MARYLAND FELINE SOCIETY, INC – WHO WE ARE

            The Maryland Feline Society, Inc., was founded in 1970 as non-profit organization for cat lovers in Maryland .  It has charitable, humane, and educational purposes – specifically to improve and protect the health and welfare of all cats and to educate people about cats.  The organization, which is now a 501.c3 non-profit, tax-exempt group, achieves these goals through bi-monthly meetings, our website (http://www.mdfelinesociety.org/), and a variety of projects.

  Our main projects over the past several years have been Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) events. TNR is a method of dealing with feral and stray cats living behind restaurants, in alleys and abandoned buildings, and in other places.  These cats gather because there is a food source such as a dumpster.  Without intervention, their population grows rapidly.  With a TNR program, cats are trapped humanely, altered, vaccinated, ear-tipped for identification, and returned to their home area with a caretaker providing food and sometimes shelter. If TNR is practiced consistently, the numbers of feral and stray cats begin to diminish. This, in turn, makes it easier to find homes for the many surplus cats which are produced each spring.

 Maryland Feline Society works with Animal Rescue and the Maryland SPCA to hold these events at least 10 times a year at a minimum cost to the colony caretakers. Our largest TNR project consisted of altering about 98% of the cats on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay . See our website for the report and photographs. 

Other projects include an annual sponsored talk on cat health or behavior and an information table at the World of Pets Expo.  Members have written cat care pamphlets which we distribute at this table along with professionally prepared brochures on cat behavior issues. 

Our bi-monthly meetings usually feature a program about some aspect of cat health, behavior, or ownership.  Cats often are present.  Some past programs have been about the latest findings in chronic kidney disease, the feline urologic syndrome, memoirs of a pet-sitter, and cats that miss the litter pan. Other programs have been about specific cat breeds such as the Norwegian Forest Cat and the Tonkinese.

Meetings are open to the public and consist of a brief business meeting, the program, guest cats, and light refreshments. We meet at the Pickersgill Retirement Community, 615 Chestnut Avenue in Towson near Loyola Blakefield off Charles Street . We meet the second Sunday of February, April, June, August, October, and December at 2 pm .

Do join us at our next meeting!

P. O. Box 144, Lutherville, Maryland   21094-0144          http://www.mdfelinesociety.org/

January 22, 2007