Hundreds of abandoned and feral cats are roaming neighborhoods in mid-Michigan trying to find a place to stay warm. There is only one spot in a shelter for every 50 cats living outside. These cats need homes.
"The cat population in and off itself is just an enormous problem."
But they are some of the lucky ones. There are so many cats homes roaming mid-Michigan shelters just can't keep up.
"There's only one space in a shelter for every 50 cats that exist in our community that need homes."
That's one reason why Rachel Hoke and Lacey Rall took action.
There are colonies of cats living outside in these frigid temperatures, some abandoned by their owners, others are feral or wild cats.
So the ladies decided to rescue 15 cats from a north Lansing parking lot.
"Through no fault of their own they ended up on the streets, they were clearly someone's cats," said Rachel.
Rachel and Lacey teamed up with the Capital Area Humane Society and Voiceless Michigan to find all the felines a home.
"It doesn't take a lot," said Lacey.
Now just Tux and Strawman are left. Tux and Strawman even got to pose with two cat lovers, Michigan State football seniors Jack Allen and Paul Lang. All in the hopes of finding them a home.
Paul tells me in an email, "Tux and Strawman were both very gentle and awesome cats, so I really hope they get the home that they deserve."
The volunteers say stray cats are our responsibility.
"At one point there was a domesticated cat that was let out or not fixed," said Holly Thomas, president of Voiceless Michigan.
Voiceless Michigan traps, neuters, and returns wild cats to their territories and finds homes for abandoned strays.
"There are so many calls on cats," she said.
For these animal lovers, every cat deserves a chance.
Rachel says, "cats are such wonderful companion animals and I hate to see any animal freeze to death."
