$1,600 Raised for Trailer Park Kitties and Their Kin

ESSO volunteer Sandy Mayer holds a trailer park kitten during last Sunday's fundraiser at Chesapeake Bay View B&B. (Wave photo)

ESSO volunteer Sandy Mayer holds a trailer park kitten during last Sunday’s fundraiser at Chesapeake Bay View B&B. (Wave photo)

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

November 19, 2013

Three local cat lovers have formed a new spay/neuter organization after a previous service lost its non-profit status. ESSO, short for Eastern Shore Spay Organization, aims to humanely control the Cape Charles cat population.

Sharyl Cline, Pete Bauman, and Sandy Mayer are well known to residents of the Historic District for their cat rescue efforts. Now they are formalizing their work with a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. And fortunately for the group (and the Town), Mayer’s husband, “Dr. Hank,” has the financial expertise to file the required paperwork.

An ESSO benefit at the Mayers’ Bed & Breakfast, Chesapeake Bay View, raised $1,600 last Sunday to help folks with cats in need of fixing. The first project is the area around the old trailer park on Madison Avenue. Although most of the trailers were removed earlier this year, the trailer cats stayed behind.

Cline said the trio use a method called TNR — trap, neuter, and return. The adult trailer park cats are what Cline calls “hard strays.” “I don’t like to use the term feral cats, but rather hard strays. Hard strays are cats that will only come to someone who feeds them,” she said. [Read more…]

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