Welcome to Furry Tails and Updates!
Our new monthly blog aims to provide friends and supporters with a deeper insight into Furry Tails’ mission and purpose, our partners, the communities we collectively serve and, of course, the animals we meet along the way. If you’ve wondered just what exactly is a cat colony or what goes into subduing anxious street dogs so they can be sterilized, we will describe these through first-hand accounts and images. You will meet the many vets and volunteers who travel to pueblos and towns throughout the state to provide animal welfare.
Quick overview: Furry Tails was started in 2022 to improve the well-being of cats and dogs by reducing the population of street animals in Oaxaca. Our volunteer board includes President Mary Maier; Vice President Christopher Lockwood, Secretary Manuela Gomez Rhine and Yesenia Aderete. In 2024, through wonderful donors and supporters, we raised $20,000, funds that sterilized 963 animals.
Feel free to send a message or any questions to: Manuela@furrytailsofoaxaca.org
Partner Tanya LaPierre shares her first-person account of how she :
Never a dull moment when you volunteer work with Ydaliz Bautista and the Huellas de Ayuda Oaxaca team. While at the recent Furry Tails of Oaxaca sterilization campaign in Santa Maria Jacatepec, Oaxaca, our friend Amiel Armando Garcia Jordan told us about a lady who had 25 feral cats on her property. Overwhelmed, this woman, Vianey, reached out asking if we could help with her situation. I said yes.
I asked Furry Tails if they would fund the sterilizations and if I could use the large cat trap. They said YES. I asked Ydaliz and Dr. Roberto Crisanto, both from Huellas de Ayuda, if they would be willing to travel 4.5 hours over the mountains and be away from their families for one to two nights. They said YES. I had donations to cover the costs of accomodations and human food and snacks and cat capture food. We left at 2 pm, arrived with Senor Joel at the mountain hostel at 7 pm, ate, then met Vianey at her home to start capturing cats. We set up the large trap, the cats arrived slowly, one by one, casually checking out the cat buffet offerings. Vianey and her husband quickly got into the swing of things and started to pick up their cats and place them in pillow cases, allowing us to quickly and safely apply anesthesia. We did 15 cats, working until about 1 am. and then packed up our gear and went to sleep a few hours.