Walnut Creek ‘cat lady’ leads non-profit’s efforts to reduce cat overpopulation

Gemma Boyd grew up with cats in Long Beach but never imagined that cat welfare would become her life s work But in three lost little kittens inspired her to eventually lead Society Concern for Cats a Walnut Creek-based nonprofit that rescues homeless felines who are at peril of starvation condition and reproducing exponentially While running a courier business in Pleasant Hill Boyd heard about three kittens navigating a major thoroughfare and went searching She revealed the kittens but became immersed in an ongoing situation the overpopulation of street cats in Contra Costa County and everywhere else A few million cats entered American shelters in and were euthanized according to Shelter Animals Count Boyd connected with CC C which consisted of a small infrastructure of cat lovers who searched for kittens and adult cats trying to survive in people s back yards vacant lots or abandoned buildings Then and now they rescue sweet-natured cats and prepare them for adoption while trapping the less social cats so that they can be sterilized before returning to the outdoors Gemma Boyd with Area Concern on Thursday July in Walnut Creek Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Cats are wonderful creatures I just wish they wouldn t multiply so much Boyd says Related Articles Luxury Bay Area dog and cat hotel company agrees to changes over alleged violations of pet-care rabies laws Don t let your pet pack on pounds Oakland s animal shelter no longer mandated to take all animals amid surge in drop-offs reduced staff Think you ve located a lost cat Here s what to do and not to do A kitten s transformation in foster care Boyd and a close-knit band of helpers have since grown CC C into a venerable -year-old Bay Area animal rescue organization It has an annual budget of around and a profitable downtown Walnut Creek thrift store to help fund its operations During the pandemic CC C opened a storefront to host adoptions chosen a year It also runs a small hospital with staff veterinarians who provide curative care and spaying and neutering to cats going through its project Like other Bay Area cat rescue nonprofits CC C contributors also foster kittens and cats including older and medically vulnerable animals until they find forever homes But CC C stands out in a meager solutions For one thing it has stuck to its emphasis on trap-neuter-return TNR because Boyd and her colleagues believe that spaying and neutering is a necessary and humane way to address cat overpopulation For another thing it s run by contributors not by executives earning six-figure salaries It pays staff at the hospital and thrift store while everyone else donates long hours to cat work drawing on their skills in nonprofit management accounting retail communications and feline care and behavior Q Would you call yourself a crazy cat lady A We are crazy in the sense that we do spend majority of of our power on this but not crazy in the way we deal with it We are very dedicated to the cause It s seems like the Mafia or a sinkhole Once you get in it you can t get out Q What are misconceptions about cats A That they don t have any personality I can understand you walk into someone s house and you don t know cats yet and you see one just lying there But you don t know the subtleties of their personality Q Talk more about your cat rescue origin story A I was working in the Citibank building near a redevelopment area in downtown Pleasant Hiill and my coworker noted I saw particular kittens passing Monument Boulevard I went looking for them Q Why would you do that A Because I desired to find those kittens On one residential street somebody was out there I stated Somebody notified me they saw three kittens coming in this direction He commented Yeah there s invariably cats in my yard So I ended up getting a trap from CC C You would have thought it was like big battle hunting because my heart was just pounding with those traps and the three kittens going in And the man revealed There s a whole bunch more over there This was a redevelopment area and the buildings were all due to come down We started trapping and I notified a more experienced volunteer that I heard there were cats She noted If someone says there s there s seemingly We revealed and backyard homes for greater part of them I kept the three When that was over with I stuck around to help Q How did CC C get started A Women trapping cats in the area called the late Contra Costa Times pet and wildlife columnist Gary Bogue for advice He called a meeting for all these trappers and they named it Group Concern for Cats Q There are multiple rescue organizations around the Bay Area that do central work especially in helping with adoptions While you run a robust adoption scheme you ve also stuck with your TNR mission Why is that essential A cat at Population Concern for Cats adoption center on Thursday July in Walnut Creek Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group A Our work is the street cat and we want to get as several as we can off the street and fixed so there are no more babies They go through our hospital and chosen are going to backyard homes where they can live and are fed and monitored because they re not adoptable You know kitten season bumps that number way up We work really hard and we still can only help about cats a year Q But it s better than A We preach TNR We don t put any of the cats back into a bad place The people that we help are concerned about the cats in their backyard and they want them fixed Numerous call because they now have kittens Here s the thing Sometimes people want to start their own rescue groups What they don t realize is you can t operate without funds And if nobody knows you where are you going to get your funding It took us a long time to get to this point years And now we have a name for ourselves Q You say you have about core assistants How much do the contributors work trapping taking care of fosters running the store or doing paperwork A We have a messaging group and our phones are dinging at midnight We have a hotline so people call us they email us and they message us It comes in all different tactics and people don t ever lose your number Q Talk about your hospital A It s open four days a week and we have two vets and a retired vet who contributors They sometimes work on holidays or weekends They re really dedicated to it We mostly do spays and neuters but we also do deworming and vaccines and any kind of physiological aid they need When COVID lockdowns happened in March we only shut down for seven days and were able to stay open Another issue we re seeing is that the cost of veterinary care has become prohibitive for multiple people so that spays and neuters are out of reach for numerous people leading to more kittens being born and more cats being abandoned Q Doesn t cat rescue sometimes involve helping humans A There s a woman who s homeless now A former executive assistant nice clothes But I m taking care of her cat now because she s living in her car So when you end up helping the cats you sometimes end up helping the people too Five things about Gemma Boyd Age Hometown Walnut Creek Title Past president current vice president Population Concern for Cats Family Three children five grandchildren Boyd retired from hands-on trapping of feral cats because it became too emotionally grueling to return them to their colonies even if they were in a safe place and would be fed She still teaches others to trap cats and care for fosters Her up-to-date rescue A kitten that was eating bark possibly because it couldn t find anything else where it was living Her home has become a cat sanctuary mostly for older cats and ones with biological requirements Boyd s husband was reliably supportive of her cat work but mostly indifferent to the cats themselves That is until a little white kitten with pneumonia located her way onto his lap And pretty soon he was petting her Biggest fundraising coup Before a wealthy local cat lover died he pledged a generous bequest But it was tied up in probate for about years and Boyd and her colleagues mostly forgot about it Four years ago CC C s treasurer called to tell Boyd to sit down She reported I have a check for