!

Welcome home Kuhio, great job manipulating us into taking you home. You worked hard to make it happen, and now you get to enjoy the fruits of your effort. He LOVES to snuggle and even accepts belly rubs!”

Picture 1: Kuhio and brothers Cheeto and Sunny
Picture 2 Kuhio with mom and siblings last year before getting spay/neutered
Picture 3: Kuhio with his south side family before being cat-napped!

Kuhio with his south side family before being cat-napped!

Please support KCCP by donating in our name to the Charity walk! Click on the Charity Walk picture to donate!

None of this could be done without of supporters and we appreciate each of you!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

4-22-25

And it’s April!

Aloha!

March Madness is over. Wait – isn’t that basketball? Hummmm. Anyway, we got through March and April Fools Day and are moving through the month. Let’s see – things to look forward to – Tax Day (not) and EASTER!

First of all – thank you everyone that donated toward our Black, Green Eye Cat Belated St Patrick’s Day 1-1 Match. I will admit there were several people that didn’t realize it was happening when they donated but that’s OK I added their donations to the list. We exceeded our goal and brought in a little over $20,000.

That is huge for us! It’s no secret that running a spay neuter bus, sending cats to the mainland and taking care of the cats under our umbrella is pretty costly. Regular vet bills are pretty substantial as well, dealing with stuff that we can’t handle in the bus. Our monthly expenses are typically between $25,000-$35,000 a month. So you can see that every dollar is critical to us and our success. No one wants to say stop sending cats to the mainland or skip bus days or don’t feed our cats. We want the pedal to the metal! Thank you again!

In March we did 170 surgeries and in spite of our mainland partners Seattle Humane and The Noah Center having issues the last two months, we managed two mainland transfers, Seattle Area Feline Rescue and Renko, all the way to Illinois. Bottom line 20 cats in new homes is better than none.

Going Forward:
I’m happy to report we have a transfer to Seattle Humane scheduled this month. They are still staffing their Lifesaver Team but they were kind enough to give us a date. We are also working with Boulder Humane Society (Yes! In Colorado) and it looks like they may be able to take some kitties! We also expect The Noah Center to be ready either April or May for transfers!

It’s full speed ahead with the bus this month. We will have only 3 days but that is a scheduling issue more than anything else.

Here is a follow-up. You all remember Minnie. She is the little gal that was hit by a car in July and we did not think she would make it. A lot of people donated toward her surgery which was about $5,000. She had a hernia and really most of her internal organs were in the wrong place and they had to carefully “rearrange?” Like an internal facelift? She spent lots of time with her foster mom, Kim who is an experienced vet tech and she carefully nursed Minnie back to health. So when she had totally healed we knew she needed a wonderful home. I knew there was a person that would be perfect – but what would she say? She was still mourning the loss of the famous Mr Lucky, but after thinking about it she said YES! There was just one request. She needed to make sure Minnie would be OK with her puppy Abby. We huddled. We all said she should be good since Minnie was a gentle soul. So…the end of January the big day came and Minnie flew to Indianapolis and we all shed a tear (especially her wonderful foster mom Kim) but we just knew it would be OK.

We were all so pleased. Her new Mom reported everything was good on day one, a little shy but good. She started to come out of her shell. We were elated. The most recent pictures is what got me. Our Minnie and her sissy Abby love each other and that is the most special thing I can imagine.

Minnie sent me a message and said she would like to thank her friends on Kauai. Especially Alex, Liz and her wonderful foster mom Kim. They believed in her when it was hard to believe. She also wants to thank her Mom Marie who loves her as much as she can be loved. And she would especially like to thank Abby for accepting her and teach her the appropriate position for a dog nap! As you can in above – Abby showed Minnie the lay on the back dog nap and Minnie wants to know why she had not learned this earlier.

First picture below is her Sissy Abby and Minnie is saying – Mom, she’s touching me! As you can see – all is good!

Minnie relaxes in her new home with Abby

Happy Happy story. Next EBlast, I will have another story that may bring a tear to your eye!

None of this could be done without of supporters and we appreciate each of you!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

4-8-25

February Roll Up and March Black, Green Eye Cat, Belated St Patrick’s Day 1-1 Match Challenge – Say That Fast 5 Times

Aloha!

Happy belated Green Day to all! I had been planning to do this update several days ago and got wrapped up in tax stuff and yesterday, I saw all the “green” postings so decided I just needed to wait so I could be unique today with my green!

