Our Story | MAD Cats Rescue

Our Story:
4,924 and counting....

Because one female cat and her offspring can produce 100-400 cats in 7 years, we have to continually be out in our community trapping cats and providing them with vital SNV medical care that keeps them healthy and their colonies stable. We have a dedicated team of volunteers who Trap, Neuter, & Return (TNR) these cats to their homes.

These services keep cats and kittens out of shelters, reduces euthanizations, stabilizes cat colonies, and allows us to provide adoptions out to happy, caring homes. Putting a kitten into the arms of a caring family makes everyone happy!

MAD Cats operates a Kitten Rescue Foster Program and a monthly Food Distribution Program. In 2022 we rescued 359 kittens and delivered 4,000# of cat food.

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) saves lives.

TNR is the globally recognized humane approach to help control cat overpopulation. It was our main and only program when we first organized in 2018, but within a few weeks—when we rescued our first kittens—our foster program was born. Since then, we've provided care to over 3,000 cats!

Our TNR program provides welcome assistance to owners and colony caretakers who love cats and are happy to care for them, but cannot afford to have them spayed and neutered. We are there to help regardless of a client’s ability to donate, no one is turned away.

MAD Cats operates a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program primarily through the services of FREDericksburg SPCA, Willow Animal Hospital and Anicira Veterinary Center. We generally take 20 TNR cats/week. Once a month we schedule 20 Domestic cats/kittens.

MAD Cats is currently partnering with Culpeper Humane Society for Culpeper County. MAD Cats is doing the trapping and transporting, CHS is helping with some of the clinic costs. An average weekly invoice is more than $2,000.

Individuals who are feeding and sheltering cats on limited incomes contact MAD Cats for assistance. These "Colony Caretakers" typically have between 5 – 25 cats. Often they will buy food for the cats, before food for themselves. While we are happy to accept donations, we do provide the program for free. In addition, cat owners, who cannot afford to pay the cost of S/N through their local vet, may also apply to our program.

Almost every weekend, our volunteer trappers set multiple traps at a scheduled location. They attend those traps for however long it takes; traps need to be monitored and are never left unattended overnight. The cats are held overnight in the traps and then transported to the veterinarian the next day. Volunteers retrieve the “fixed” cats in the afternoon and they are again held overnight for recovery. After a light breakfast, they are returned to their owners/caretakers.

In 2022, we spayed/neutered and vaccinated 932 cats and have made big strides from 2019 –our first full year–when our total was 232. After several years of rapid expansion, we are fast approaching the physical limits of clinical appointment availability, transport capacity, and available volunteer trappers.

We are always looking for new volunteers! Contact us to be part of our MAD Cats family.