Finding an answer

In the summer of 2014, Cheryl Goldstein had just moved to Trussville from Vestavia. She was taking in the sights of her new home, when something was brought to her attention: the city’s stray cat population.

“I saw some cats, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I know these cats must be hungry,’ so I started feeding them,” she said.

She began by feeding the original group of 10-12 cats, but it eventually turned into much more. Goldstein created the Trussville Communal Stray Cats Facebook page in the early months of 2015 as a way to highlight the cats and present them in a more loveable format than some perceive.

“I think that people get the wrong idea about feral cats … but they’re just like any other cat, they’re tameable. They just need time to get used to people,” she said. “They’re considered feral cats, but they’re really not feral because they’ve gotten used to me.”

Since its beginning, the page has been a hit, with over 1,100 followers and lots of participation from page visitors. It is used as a way to encourage cat-lovers to rescue the stray cats, but also as a chance for owners to look for lost pets and for Goldstein to find owners for cats — and even dogs — who might be lost or abandoned. 

A while back, she said, she and her husband saw a dog who had been left in a church parking lot, so she took to her Facebook page to find its home. While no one claimed the dog as theirs, she was able to find it a new home through the page. “So we even help dogs,” she laughed.

Goldstein has rescued some of the cats herself, and her plans are far from over. To go along with the page, she is also the president and founder of Little Mew’s Cat Sanctuary, a nonprofit that she plans to transform in the coming years.

Though she hasn’t done much with the nonprofit yet, she said, her eventual dream is to provide a way for these animals to have an opportunity to live in a safe place.

The first step of her plan was starting a petition to stop euthanasia in the state of Alabama, which she plans to take to Gov. Kay Ivey once it reaches 10,000 signatures. Sitting at more than 9,000 already, she said she is confident she can take it soon. The petition can be found on the Trussville Stray Cats Facebook page. 

In the future, Goldstein would like to create a cat sanctuary for stray cats to live and roam free, all after having been spayed and neutered with help from the nonprofit. 

“There’s people out there who want to take these cats, so why don’t we create a sanctuary where we spay, neuter them, give them medical attention and then let them live out their lives?” she said.

Ultimately, Goldstein said this will help with overpopulation and will take cats off the street that get hit by cars. She said she knows plenty of people who care about the cause and want to donate.

Once she finds land, she said she would like to make a park where people can gather, exercise and have picnics, while the cats mingle. This would help the cats, she said, by teaching them to socialize and be around humans. From the park, people could adopt strays they might bond with, taking them beyond the 10-foot privacy fence.

Though the plans beyond the Facebook page are still preliminary, Goldstein is confident this could be the future for stray cats in Trussville.

To visit the facebook page, visit facebook.com/Trussvillestraycats, and to learn more about the nonprofit, visit littlemewscats.com.