Operation Johnson Kitty continues helping feral cats in community

A gray tom cat's ears perk up to the sign of a tuna can opening up as he huddles in the bushes. The rattling of the live trap seems to be of no concern to him, nor the human standing nearby baiting the trap with the tuna. It's when she steps a few paces away that he slinks from his hiding spot and tentatively takes one step into the trap to nibble on the bait. Then another. And suddenly the door closes, trapping the feral tom within. For Melinda Maiden, it became a successful Tuesday afternoon as she completed a trapping for her nonprofit organization, Operation Johnson Kitty. She captures feral cats off the streets, then takes them to the vet for vaccines and to be spayed or neutered before releasing them back to their home turf or, in best case scenarios, adopted into a new home. "We call them feral, stray or community cats," she said. "These cats are community cats – they don't belong to anybody, but they belong to this community, and we need the community to step up and pay for their spays and neuters." Maiden's love for cats is the main reason behind the creation of Operation Johnson Kitty in 2013. Before her venture into the trap, neuter and return operation, though, her perception of the felines was completely different. "I have loved cats my entire life, but I had no idea what a feral cat was," she said. "To me, all cats were friendly." Maiden said at her vet's office is when she first saw a feral cat colony, which contained 13 cats. After speaking with a friend in Unicoi County who was well-versed in feral cats and ran a trap, neuter and return operation, Maiden decided to start her organization to aid in preventing the growing population of the animals – starting with the original colony behind her vet's building. "I started on that colony, and I got all 13 of them spayed and neutered," she said. "Then, of course, there were no new kittens, which is wonderful. And then I started looking around for other colonies, because I realized, 'Oh, it's not just this one.'" Maiden said in the first year of Operation Johnson Kitty, around 100 cats were trapped and returned. Now, more than a decade later, her numbers have increased tenfold, saying she has helped at least 200 cats per year from 2014 to 2020. "It has just grown every year since [2013]," she said."Last year, we did 327 spay or neuters." Alongside spaying or neutering the cats, Maiden said they also receive the rabies vaccine and get ear-tipped on their left ear, in which the very tip of the ear is surgically cut to show the cat has already been treated and fixed. The vet visit will also address any other medical need the cats may have, which can include amputation. While some of the feral cats are returned back to the areas they're found in, Maiden said Operation Johnson Kitty helps in fostering and adopting out other deemed "friendly" enough to find a forever home. She explained these felines either stay with her or go to one of the three foster families volunteering to help before being considered ready to adopt. The adoption process consists of a form interested individuals must fill out in order to be considered. Maiden said though some of the questions may seem extensive, such as asking whether someone buys or rents or who the person's vet is, it is important information to help connect the right cat to an interested adoptee. "I've been told all of that is intrusive, and I'm just like, 'Well, you're not going to be adopting from me,'" she said with a chuckle. "My number one goal when we're adopting is I have to find the right person for the right cat, and the right cat for the right person. That has to be the thing." Maiden said while she finds encouragement to continue Operation Johnson Kitty through each adoption, her hope is to one day accomplish her original mission with the organization: to help end the feral cat problem in Johnson City through understanding the importance of managing repopulation. "If we had spay and neuter laws here, I think that would go a long, long way towards me not having to have this organization because if everyone was spayed or neutered, we wouldn't have, truly, an epidemic," she said.