Real Cruzan Cats

R.E.A.L. Cruzan Cats is formed to ensure the protection and humane treatment of feral and abandoned cats in St. Croix and New England, as well as: • To form a TNVR program (trap, neuter, vaccinate and return) for feral cats to help reduce cat overpopulation and protect wildlife; • To work with other rescue groups toward educating the public about the value of the lives of all animals; • To educate people how to properly manage feral cat colonies; • To work with wildlife protection agencies and organizations on placement of feral cat colonies while focusing on the protection of native species; • To foster kittens and friendly ferals/strays in order to find them permanent homes through adoption.

R.E.A.L. Cruzan Cats is a nonprofit animal rescue dedicated to ensuring the protection and humane treatment of feral and abandoned cats in St. Croix and New England. Our programs include TNVR (trap, neuter, vaccinate and return) for feral cats to help reduce cat overpopulation and protect wildlife; rescue of kittens and friendly stray cats in order to find them permanent homes through adoption; Food for Ferals to assist people who feed Community Cats by helping with the cost of cat food; and developing a cat sanctuary in St. Croix to create a safe haven for feral cats and protect volatile wildlife.

Goal One: After running our own clinic for a year (now owned by the vets & open to the public), we are focusing on rescue & outreach, to assist the communities we serve in finding low-cost spay/neuter services.

Goal Two: Broadening our outreach and offering assistance to low-income families to spay/neuter their cats, both cats that they consider pets and cats they feed in a colony near where they live.

Goal Three: A cat sanctuary to provide safety, food & vet care, while working with wildlife protection agencies to move cats to protect native species.

Our goal has always been to teach and encourage people to value and respect the lives of all animals. We train individuals and groups of people how to trap cats, proper feral cat colony management, bottle feeding and raising kittens who have lost their mothers, animal introductions so that our fosters and adoptions are successful, and how to foster cats and kittens. By encouraging more people on island to learn about trapping, feeding, and fostering cats and kittens, we get closer to achieving our mission of humane treatment of animals in general.

To date, we have relied completely on public donations and most of our fundraising has been through social media. While we continued our operations and even expanded our work in 2020-2021, we faced problems with reduced total donations and also fewer travelers to escort cats to the mainland. In fall 2020, a generous business owner donated a private flight to bring cats from both St. Croix and St. Thomas to New England, and 63 cats and kittens were taken into the care of several partner shelters and rescues and placed into homes. In addition to the charter flight, supporters donated airline miles to people who would escort cats as carry-on pets. We did benefit from the adoption boom with newly working at home families, and we had very few animals returned, thanks in large part to our careful application process and followup. In mid 2021, we were approached about a 5-acre property that wasn't selling at market value, and in the past 6 months we negotiated and purchased at an extremely low price that property which will become our island home base and cat sanctuary.