Animal activist Pam Kalish, who works with the Animal Defense League of Arizona (ADLAZ), doesn’t have a paying job; instead she volunteers her time and energy to cats of all genders and ages. She protects cats from people who don’t take responsibility for their actions.

    “These cats just don’t come out of nowhere ... there’s a lot of abandonment,” says Kalish, a retired electrical engineer who traps cats several times a week.

    The problem is there is no state or county laws about stray cats—something that North Central resident Terry Ratner, a nurse and freelance writer, recently discovered for herself.

 

One Saturday morning Ratner walked over to the vacant house next door, a redbrick historic home with a chimney cloaked in dead ivy. “I wanted to see for myself the number of cats roaming the area,” she explains. 

    Four black cats were stretched out on the flagstone walkway while a fat tabby snoozed on the side porch under a heavy oak tree. “As soon as I came within 6 feet of them, they lurched forward and ran around to the side of the house and into a crawl space under the house,” she recalls. “Within minutes, three black kittens and two gray ones scurried into the same black hole.”

    Ratner spent hours on the phone trying to find a way to have the neighbor cats picked up, fixed and brought back to their environment. While the county couldn’t help, luckily, ADLAZ (http://www.adlaz.org) could.

    “Pam Kalish has agreed to help me trap the cats provided I have permission from the homeowners,” Ratner explains. This is the through the organization’s TNR (trap, neuter and release) program.

    “We must solve part of the problem by banding together and sterilizing the outside cats some neighbors insist upon feeding and then leaving,” Ratner emphasizes.

    And, putting her proverbial money where her mouth is, Ratner has organized an informational dinner and fundraiser to spread the word about reducing the stray cat population.

    The event takes place 5:30-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, at Tom’s Restaurant & Tavern, 2 N. Central Ave., at the northeast corner of Central and Washington. While admission is free, attendees are welcome to purchase their own drinks or dinner, if they wish, or partake in the Maker’s Mark bourbon tasting, with a portion of the sales going to ADLAZ and Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s MASH unit, created to house and care for animals that have been abused or neglected by their caretakers and that have been rescued by the Animal Cruelty Investigative Unit.

    Presenters include Pam Kalish from ADLAZ and Sgt. Beckley from MASH.

To RSVP, call 602-257-1688 or send an e-mail to info@terryratner.com by no later than Wednesday, Sept. 16.