Kitty Care : When a Feline Needs a Friend, Dana Point Harbor Group Steps In

Lazily stretching on a sun-drenched rock at Dana Point Harbor, Sally looks too pampered and contented to be an abandoned cat.

The cream-and orange-colored tabby loves being petted and scratched behind the ears. But try to pick her up, and she’s all teeth and claws.

Like many other members of the harbor’s large colony of cats, Sally was once somebody’s house pet.

“But they dumped her,” said Joelle Bailey, one of about 10 local residents who voluntarily watch over discarded cats at the harbor. “These cats out here live such hard lives--they pick up parasites and get killed by cars. . . . I don’t know how people who dump their cats sleep at night.”

For almost 10 years, this collection of compassionate housewives, business professionals and retirees has assumed the role of unofficial cat caretakers in the scenic harbor. Every day, rain or shine, one of them can be found feeding 20 to 30 felines that live wild here.

But this group does far more than simply provide food.

Nearly all the cats have been neutered by the caretakers, who pool their own money for the surgery. To provide shelter for the cats, group members knocked together several small wooden hutches and hid them among the rocks in the harbor.

And most important, they spend many hours seeking adoptive homes for the harbor cats.

“My dream is that there are no cats down here,” Bailey said. “My dream is that they all get adopted.”

All the felines are given names--Chelsea, White Legs, Saddle, Dirty Face, Lacey and Gray Mother, to name a few.

When one of them doesn’t show up for a feeding, the caretakers worry. When a harbor cat is found dead, usually crushed by a car, they grieve.

“I cry and cry,” Bailey said. “But when it’s my turn to feed them, I’m back out there. The others still need to be fed.”

John Hamil, a Laguna Beach veterinarian who is a past president of the California Veterinarians Assn., says that feeding stray cats is usually a mistake.

“They’re deadly to songbirds,” he said. “They can wipe out a songbird population rather quickly.”

But he agrees with the methods being used by the cat caretakers to control the harbor’s feline population.

“These people are really making quite a commitment,” Hamil said. “Feral cats live rather short lives and they don’t die well. These folks are doing a pretty good job keeping up the quality of life for these cats.”

But many animal groups, such as the Humane Society, are conflicted on what to do about the cat predicament.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Jennifer Shaw, head of volunteers for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the South Bay. “These cats should not be on the street and some human societies feel you should trap and euthanize them.

“I see both sides myself because the life of a cat on the street is incredibly hard,” Shaw said. “But I’m a cat person and I understand why these people are feeding cats.”

The South Bay society ran a feral cat colony program for two months in 1992 that donated money for neutering. But they were forced to stop because of the overwhelming volume of requests: 1,400 cats.

Park rangers in charge of Dana Point Harbor say they have no problems with the cat caretakers.

“I’ve seen animals dumped in every public facility I’ve ever worked in,” said Mark Carlson, supervising ranger for the harbor beaches area. “My personal opinion is that these people are doing a good thing.”

There are other places in Orange County where people have banded together to protect abandoned cats.

Hamil is in contact with a group in Laguna Beach that works with felines in Heisler Park. Another consortium of caretakers operates near Corona del Mar State Beach.

Although everyone pitches in to feed, members often have their areas of expertise.

“There are feeders, trappers, health caretakers,” Hamil said. “These people need to cooperate with each other and they do.”

The Dana Point group is independent of the city’s Animal Rescue Foundation, a private organization dedicated to finding homes for stray animals.

But with a common goal, caring for animals, ARF recently agreed to help the harbor caretakers with medical expenses for cats that are sick or need to be neutered.

“These people are doing a job for which they not only should be recognized, but paid for,” said Glenda Rosen, president of ARF. “They make a difference in the lives of those cats.”

The harsh reality of existence for a domestic cat that is dumped by its owners is this: “There are no exact statistics available, but they only live a few years,” Hamil said. “They are susceptible to fight wounds, parasites and illness that are not treated. Most will die from being hit by a car.

Household pets are also not prepared to battle for existence alongside wild cats.

“They are the end result of a throwaway mentality,” Hamil said. “I think cats deserve a better life than that.”

Bailey has horror stories galore about cat dumping. Three declawed Siamese cats were recently left in the harbor, completely unable to defend themselves against other cats or some of the other wild creatures, such as coyotes, who roam the fringes of the harbor. One of the Siamese soon died under the wheels of a car.

And then there was Simon, a 14-year-old tabby slowly dying of kidney disease when he was abandoned by his family.

Not only did Simon survive, with the help of a veterinarian paid by the harbor caretakers, but Bailey found an 11-year-old boy named Matthew to adopt the aging cat.

“I have Simon’s picture in a frame at home,” she said. “On the frame is the phrase, ‘Can rescuing one animal out of thousands really make a difference? It did to this one.”

Those interested in adopting a harbor cat can contact Bailey at (714) 498-2650.