Clelia
Clelia Ramos - Jamaica, Queens
I came to NYC from El Salvador in 1984 when I was 11. My family left because life there had become dangerous and we feared for our safety. I have lived in Jamaica, Queens ever since I arrived in the US. I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my daughter in nursing school and my mother who has dementia and my aunt who suffered from a stroke and is disabled. I’m a caseworker at Catholic Charities Senior Center in Jamaica, Queens.
I got involved in cat rescue when I started walking Bruno, my daughter’s dog. I noticed a lot of cats in the street, looking for food, very skinny. Next time I walked the dog, I brought some dry food to feed the cats. After a week I made it a daily routine and brought more food, including wet food. The cats started to expect food from me.
After I had been feeding them a while, I noticed they were multiplying, so I could see there was a problem. I looked around to see what I should do, and I contacted Neighborhood Cats and learned about TNR. I went from being a feeder to become a trapper around six years ago.
As I was doing TNR I started to notice sick cats, cats that weren’t eating due to dental disease or other problems. I had to get help for them and Neighborhood Cats helped me. In every rescue project and trapping project I could get some discounted services but I had to spend my own money. Little Wanderers helped with veterinary care too. The average amount I spend on these extra-care cases is between $100 - $120. And that’s on top of other weekly costs like food and medicine. I feed 33 cats every day and they are all spayed and neutered, but new cats come all the time so I always have about 5 cats on the horizon that need to be spayed or neutered. Often they are friendly cats that may be abandoned or released from a home in the neighborhood.
An elderly woman in the neighborhood, Anna, passed away and she was feeding 11 cats, so now I’m taking care of those cats too.I worry about the other feeders in the neighborhood. If something happens to them, then I have more cats to feed.
I need more spay/neuter appointments - that’s number one. I can go after work and trap by myself, but if I don’t have appointments, then there’s no point. Veterinary clinics that can work with rescuers at discounted rates, would also help. I come across so many sick and injured cats. I wish I could get more help in trapping and recovery, finding space for cats to be cared for before and after surgery. I can take the cats to a place that charges $5 a day for holding, but it starts to add up.
There are problems with cat hoarders who don’t want to cooperate and get their cats spayed and neutered. There are 6 cats I’m trying to help from a hoarding situation. It can be overwhelming because I have so many cat supplies and food to buy and I need to take care of my family too. I only make $19 an hour.
But no matter what, I can sleep at night knowing that the cats will not be hungry.