Becoming a Feral Cat Group Volunteer

The campus cats depend on volunteers for their health and well-being. Volunteers can participate in a variety of ways.

Feeders

• Feed and water cats one night a week or share a night on alternating weeks. 
• Keep an eye out for any injury or illness, new cats, other anomalies.
• Fill out a feeding form that details activity each feeding shift.
• We also have faculty/staff feeders dedicated to specific buildings, such as the law school, who maintain those feeding locations on workdays. Weekend feeders cover these buildings’ feeding stations on the weekend.

Food bagger

• If feeding isn't right for you, perhaps you can help us by supporting the volunteer who buys and bags the food each week. 

Water person

• Fills water bottles so they are ready for feeders to take on their feeding rounds. This task can be done any day at any time, usually weekly and sometimes more often in the summer.

Other ways to help

• Assist in Trap-Neuter-Return. 
•  Photography
  • A digital camera with zoom lens and a steady hand is needed for pictures of ferals! We also try to take pictures occasionally on feeding rounds. (Pictures help us identify cats for a variety of purposes, including our census.)
• Help with the administration of flea medications, maintenance of feeding stations and shelters, fostering kittens, winterizing shelters, scanning in feeder forms and other tasks that come up. It takes a village to keep our ferals healthy and happy. 

Volunteer now

• If you would like to learn more about becoming a volunteer, email the Feral Cat Group at cats@smu.edu.

• The Feral Cat Group is supported by the Office of the President and individual donations. In addition, it works in cooperation with the campus Police Department and stores its supplies in a room generously provided by the police department.