I am way overdue for February’s updates and what’s been going on so let me start now with a quick wrap up of February. We did 165 (YTD 374) TNR’s and 15 (YTD 35) transfers to mainland and adoptions with another 2 (YTD 8) return to owners. Thought I would at times spotlight return to owners since for the most part people are so excited to get their kitties back which makes it very rewarding. If you recall a couple months ago we had a kitty that had been missing for 9 years – now that is really unusual.

In February we had a 1-1 Match and I am happy to announce we raised about $3,500 which was matched! Thank you all that participated – I really appreciate each of you. I did have a couple people that said they had missed the window and asked that I do another soon. Hummmm….

February is also Tax time, which is never fun. This year we have the added bonus of finding out our GE license expired years and years ago and that we have to have one and we have to file even though we are 100% donations and never charge. That was a painful and costly discovery that we are still trying to work through with the help of our great tax and business strategies partner Amy Cedusky (yes I stole that off her web page) and our accountant Olivia Henley. Learning experience for all. This is holding up several grant opportunities that we were really counting on. Grant money is getting a lot harder to obtain. Foundations are offering less and are putting more scrutiny on who they award grants to. Mainland groups are more focused on mainland organizations. That is understandable. Therefore, I am trying to focus on grants that originate in Hawaii.

We still have to pay our bills in spite of whether or not we receive grant money so our regular donors are more important now than ever. We just did some medicine shopping yesterday and it was a big ouch. It was big, about $4,000!

As I was whining and crying (is this a 50’s song?) about the whole thing one supporter said if you can do another 1-1 match I will match the donations but you have to do at least $5,000. You know me – my mind is starting to strategize. Then I remembered the ones that had missed the Valentine Match – Yes it’s coming together…. so how about a Black, Green Eye Cat, Belated St Patrick’s Day 1-1 Match Challenge. Yes! It’s sort of a catchy name? To be honest – I know this is actually a hard ask. The issue is money is tight everywhere and I ask the same wonderful people time after time to help. Fingers crossed. Let’s try this. Between now and the end of the month let’s do this!

Future:
TNR’s have been pretty consistent. We will continue to schedule our 3-4 days a month. The great thing is we did learn some efficiencies with the mega buses last year in addition to finding some additional personal to draw from so Dr. Maya and team have been able to increase the number of surgeries. One of our main issues is call outs and no shows for surgery. Trapping is so much different that people bringing inside pet kitties in for surgery. Believe it or not we have to schedule between 30-50% more than we want. How do we fix that? It’s hard. I continually ask people requesting appointments if they need to borrow traps and try to give them trapping hints. It’s really a hard issue.

Speaking of traps (everyone is tired of me on this subject). I started several months ago to get a better handle on our traps so we have traps to loan out when needed. It may be more painful for those those trying to help me get them back but that’s OK. We have been able to gather about 100. We have a ton still out there but we are finding them! If you have borrowed KCCP traps, still have them and are no longer needing appointments do the right thing and bring them back. Others are desperate to borrow. So someone said to me just order more. One trap ordered separately costs between $250-$350. That’s a lot of money. We need them back to keep helping others.

Struggles will be transfers going forward for a while. Our partners at Seattle Humane had lost their entire Lifesaver group and is in the process of filling positions. We had one last transfer before their existing manager left in February and from rumors it will be at least April or May before we can resume transfers – we are hearing their future priority will probably be in state so….. Our partners at The Noah Center have been struggling with ringworm and closed all transfers effective February as well. They just have no space for intakes. They are hoping next month sometime they might be able to resume transfers. Our Friends at Renko in Illinois visited and took 2 kittens home with them and agreed to take 4 more later this month. Seattle Area Feline Rescue (SAFr) stepped up to the plate and took a transfer that was ready to go to Noah which we really appreciated. For the remainder of March and April we will see what happens.

I was going to do some follow-ups on kitties that have flown but since I blabbed on for so long already I think I will save most of them for next month but here is a teaser: You see a lot of times I thank the village when a cat gets their golden ticket to the mainland. This guy got 5 Golden Tickets really. We named him RC. He is about 11 and was fixed years ago in a colony in Anahola. He got caught up in the sting to trap colony cats in Princeville and the the company trapping for Princeville did the right thing and took him to the humane society which to be honest usually does not happen (Golden Ticket #1). KHS called and we picked him up and we thought he was blind and deaf. We just could not put him back into a colony so we kept him (GT#2). After about 4 or 5 months he was improving but still pretty feral and one of our miracle worker volunteers took him home (GT#3). We all celebrated when he chased a laser light the first time (not blind) and when he came running when called (not deaf). One of our very good friends Sofia that does miracle stuff with kitties with issues on the mainland said lets do this so RC flew to San Francisco (GT#4). He has been there for a number of months when he went to a foster who said that she really really wanted him to be her special kitty (GT#5) and this is RC in his new home. Very content. From a feral in Princeville and to a happy cat in California. How much better can it be?

