TNR Success in Nikšić: Novka and Ratka’s Cat Colonies

February – March 2020

Novka softly jingles her keys to let the neighborhood cats know their breakfast has arrived. They come streaming from under bushes, through broken basement windows, or from beneath the cars where they’ve huddled to stay warm. Novka feeds in numerous spots throughout the neighborhood. She chases off neighborhood dogs with a leafy branch until the cats have had their fill and wandered off. The dogs are fed separately. Dressed always in black, head to toe, she bundles coats and scarves around her to keep the winter cold at bay.

Ratka also bundles in layers, but her black garments are interspersed with splashes of other dark colors: maroon, indigo, forest green. Layers of hats and scarves usually hide her white hair. She, too, carries a leafy branch to shoo away dogs who would disrupt her feeding routine. Some sort of sausage (“salami”) is cut into small chunks to augment the cats’ food, and into large chunks to go with stale bread for the dogs. She usually totes a bucket of water as well and fills little containers with ladles of water as the animals eat.

For many years these elderly women have patrolled their 4-block apartment complex in Nikšić, Montenegro. Both widowed, they struggle to feed all the unwanted dogs and cats, kittens and puppies on their small pensions. They can tell you which cat is pregnant, what dog was hit by a car or kicked by an angry neighbor. Litter after litter of kittens and puppies are born. Many of the babies die, but not all. As soon as they raise the funds to spay one female, another one shows up, pregnant. They could never get ahead of the pregnancies!

I arrived in Nikšić in February 2020, the first volunteer trapper to visit the municipality. Thanks to funding from Cold Noses Foundation, the Kotor Kitties sterilization program enabled the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) of several dozen cats that Novka and Ratka feed. When the final female was trapped, Novka, Ratka, and I shared well-distanced hugs and air kisses, as befits our COVID-19 social distancing!

As of April 15th 2020, there remained 2 elusive tom cats, who have no set pattern of appearance, and 1 new female to be trapped. Several dozen other cats have been sterilized by the wonderful local veterinarian, Dr. Nebojša Gorašević. Thanks to his work, a Swiss organization, StrayCoco, has been attracted to Nikšić to help spay the dogs too!