Ninety-five-year-old Village of Montgomery resident Flora Stimpfel has always fed stray cats in her backyard throughout the years, but over time their numbers have swelled. Now her daughter Honor Clementz is worried.

Clementz, 76, lives in The Bronx but keeps up with her mother regularly. Once a week she travels from the city to help her mom with some necessities, like shopping and cleaning, as well as keeping in regular touch with her. She mentions that her mother goes out daily to feed the stray cats, which is concerning for Clementz as winter is just around the corner. “I’m worried about her going out in the wintertime when it’s snowing.”

Clementz mentioned she didn’t have much luck when speaking with the town. She has made many calls but hasn’t gotten a straight answer. “Someone at the Village of Montgomery told me that they have a lot that they were doing to build a pet sanctuary. They have the volunteers all lined up [and] they have the funding available but no one is doing anything about it. There are a lot of stray cats.”

According to Clementz there were also volunteers that were supposed to come to Stimpfel’s house organized by the Town of Montgomery, but because of holidays at the time, they didn’t show up. Clementz noted there hasn’t been word and they haven’t shown up since.

She has also called the town supervisor and said she hasn’t received a call back as of yet. “I’ve called Walden, I’ve called Wallkill. I’ve called all the neighboring towns and ASPCA. No one is available to accept any cats at all.”

Town Animal Control Officer Anne Ilkiw explained that there was supposed to be a sanctuary built years ago but COVID caused it to be put aside. Ilkiw also confirmed that there isn’t anywhere for strays to currently go. The Walden Humane Society, she said, is currently running at capacity.

Tracy Wilson, President of the Walden Humane Society said they typically have 160 or more animals in their care at any given time.

“This year alone we’ve taken more than 100 cats from the Montgomery area alone. We run on a waitlist for intake. If cats are fully vaccinated, tested negative for felv and fiv, altered and friendly they are much easier for us to take in and place.”

Wilson further explained that the shelter doesn’t handle feral cats due to the fact they aren’t always adoptable. “The shelter does not currently handle ferals. It would not be humane for us to take in cats that have lived their whole lives outdoors with little human interaction.”

The staff at the shelter is able to figure out whether or not a cat is feral or not and if it will be able to be rehomed. The process for non-feral stray cats is first being scanned for a microchip, then held for 10 days for a potential claim to be made. The cat is then “vetted, assessed and placed for adoption,” according to Wilson.

Though the shelter isn’t accepting cats, there are some local efforts made to try and take care of strays. Ilkiw mentions a local farmer who has offered the town partial use of his farm to take cats until something more permanent is built. She also made it clear that animal control cares about these cats along with residents and fellow animal-lovers. “We all have one goal: we must have a cat sanctuary,” said Ilkiw.

Will Spay Pets, Inc., a local spay and neuter service, did offer to help Clementz trap them, but because they just do procedures, they’d return them after. Clementz mentioned almost all of them are spayed or neutered besides the ones that scattered.

Ilkiw noted that there are a lot of people interested in devoting both time and money into this cause, but that they can’t get an answer from the town supervisor. That isn’t stopping anyone though. Ilkiw and others are prepared to just get together and take action. “You can’t wait on people,” said Ilkiw.

However, Town of Montgomery Supervisor Brian Maher claims he has put in effort to address the feral cat issue.

“Myself and a few others visited the Middletown Cat Sanctuary [because] Middletown has a really good model,” Maher says. “They have land that’s owned by the city of Middletown that they work out of [and] it’s off the beaten path. It’s away from residential homes and they use donations and volunteers to humanely take care of these feral cats.”

Maher explained further that this kind of sanctuary does two things. First, it provides a humane place for feral cats to go; and second, it’s far from residential neighborhoods so it doesn’t interfere with local residential life.

He also mentioned that the sanctuary doesn’t necessarily have to be a building, but rather a plot of land. The Middletown Cat Sanctuary uses abandoned vehicles that they retrofit. “The fencing is something that is a cost, [but] the food is donated. It’s really about finding a location. I think we have a couple good potentials.”

He mentioned that he hopes this will happen within the next year and he will continue to work on this issue whether he is supervisor or in the State assembly.

“In the town of Montgomery we’ve been looking for a place that makes sense. We haven’t found the right place, but we’re still looking. We are working with a bunch of local volunteers who believe in this issue and think it’s going to be an important thing for us to do and we’re trying to form a charitable fund that would be able to take in donations and support the cat sanctuary,” said Maher.

Clementz is really wishing for this help, especially since she stated she isn’t in the best condition to catch them after two major back injuries she sustained last year.

Clementz hopes that the local community will get involved in advocating for a local pet shelter that will take strays like theirs.