The Raton Project started November 2021 when Pat, the Regional Interpretive Ranger/Northeast from the New Mexico State Parks office in Raton NM reached out to us via email for assistance about a large colony 50-60 cats in their area.  A local cat advocate there had referred her to us.  Good to know our good work is becoming known not only in Colorado but other states.  The Wild Blue leadership team decided to move forward with helping on this project.  Pat had been trapping 1-2 cats at a time and taking them to a local vet in her area for spay/neuter surgery but we all know that this large of a colony will rapidly grow.  We ramped up a team of Aaron, Marni, and Anna who traveled to Raton this past President’s Day weekend 2022 led by Brad who is the most stellar packer of traps probably on the planet.  He was able to pack 49 traps plus all our needed supplies in the Wild Blue van with lots of room to spare.

The Team set up shop on a property where most of the cats were located.  Dr Erin and her team of Liz, Krystal and Kari arrived with Dr. Erin’s mobile surgical clinic in a trailer park nearby and noted there were multiple kitties there as well so a second trapping operation ensued.  Lauri, Wild Blue founder arrived and coordinated both locations and in the end Wild Blue trapped a total of 39 kitties, 7 in the trailer park and 32 from the Raton property.  Of that, 12 had an ear notch indicating they had already been spayed or neutered so they were released.  Six were discovered to be pregnant so they have been brought to Kaylene’s Kradle, the feral cat enclosure at the Wild Blue sanctuary, where they will reside in their heated catios waited on by personal servants twice a day awaiting delivery of their kittens then cared for until the kittens are ready for adoption.  The mamas will then be spayed and most returned to their property in Raton where a lovely older couple cares for them.  That leaves 21 kitties spayed/neutered and vaccinated by the stellar medical team led by Dr. Erin.  Of course our good work doesn’t end there – Kathleen will assemble her team of cleaners and clean, sterilize our equipment and get it ready for our next project.

If you are willing and able, please consider a donation to our Frontier Ferals TNR program, or purchase some TNR products from our Amazon wish list such as food trays, potty pads, and meow mix or Friskies wet food, etc.  Thank you!!
Just think of the many lives saved by this project.  Not only healthier kitties, but stopping a growing colony.  Please thank this fabulous team of volunteers and know that Wild Blue Cats! Does good things!