My Experience as a Community Cat Caretaker
- petcommunitycenter
- Jul 12, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 13, 2022
This article was written by Pet Community Center client, Nicole Cochran. This is her account of becoming a community cat caretaker in East Nashville.
It all began with the faint sound of kitten mews coming from a vent in our kitchen. We are dog people, so this was most definitely an out-of-place sound in our home! A little exploration under the house revealed an adorable litter of three misfits peppering our kitchen with sounds of sweetness. After completing a simple math equation, we realized we were on the precipice of a problem.
My sister had heard of the Community Cat Program offered at Pet Community Center (PCC), so we made it our mission to take care of every cat that frequented our yard in our East Nashville neighborhood. To date, we have trapped, neutered, vaccinated, and returned seven community cats with the help of Pet Community Center. Despite the overwhelming guilt we feel for the trust broken when we trap them, it seems we have been forgiven, and we now provide a nightly buffet on our veranda for our furry friends.
We have named them all, but my sister insists that cats don’t “come” to the sound of their name. I will admit to having a favorite, Midnight. Perhaps she feels the extra love because she has recently let me start petting her for the first time!
Using the pronoun “she” reminds me of one of the funniest parts of caring for community cats. We never know what gender the cats we bring in are until PCC tells us, so it's like a gender reveal party every time. My sister and I have a good-natured betting game going on, and each of us has been pleasantly surprised. We were both sure Midnight was male, but alas, she is a sweet, black-as-night little girl.
We are so grateful for this program and how it has tamed that scary multiplication problem we once faced. Our feline friends have added so much joy to our lives, and the peace of mind we have now about their health is priceless!.
Oh, and we are no longer just “dog people!”
I relate to the “simple math equation” moment turning into a whole neighborhood mission — it escalates fast once you start noticing who’s hanging around regularly. Also, the way you and your sister each have your own cat theories feels like any other hobby rabbit hole — kind of like check this out, where everyone has a different system but the consistency is what matters in the end.
The image of the “nightly buffet on our veranda” is so specific and sweet — you can tell you all are in it for the long haul. Totally unrelated, but the way you describe Midnight warming up over time feels like those Studio Ghibli style portraits where the soft details only really pop after you stare for a second.
Midnight finally letting you pet her feels like the biggest possible win — it’s wild how long trust can take, but it’s so obvious when it clicks. Side note, I ended up down a rabbit hole on this site the other day and it had me thinking about how many different ways people try to “help,” but hands-on consistency like this story is what really shows up.
Naming them all even when they “don’t come” is such a cat-person rite of passage, honestly. Also the idea of a little nightly routine — trap, care, feed, repeat — weirdly reminds me of learning patterns like a simple vigenere cipher tool, except the cats are definitely less predictable.
The “gender reveal” moment at the clinic made me laugh because it’s exactly how it feels when you’re guessing from a distance. This whole story has the same oddly calming vibe as a quick round of that blockblast puzzle game, where you’re just doing your best one move at a time.