We need to keep being able to have more success stories like the 165 TNR’s in one month and adoptions like RC! Help us by participating in our Black, Green Eye Cat, Belated St Patrick’s Day 1-1 Match Challenge!

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

3-18-25

Happy Valentines Day and How About a One-One Match to Celebrate?

Aloha!

Time for our monthly update and then a couple of good meow’s stories!

TNR

In January we did 208 TNR’s which is right at our objective. February looks to be a similar month even though this time a year for some odd reason things do slow down a bit. More good news. The Kauai Humane Society has brought another vet on board and they seem to be adding appointments which definitely helps.

Transfers/Adoption/Return to Owner
In January we did have 2 transfers to Seattle Humane and an individual transfers plus a good number of return to owners which I will talk about in a bit. Our total was 26 which we do feel good about. We would have loved a third transfer but the timing was just not right.

What does February look like?

TNR – as I said earlier February for TNR’s should be pretty normal. We, of course, hope for 200 but it’s hard to tell what will happen.

Speaking of that. Several people have asked me why I say you can never tell how many you will get on any given day. This is an example – for one of the buses in January, I scheduled 77 cats which was well over our absolute have to have number of 40 and well over what we want which is 50. On that day we had 58 show up and of those 2 were already fixed so really should have not come in. So you are saying how can that happen? People are trapping and can’t catch the cats they wanted – the more you fix in an area the harder it is to get the last couple, weather plays a big part – for some reason most cats don’t want to come out when it’s raining or windy, some people do forget in spite of reminders and sometimes instead of 3 you tried to get you only catch 1. I totally understand and that’s why we schedule more than wanted. What happens if they all show up on a given day? That has sort of happened once but everyone powered through and we got all done!

Transfers – this is a hard one to accept. Seattle Humane who has been a transfer partner for years and years has lost their Lifesaver Manager and 2 coordinator’s. Until the positions are filled we are on hold. Our other partner The Noah Center has been swamped over the last couple months but hopefully things are more normal now and we can resume later in the month. Fingers crossed. We did have a regular transfer with the new Hawaiian Cargo group supporting our friends at Alaska Airlines and everything went well. With Alaska Airlines merging with Hawaiian Airlines it has given Alaska the ability to now use their own cargo crews which they have never had before. The had been working with Aloha Cargo and we will miss that group since after years we got them trained to just love us.

So what else you say? Well it’s almost Valentine’s Day. You know how I love to celebrate that day and I want to do something special.

First – I want to celebrate the day by having a 1-1 match (everyone groans) because that makes it more FUN! Yes. For each dollar donated, KCCP gets an extra dollar from our Valentine’s Match Donor (VMD). The VMD has agreed to a $10,000 limit match which I think is wonderful. I have asked everyone for so much over the last 6-7 months I am surprised when I ask more people donate. Surprised but very grateful.

So when you have a match going on what better time than to give some good meow’s stories.

1) Return to Owners
What does that mean you ask. Well cats get separated from their owner and a Good Samaritan either gets them scanned for a microchip or brings then into the bus and sometimes we are able to reunite them with their owner. Just recently a kitty was brought in and it was already chipped. When I set the alert through 24 PetWatch I had not even hung up the phone and the owner, Rachael, was calling. Rachael was in tears because their kitty, Little Girl, had vanished and she suspected her neighbor had done something bad. She could not believe it was the right kitty and I just happened to have a photo and forwarded it. She was yelling at the kids to come and look and everyone just went nuts. Little Girl was reunited with her family.

A second instance was a kitty called Grayson. He showed up at a volunteers home looking a lot worse for wear. She (Yes her name is Susan but not me) took him to the bus and he was scanned. We discovered Grayson was about 11 which just breaks your heart. Susan called the contact number that was 11 years old and Yvette answered and said OMG. Grayson has been gone for 9 years! Grayson was returned to Yvette’s parents and the next weekend Yvette and her kids flew to Kauai from Oahu to pick up Grayson. Everyone was thrilled! The airlines even told everyone Grayson’s story and he was treated like a king! How exciting!

