Helping the skittish cats

Vikki Skinner, co-founder of Outpawed, has helped with the rehabilitation and rehoming of 354 unsocialised cats and kittens since April last year.

A couple is working to rehabilitate and rehome hundreds of abandoned and stray community cats that cannot be taken on by other animal welfare agencies.

Vikki and Hamish Skinner have assisted 354 unsocialised cats and kittens throughout the Wellington and Horowhenua regions since launching their charity Outpawed in April last year.

Currently, Outpawed has 87 cats and kittens in foster care, including a collection from Kapiti, and manages three colonies with around 60 community cats.

"When we talk about community cats, we mean unsocialised cats that are generally wild-born, and usually the product of human negligence," said Mrs Skinner, who registered the charity in May 2016.

The cats typically displayed traits including being fearful of humans, and hissing, spiting, growling and lunging when approached or confined.

The charity, which uses a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programme, hopes to change the way community cats are perceived.

"My husband and I made it our goal to advocate for these cats, and to provide an alternative to euthanasia or being left to live wild.

"Our purpose is to provide a humane management strategy, and reduce the population of community cats over time through desexing and rehoming."

Mrs Skinner said often, people did not realise how efficiently cats can breed.

"Female kittens can become pregnant as young as four months of age, and can breed up to four times per year, so it's extremely important to desex early."

Prior to Outpawed, the couple did long-term fostering work for another organisation, where they came across a pair of sister kittens other volunteers struggled to work with.

"They would hiss, spit and snarl at anyone who got close to them and at that point, we'd only ever socialised one wild kitten. It took several months, but the girls learned to trust us and the feeling this brought was incredible."

Cats like them were often not given a chance, with many turned away from rescues due to inexperience, lack of adequate resources and willing volunteers, or suitable housing.

Based in Whitby, Outpawed is volunteer-run, with two trustees and 30 volunteers and foster parents.

Despite being rewarding, the job is extremely challenging at times.

"Because we take only street cats, we encounter some pretty horrible diseases. Often we'll have cats that do really well at first, but then plateau.

"Sometimes they can go months where they're happy to share space with you but still won't allow you to touch them, and it's heart-breaking.

"Compared with all that, the scratches and bites are the easy part of the job."

She said Outpawed is always in need of volunteers for fundraising events and foster homes.

The organisation also relies on donations from the public, with vet bills averaging $8000 a month.

"Any monetary donations are greatly appreciated, as are donations of food, blankets, heating pads, kitten formula and toys."

With Outpawed's annual appeal running this month, from July 21 to 23, Mrs Skinner hoped people would help where they could, and follow the group's progress on Facebook.

"We need people to spread the word."

Donations can be made to: The Outpawed Rescue Trust 06-0284-0635488-00