Our Somerset Cougars have taken it upon themselves to confront our small feline colony by aiding them on campus in hopes of relocating the cats to safety and limiting future growth of the population.

“Mrs. Carolina, Mrs. Berry, and I would not back down from making sure the kitten got out of the tree,” began Mrs. Horsley, a media teacher on campus describing an incident just this morning. “Carolina laid a ladder up against the tree [in the parking lot by our Northern Wing] hoping that either the mom would go up or the kitten would come down. By 8 o’clock, we knew that wasn’t going to happen.” 

After subsequent assistance by two maintenance workers using a dust broom to coax the little cat off the branch, the group was able to reunite the kitten with its mom.

“Mrs. Berry, our High School Medical and Science teacher, went to get the ladder while Mrs. Carolina was the one who used it to approach the kitten,” further detailed Mrs. Horsley.

These events have gradually become more frequent as our high school students have begun feeding the young tabbies lingering around campus grounds. This resulted in multiple accounts of close interaction between the feral animals and owned property such as sneaking into car engines and watching us from afar. As a response, our environmentally conscious members of administration and student body have questioned just how we can help these felines while also prioritizing the safety of our scholars. 

“It’s called Trap and Release. We can [try to] capture the cats in cages and take them to a shelter where they would be either spayed or neutered so the future generations wouldn’t come… They would also get vaccinated. They would not carry any diseases which protect both them and us.” Horsely reported, “It could be a club of students from now to the Summer which would give them community service hours and help us to get rid of these cats.”