Cooperative Living March/April 2020 - 12

CoverFocus | by Steven Johnson, Staff Writer
Like most counties, Mecklenburg
lacks the resources to deal with feral
cats. Burnette started exploring what's
known as TNR - trap, neuter and
return. The idea: Trap a free-roaming
cat from a barn or setting where it has
taken up residence, take it to a vet for
vaccinations and spaying or neutering,
tag its ear and return it to its makeshift
home.
The process has its skeptics but the
American SPCA endorses it as " the only
proven humane and effective method
to manage community cat colonies. "
" I'm one of those people who, if you
see something, you just do it. I was
meant to be a problem solver, " Burnette
says.
Four years ago, she incorporated
The
Rescuers
S
omeone shot Jack the cat. How
it happened, where it happened
and who pulled the trigger were
unformed thoughts in Holly Burnette's
mind as she raced the little black-andtan
tabby to the vet.
It was good to see Jack, who'd been
missing for four months from the
outdoor colony where he lived amicably
with a dozen or so other barn cats.
But when he reappeared just before
the new year, he was limping badly.
Fearing a car had struck Jack, a
woman who monitored the colony
contacted Burnette, head of Sweet
Virginia Barn Cats in Clarksville, Va. An
X-ray revealed shrapnel; Jack had been
shot in the rear left leg and the bullet
had grazed his front left elbow. He was
a candidate for euthanasia. He'd be
forever lame, vulnerable to predators.
But Jack had somehow found his
way home and Burnette wasn't about
to let him down.
After a two-week regimen of care and
antibiotics, a Clarksville vet amputated
Jack's left front leg. After he came out
of surgery, Burnette watched Jack make
" air biscuits, " kneading with his one
good front paw, and she started to cry.
Jack had used one of his nine lives, but
10 | Cooperative Living | March-April 2020
he still had eight left because Sweet
Virginia Barn Cats had given him
another chance.
Just like the puppies pulled from
refuse piles or the owl with a broken
wing or the hundreds of farm felines
that Burnette and her volunteers have
trapped, vaccinated, spayed and
neutered to combat a spiraling
population of cats in Mecklenburg
County.
Sometimes the only way to combat
a force of nature is to become one
yourself.
PROBLEM SOLVER
The path to Sweet Virginia Barn Cats
began when Burnette started rescuing
kittens from dumpsters as a kid growing
up in Clarksville. It's not been a linear
progression - she has worked as an
administrative assistant and
photographer - but her avocation
became a vocation when she returned to
Virginia from South Carolina in 2012
and volunteered at the local SPCA.
Above, Cassie Boyd (left) and Holly
Burnette at a Barn Cats colony.
Right, Sherlock the beagle, who
Boyd picked out of a collection
of dumpsters.
co-opliving.com
Sweet Virginia Barn Cats as a nonprofit
to account for the donations people
were slipping her on behalf of cats or
her growing work with abandoned
and neglected dogs.
" The fortunate thing about doing
rescue in a small town is that people
know my family so there's a trust there.
They trust you with what your
intentions are and with their money.
I didn't want anybody to feel I would
ever take advantage of that. We're all
volunteers, " she says.
The numbers are staggering. Last year,
Sweet Virginia Barn Cats rescued 273
cats and 58 dogs in Southside Virginia.
The team hand-poured 29,200 meals to
communities of barn cats, including the
one Jack lived in. A white van, when it
was working, logged 70,000 miles to
move animals to partner groups and
adoption agencies as far away as
Camden, Del.
The organization operates on a frayed
shoestring. It has no holding facility -
http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living March/April 2020

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