Woman Saves Stray Cats Near INTRUST Bank Arena

May 13, 2010

By Kim Hynes (WICHITA, Kan.)

A peek through some glass, spurs a Wichita woman to action. "I looked in this window and saw a dozen cats just crying out. I thought poor babies," said Joyce Eddington. She came across them almost three weeks ago on her way to an event at the Intrust Bank Arena. "We were walking by and I heard crying."

After that, she couldn't stop thinking about their little faces inside the abandoned building. "I told my husband we need to go back," she said. And that's what she's done every day since. She takes a bucket of food and jug of water and feeds the cats through a mail slot in the door.

The building where the cats are is old and falling apart. The city put a sticker saying it was condemned, so Eddington was scared something would happen to the cats. That's when she called Friends for Felines. "They said they would help me trap them and spay and neuter them and relocate them," she said.

Click - Friends of Felines

After getting approval from the owner of the building and the city, Friends of Felines is preparing to move the cats outside the county. "We like to trap and return to colony. In this situation it's to dangerous and the cats can't stay," said Friends of Felines Secretary Sue Schanp. She says they'll start trapping once they have veterinarians lined up to spay and neuter.

Without Friends of Felines stepping in, Schanp says the cats would likely be put down by animal control. So Eddington says she can sleep better at night knowing the cats are fed and will soon have a new home.

Schanp says Friends of Felines wants to work with the city to do more to protect feral cats. She says a trap, neuter and release policy is more cost effective and humane for the cats. Right now the city puts wild cats down because they're not adoptable.

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