Over the years, Mary has gathered many stories ranging from rescuing a single kitten on school property where she was a Learning Support Teacher to trapping and coordinating the vet care and adoption of two barns full of cats. These days, Mary concentrates her volunteer efforts in Byron, where many missing, feral, and unsocialized cats need her attention. Cats go missing when doors or windows are left open, or loud noises like fireworks scare them away. If your cat does escape, Mary offers the following advice: Cats tend to wander about 17 houses away at the most. Set that as a perimeter and walk from the outer edge back towards your house while calling your pet’s name. Set food and used cat litter around your house. Leave a window, garage, or front door partly open with strong- smelling food, like tuna, near the entrance. Remove the food later in the evening to avoid attracting unwanted visitors like skunks. Leave a used cat blanket or cat bed near the open location. Display posters and use social media to get the word out. Contact your neighbourhood Facebook group, vet clinics, and any animal rescue community groups. One of Mary’s favourite success stories is Louis, a cat from Barrie that went missing when his owners were visiting friends in Byron. Louis was found approximately exactly 17 houses away. In more tragic cases, owners who no longer want to care for their cats abandon them. If you find a stray or feral cat in your yard, do the same things noted above. If the cat is feral or unsocialized, reach out to Byron Neighbours on Facebook to contact Mary. She can advise you on what to do. It’s always hard when your four-legged family member goes missing or you find a bedraggled cat that’s terrified and lost. Becoming informed and volunteering with rescue efforts can help reunite lost pets faster and provide safe foster and forever homes for those cats who may never have known the safety of a loving family.
Byron’s Hope for Missing Cats Leo the cat, who graced the front cover of the September Byron Villager, had disappeared from the Byron Optimist Park area in early August. While Leo still hadn’t been found as of this issue going to print, people have spotted him near Ironwood Road. Volunteers continue searching, and hopes are high that Leo and his family will be reunited soon.
The person at the center of the efforts to find Leo and other missing cats in Byron is long-time resident Mary Shepherd. Mary has a deep passion and affinity for all animals, especially cats. “At three years of age, I dragged every
Mary Montreal
cat in the neighbourhood home, begging my mother to allow me to keep them,” Mary adds. “That’s where the passion started. Since then, stray cats have just found me. Wherever I go, they seem to show up.” Mary has decades of volunteer experience fostering, adopting, and trapping domesticated and feral cats from Florida to Ontario. Mary is also trained in animal CPR and Incident Command Level 1 and has worked with many animal rescue organizations throughout the US, Quebec, and Ontario. “Cat rescue requires more than a love of animals,” explains Mary. “It’s imperative to become educated and connected to excellent rescue organizations. It took decades of training to learn how to provide leadership and support to communities like Byron.” Rescuing and fostering are not the only fronts on which Mary worked to protect the cat community. She was the first chairperson of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee with the City of London, and she lobbied for improved animal welfare services, such as the City adopting a “no-kill” policy.
Backyard cat den
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