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TEMPLE, Texas (AP) — A 74-year-old woman with cancer is seeking homes for her cats — all 40 of them.
The Temple Daily Telegram (http://bit.ly/1j9UFDH ) reports Mary Bonin of Rogers tried calling several animal shelters and was told they were full and could not take the cats, her brother Dennis Cryer said.
"She loves animals more than anyone I've ever met," Cryer said. "She tried to have them all fixed so they wouldn't keep reproducing, but that gets real expensive. It just got out of control."
He said people often dumped unwanted cats on Bonin's property.
"They knew she would take care of them and feed them," he said. "They knew she wouldn't turn them away."
Bonin said she spends about $400 a month on cat food.
Some of the cats are feral but some are tame, and there are lots of kittens as well as adult cats, Cryer said.
Family friend Andy McCoy contacted the Telegram newspaper hoping to get the word out about the cats available for adoption. McCoy's effort at spreading the word about the cats has resulted in four finding homes so far. Cryer found somebody willing to take eight more as barn cats.
"She (Bonin) just wants to find them homes," McCoy said. "She doesn't want them to starve, get sick, or be killed."
Sisters Lila McGuire and Judy Callaway manage several feral cat colonies in Temple.
"We moved here in 2000," McGuire said. "My sister worked at Scott & White and noticed the stray cats."
The sisters decided something needed to be done and ended up trapping a total of 37 cats. They had them spayed, neutered and vaccinated before re-releasing the feral animals. McGuire said now there are only about two or three wild cats that remain around Baylor Scott & White Health, a hospital complex. She said that fixing and releasing the animals is not only more humane than euthanizing them, it's cheaper and it helps keep rat populations down.
McGuire also has dealt with a feral cat colony near an Extraco Banks location and several others on residential streets in Temple.
She said she wished she could help with Bonin's less tame cats, but she had to limit her efforts to Temple.
"My sister and I work solely on our own funds," she said. "There are no vets in Temple or Belton that do low-cost spay or neuter so we have to take them to Waco on our own gas and time. We spend so much money and there are so many cats right here in Temple."
She said there are good people who care about animals in the area and she hopes there will be a positive response to Bonin's adoption requests.
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Information from: Temple (Texas) Daily Telegram, http://www.tdtnews.com
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