Purrfect timing: Support pours in for endangered felines

WHEN JEN Bellot read her little boys a story in last weekend's Daily News about dozens of endangered cats at Pier 70 along the Delaware River in South Philadelphia, 8-year-old Sage and 5-year-old Lior knew just where they wanted some of their Christmas donation money to go.

"They had some money to donate, and they wanted to give half to church and half to the cats," Bellot, 36, said yesterday after she and the boys piled into the family minivan and headed across the city from their Mount Airy home to bring giant bags of cat food to the pier. "They love cats. We just lost one of our cats - he was hit by a car last week - so they're also tugging on our heartstrings to get another one."

Every year around the holidays, Bellot said, the boys choose a cause - or causes - to make a donation. Usually, the money goes to church to be sent to the United Nations Children's Fund, the mother said, but this year, after hearing about the 30-some cats in peril living on and around Pier 70, they decided they'd like to help the kitties, too.

"I said, 'Before you give all your money, let me read you this article,' " Bellot said, referring to the People Paper's story about the effort by Teresa Reed and Tracey McKenna to provide adequate shelter and food for the cats before winter. "They were like, 'We have to go feed the cats!' "

Sage, Lior and Mom weren't the only ones who reached out to Reed, 51, a cat-colony caretaker since the 1980s: She and McKenna said that after the Daily News story about the colony was published Nov. 23, they received an outpouring of support in the form of donated shelters, food and money to help care for the cats. So much support has come in, the women said, that they're behind on responding to everyone.

"We can't even answer the emails [about donations] fast enough," Reed, a lifelong South Philadelphian, said yesterday with a big smile, adding that people from as far away as Texas, West Virginia and Canada have offered to help. "We never expected the response we got."

So far, Reed and McKenna said, about 30 shelters to be placed at the pier have been donated, as well as food and about $4,500 through a GoFundMe page - all in the span of a week.

But they said the work is far from done: Some of the shelters still must be modified - holes cut in them, tarps or plastic coverings placed and straw added inside to keep the cats warm and dry - and volunteers are needed to help those who visit to feed the cats each day.

"It's exhausting," said McKenna, 54. For her, Reed and others - including Diana D'Ambrosio, 74, of South Philly, who feeds the cats almost daily using money from her own pocket, and Karen O'Rourke, 49, who travels from New Jersey - caring for the feral and abandoned cats is like a full-time job. The women say it can be emotionally draining to care for ailing cats - or, worse, to find ones who have frozen or starved to death at the colony.

"It makes me so upset every time I come down here," said O'Rourke, who recently helped to fashion several shelters from Styrofoam containers to give the cats a place to escape the cold.

Some of the donated funds have already gone to save a kitty's life: The women last Monday trapped a black cat - aptly named Lucky - who was sick for several weeks before they were able to afford vet care for him.

"He had mucus all down his body. Three weeks he was like that," O'Rourke said. "I just couldn't stand there and do nothing. Yeah, it takes time and it's a process to trap them, but how could you stand there and do nothing?"

Lucky is staying with Reed for now and is doing much better since receiving care and medicine, she said.

A perennial problem at Pier 70, along with the feral cats who live there having to face the elements, is abandoned house cats. McKenna and Reed said dumped domestic cats have little chance of survival, so they try to identify and trap any who may be abandoned or sick, and are always in search of foster - or permanent - homes for them.

They also have been working to trap, neuter and release feral cats back to the colony to control the population there. Reed said a cat colony has been residing at Pier 70 - off Columbus Boulevard, just north of Mifflin Street - for more than 30 years, and dozens of cats call the trash-strewn brush along the river home.

"We hope to bring real rescue to the piers by identifying new cats, trapping and working to get the ones who may not make it through the winter into foster homes," Reed said.

Yesterday, on a warm but gray-clouded Sunday afternoon, at least a dozen cats of all sizes and colors emerged from the brush to curiously eye the motley crew of cat-lovers, both longtime and new, who gathered at the pier.

Sage and Lior, the young brothers visiting the colony to donate, opened cans of cat food into a platter and watched, giddy, as a big, handsome cat with orange fur stalked toward the fence and enjoyed the feast.

Reed said that she and others hope to have several new feeding stations installed at the pier this week. The stations, she said, will be strategically placed so that anybody who comes to help feed the cats will not have to cross the fence that separates the riverbanks where the cats stay from a shopping-center parking lot.

There's still work to be done as winter approaches, but Reed, McKenna and O'Rourke said they are thrilled with the newfound support for their feline friends.

"There needs to be awareness about this," O'Rourke said.

They were especially excited about the cats' newest young fans, Sage and Lior.

Sage summed up their reason for getting involved yesterday:

"Because they're cute, and we want to save their life," the blond-haired boy said with a grin. "Cats are awesome."