Many caring people often find themselves in this common predicament. A stray cat shows up; it looks hungry so you offer it some food. The next day the same cat returns and you offer it more food, and the next, and the next. Without realizing it you are becoming this cat’s guardian. I myself have been in this situation. One thing that you may not realize though, is that this cat that you are caring for may soon be contributing to the deadly problem of animal overpopulation. Every year the Tri-City Animal Shelter takes in hundreds of kittens from citizens who start feeding a neighborhood cat, realize she has become pregnant, wait until her kittens are born and bring her and her kittens to the shelter in hopes of them all finding homes. I wish I could say that we were able to accomplish this, but I can not. Despite our efforts, last year we euthanized 174 kittens in the single month of June. While we would always prefer that the kittens come here instead of staying on the street where they will continue to reproduce, starve or come to a much worse fate than euthanasia, it would be great if we could stop the cycle where it begins - in all of our neighborhoods.The good news is we can. The message of spay and neuter has had an extremely positive effect on owned cats. As a result, we rarely see kittens turned in because their owner neglected to have their cat spayed or wanted her to have just one litter first. We are, instead, seeing a boom in the stray kitten population. There is a “fix” for this however. Get that neighborhood cat “fixed”. On average, a cat can have around three litters of kittens in one year, with between 4-6 kittens in each litter. If you are feeding cats outdoors, please have them spayed or neutered so we can lower the number of kittens and cats euthanized. If there is more than one person in your neighborhood feeding the strays, see if they will pitch in with you to get them fixed. If the cats are feral (untouchable), please contact us at 972-291-5335 or your local veterinarian to receive information on how to safely handle these cats. If you do not have a veterinarian we can provide you with a list of the local veterinarians. Keep in mind the cat on your porch may not be your “pet” cat, but if you are providing food, he or she is depending on you. Remember – if you feed ‘em, fix ‘em.