Recommendation for Year-End Last-Minute TNR - To All TNR Beginners

Well then, to all the feeders across the country,

Are you doing it⁉️ TNR!

Now is the critical moment! Because once the new year starts, the mating season will be here right away!

Feeding and spay/neuter surgery go together! Beginners are fine too! Let's try it!

At least the females! Let's do it for the girls! Don't forget to make good use of the subsidy programs offered by cities and prefectures. It will be cheaper. Cities and other offices might even lend you traps. Also, it might be good to inquire with animal welfare organizations. If it's a good organization, they will give you advice and cooperate with you. However, that's only if it's a good organization. Please be careful when choosing a welfare organization. In my experience, there is no such thing as being safe just because it's an organization. On social media, they might list impressive, pleasant-sounding words, but the reality is often different. There were even people from organizations who clearly stated that they blog just for the sake of donations.

Just because someone is in a position to protect animals, it's for your own good not to assume they are a good person. Oh, of course, there are good organizations, and there are people who are genuinely caring.

Please choose such organizations with your own eyes and ears.

Surprisingly, there are cases where someone like me—not belonging to an animal welfare organization, just a cat-loving middle-aged woman—actually has a higher level of experience, having done over 120 TNRs or having nearly 40 pet cats because I've rescued too many, so looking for someone like that might be an option. (Though, I'm not necessarily a good person either, lol.) But if it's for the sake of the cats, I will cooperate within my own means.

I think there are many people like me across the country who are not animal welfare organizations or volunteers, but just doing TNR because it's a problem for themselves.

But since we don't really tell people, it might be hard to tell. Especially in the countryside, you're thought of as a weirdo.

I don't want to see weak cats or hungry cats. I also don't want to see them being hated by humans or abused.

That's why I keep as many as I can safely indoors, and at least in my own living area, I do TNR so they don't increase, so I don't see such cats. (Even though I've been doing it for over 10 years, it's still not over.)

I've even been told that keeping them in a small room without letting them outside is abuse.

I've been complained about regarding cats I've TNR'd and returned. (Community cats don't work in my countryside.)

I've also been complained to while feeding them.

Perhaps you might encounter such unpleasant things too.

Actually, I'm a very timid person who worries a lot, and every time I was told something, I would get hurt or shocked, and it would take time for my feelings to recover. (Although I act as if that's not the case.)

If you are told a few times, you build up some resistance.

I tell them, 'I am trying to reduce the stray cats you hate; is it okay if I stop doing that? Since I've been paying for the spay/neuter surgeries out of my own pocket, you don't see kittens here anymore.' When I say that, they don't really have much of a comeback (according to my research).

For those who think that's unpleasant,

First, before you start TNR or rescue cat activities,
as mentioned before, it might be easier to
find a good organization already active in the field and build a cooperative relationship.
In short, it's like having them as your backing.

I personally dislike relying on others or hanging out in groups, so that wasn't an option for me.
(It was too rural, and there were no animal welfare organizations nearby either.)

Nowadays, there are many, and there are more organizations
that are openly active on platforms like Instagram,
so looking for an organization that you get along with is also an option.

For now, I try to behave pleasantly,
and I make an effort to be liked by people, regardless of the cats. I don't suppress my true self, though.
It's just, in my own way.
It's like greeting people cheerfully and being kind within my capabilities.

As a result, I don't get complained at even when I'm feeding them,
and the people around me start to change little by little.
(A strategy of quietly increasing my own allies)

Of course, not everyone is going to think well of it,
but I've stopped being complained to directly to my face.

For those who, like me, dislike relying on others
or doing what they are told, let's do our best on our own in our own way!

I wrote this hoping that more such people will increase.
And I sincerely hope that I can finish
my own TNR activities this year.

Do your best! Me!
At the beginning of next month, it's the parent and kitten
that have settled into the dormitory of the company my cousin works at!!

It's not because anyone told me to,
but because I'm doing it for my own pleasure.

Yes, I am doing my best for my own sake.

And if that leads to saving even one cat in trouble
or reducing their numbers, there is nothing
that makes me happier than that.