Leslie Batta has always had a love for cats, and seeing to their well-being naturally went right along with that.
What started as steady involvement with volunteering opportunities developed into a desire to do more to help what she saw as great needs in the feline community. Her involvement and outreach turned into the creation of Batta Cats, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created in 2019 with the goal of assisting our community members with TNR (trap, neuter, return). The organization also educates on how to care for the cat community through fostering, adoption and advocacy.
Prior to the formation of Batta Cats, Batta had been involved with many aspects that help cats live better lives: assisting with socialization, fostering, fundraising and more. She learned that the need for assistance with these issues was always growing, so when an opportunity to become a TNR volunteer through her local humane society, she signed up.
“I began to volunteer and learned the basics with TNR and then just thought maybe I could help them more if I did some on my own. I did, and it just continued to grow from there,” she said.
According to battacats.org, Leslie and Scott Batta started fostering cats in 2015. They were trying to find a home for a FIV+ cat in their care, named Bobby McGee. Bobby McGee ended up with the Battas, inspiring Leslie to help more cats like him. They took in cats and kittens of all ages, nursed the sick back to health and nurtured them into playful, loving felines. Each cat and kitten that cycled through the Batta house became a part of the Batta family.
Since then, as Batta Cats continues with its TNR efforts and helping feeders/caretakers, they offer tips to those caretakers to improve the cats’ lives.
“A lot of this focuses around feedings and shelter. For example, we suggest adding inexpensive vitamins like L-Lysine to food periodically to give an immune boost when runny eyes or sneezing is going through a colony. Or adding food grade DE (Diatomaceous Earth) to food and shelter to help keep down on parasites like fleas, tick, and internal parasites (worms),” Batta said.
“Making and providing shelters is a big part of what we do for our community cat colonies. We collect Styrofoam coolers all year long and upcycle those into cozy shelters for cats. We also have a shelter building workshop every fall. We have approximately 35 volunteers turn storage containers into warm, safe shelters for community cats. These shelters could be the difference of life and death during extreme temperatures. We typically make 150-180 hard shelters during our workshop and offer these at no cost to community cat caretakers. We also produce another 200 Styrofoam shelters within a year which are also given to feeders and caretakers.”
She touts TNR as an effective way to both control cat populations and aid in the cat’s overall health. Prolific breeding has made it difficult for shelters to keep up with caring for ever-growing populations, and there are people who feed and care for cats, but cannot afford more than minimal amounts of food.
“There are not enough rescues, shelters, or homes for cats being reproduced,” she said.
In addition to controlling the cat populations, TNR can improve cat health. Spaying females prevents them from getting pyometra, a life-threatening infection of the uterus. Neutered males are less likely to fight. Cats who are trapped, neutered and returned also typically get basic vaccinations, which reduces the spread of disease.
If you are interested in learning about TNR, there are many resources available. In addition to online videos, there are online classes and seminars through the Community Cats Podcast and Alley Cat Allies. If hands-on TNR isn’t for you, Batta suggests volunteering with event planning, writing grants, laundry, cleaning/sanitizing traps, having a towel drive, making trap covers, hosting food drives and much more. These are “all ways to help Batta Cats or your local TNR organization” Batta said.
“I have always loved cats. Their poise and demeanor. They just remind me of regal beings that are ok with what comes their way. But they are also sensitive beings. They want to show love and appreciation. Whether it’s an untouchable community cat or one of your own, they all have their own personalities and are easy to love,” she said.
Learn more at https://www.battacats.org/
