A new community effort has launched in Gustine to address what many residents say has become one of the town’s most urgent animal welfare issues: the growing number of abandoned and feral cats.
The initiative, called the Gustine Community Cattery, is led by local resident and longtime animal advocate Melodi Busch, who has been supporting cat rescue efforts on her own for years. Busch stresses that this cannot be a one-person mission. “First of all, we need a rescue that everyone can be a part of. A task of this magnitude cannot be accomplished by one person or even a handful of people,” she said. “I get contacted by at least eight people weekly and have even had kittens dropped off on my doorstep. The need is great.”
Her long-term vision is that the community, not just a small group of individuals, steps up to support the animals that live here. “My hopes and long-term goals are to have Gustine as a whole take care of all the animals, not think that a couple people have the time and finances for this,” Busch said. “I am hoping that Animal Control gets a hand on the feral population or that the city calls in our county TNR (trap-neuter-rescue) program and has them come in to get this under control.”…