2). Transfers are cool.

We had one event at the end of December – one of those when you least expect it. I was talking to a friend about cats and she had rescued an older cat and eventually found its owner and now she was cat-less. I had just gotten a picture of a cat (are you surprised) from one of our volunteers (no not another Susan this time but Mel) that was friendly cat just showed up. Hummm. Of course I showed this picture to the person who was now cat-less (her name happens to be Susan too so I didn’t want to confuse you). In about a week this kitty named Otis Jr was in the sky on his way to Gearhart Oregon to his new wonderful life. Otis reports things are great and his mom and dad worship him. The dog would love to worship him but Otis says not time yet.

Not to minimize any of the above stories but what I consider epic is this last story. It will bring a tear to your eye. How many of you remember MINNIE? She was the kitten that had been hit by a car and all of her internal organs were rearranged. She had a diaphragmatic hernia and could not eat. She was pretty close to meeting her maker. However, with the help of Lihue Vet, Dr Maya, Alex, Kim and literally a cast of thousands which included all of you Minnie pulled through her surgery (from what I read they actually did CPR). All of you remember my plea for $$$ since the surgery was very very expensive but the people surrounding MINNIE said it was worth it. She was special. So months later it’s time for MINNIE to find a home. It has to be someone who understands how special she is and how close to death she was. Lots of soul searching. I emailed a wonderful person named Marie who had adopted Mr Lucky several years ago and I watched how wonderful she was to this old kitty Last year Mr Lucky unfortunately died and Marie was devastated. Long story short Minnie flew last Thursday/Friday to Indy to her new home. I got a text from Minnie yesterday. It said
“Aloha Susan! I think I can make this place work

And the yard looks really interesting. But Mom says we have to wait to go outside until it gets warmer. It’s too cold for me now. I’m not sure I understand what she’s talking about “

As I always say – we could not do any of this without our supporters – thank you so much.

Please remember our 1-1 Valentines Match good now through end of day February 14. Think of Minnie, Otis, Little Girl and Grayson Show your kitties that you love them by making a donation to help Kauai Cats.

All donations are tax deductible! Every dollar donated is used on our kitties. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

2-7-25

2024 In The Books!

Aloha!

In case anyone missed it – it’s 2025!

Happy New Years!

If you were on Kauai definitely did not miss the excitement. There are more fireworks going off than people can imagine if you have never lived through it. Horrible time for animals and people that are sensitive to the noise. WE SURVIVED!

2024 was pretty crazy. We learned a bunch of stuff. I have always believed that if you don’t learn something from what you are doing there is something wrong with you and if you don’t make corrective action there is something wrong with you as well.

So 2024 was let’s try this or let’s try that. There was some – who’s idea was that, I told you that was stupid and more of well that was not what I thought would happen. All in all, we are stronger each year that we have the bus and we are more dedicated to making this all work and getting to the point the number of homeless/abandoned cats starts to decline.

What was 2024 in a nutshell?

We continued to focus on getting cats fixed! 2024 showed a little over 2300 cats fixed at the bus and another 170 for us at the Kauai Humane Society. KHS has been great at giving us a couple spots each week for emergencies and that is a life saver.

On the transfer and adoption front we were able to send about 270 cats to our partners on the mainland and another 75 that we either adopted out locally or off island. Our partners at Seattle Humane and The Noah Center have been great. It seemed to both of them kitten season went on forever but they continued to take our Kauai kitties on a regular basis and for that we are grateful.

What else? Kauai County once again had increased the heat about cats on county property. To cat lovers we will never understand but it’s a fact of life. Thankfully several long time cat lovers and supporters decided it was time to do something so they are working on a plan to save the Lydgate cats. Not going to give names or go into details since I don’t want to jinx anything but my fingers are crossed! What their hope is that others on island will do the same thing and save other endangered cats on Kauai!

Our plans – full steam ahead! We are going to plan for 4 bus days a month and attempt to send 3 transfers to the mainland each month. Slow and steady wins the race and that is what we want to do!

As I always say – none of this is possible without our volunteers. They keep this machine going. And of course without our supporters none of this is possible.

I will mention that all donations to KCCP are tax deductible. There are multiple ways you can donate.

KCCP is a registered non-profit, 501(c)3, and contributions are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thanks in advance for your continued support of Kauai’s cats!

Thanks in Advance
Susan

Mahalo for your kokua of Kauai’s community cats!

1-4-25