trap, neuter and release

Question
We have a colony feral cats living in our back yard. Are there any websites showing how to get approved for a Trap, Neuter and Release program or any national organizations that offer help with the expense of having the cats neutered/spayed. We started off with a couple cats that started coming around after we moved into our home about 5 years ago. Now we have 9 cats hanging around and also 3 litters of kittens from 3 different mothers with a possible total up to 11 kittens ranging in age from 5-6 days to 4 weeks old. We lost one of the kittens that the mother abandoned on our doorstep so we tried to keep it alive by bottle feeding it. Another mother also left one of her only hours old babies on the porch for about a day before so we took it in for 24 hrs but were able to reunite it with his mother but she moved all three and I don't know anything else about them. We have lost several kittens in the last few years. We don't mind feeding them and giving them a place to call home. We can not afford to have them fixed but it is terrible to let them keep multiplying. Some of them have gotten pregnant at 6 mths old. There are no programs in the area that I live. Any help that you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Answer
Debbie,

It's obvious to me that you really want to help these cats and stop the population explosion. It's a tough situation, but your heart is definitely in the right place. I've got a couple of suggestions that might be helpful for your situation:

- Check out Alley Cat Allies, they may have a chapter of their organization in your area or they may be able to direct you to an organization in your area that's willing to help. The Alley Cat Allies have been doing this for a very long time and if memory serves me they have various web pages up that talk about TNR programs, how they work best, where to find the equipment, etc.

- I'm not sure what the veterinarians in your area are like, but it's quite possible that if you spoke directly with vets they may be able to perform the surgeries for free or at a drastically reduced cost to you. If you can get a few vet clinics on board then you could put donation jars in local vet clinics, pet stores, convenience stores, etc (provided you have permission) along with an information sheet asking people to make donations so that you can have stray/feral cats spayed/neutered.

- It's possible that local spay/neuter clinics or animal shelters (in surrounding areas) would be prepared to spay/neuter your cat colony for a nominal fee.

Hopefully these suggestions will work. I may be able to offer more detailed suggestions if I had a general idea where you're situated because I do keep an ever growing list of cat resources such as spay/neuter clinics, charitable organizations that offer assistance with spay/neuter costs and other businesses that may be willing to help. If you have any further questions, concerns or you'd like me to clarify anything in this answer, please feel free to contact me again.