Latonya “Sassee” Walker, 50, a biller for the New York City Health and Hospitals, has been taking care of Canarsie’s wild cat population for ten years. Since the pandemic, she’s nearly doubled the number of cats she cares for, and is paying more out of pocket for their vet services.
I take care of four feral cat colonies near where I live, but I’ve taken on a few more because of the Coronavirus. A lot of elderly people feed the city’s colonies and they can’t come out of their homes.
I bring the cats dry food, wet food and water. I probably spend $600 per month, but this month it’s going to be way more since there’s less restaurant garbage they can eat from, and more hungry cats walking around.
A big part of what I do is TNR: trapping feral cats, getting them neutered, and returning them to their colonies. In March TNR’ed 20 cats. Now that the ASPCA, which spays and neuters the cats for free, is closed, I’m taking them to a private vet in Coney Island who is giving a big discount, but I’ve already spent about $500 on neutering and other services.
In my living room I currently have seven pet cats, and six wild ones that are recovering from surgery. One of the ones that I recently rescued needed stitches.
The cats have no clue what’s going on because nothing has changed for them. It’s not in my DNA to see a cat suffering and not do anything about it. I’m equipped to make a cat’s life better, so I’m going to.
— As told to Suzy Weiss
Read more stories about saving animals during the coronavirus crisis.