Surrey Cats offers free spay\/neuter services to help cats and guardians<\/p>\n
Published 7:30 pm Monday, October 19, 2026<\/p>\n
It is challenging to run a first-response cat rescue facility and have a full-time job. But that\u2019s the daily life of Tamsin Ramsay and Therese McKirdy, who have dedicated time and effort for Surrey Community Cat Foundation (Surrey Cats) for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Surrey Cats was founded in 2014 to address the city\u2019s stray cat overpopulation. The facility offers free spay\/neuter services and food and supply assistance to low-income cat guardians, helps feral cats get fixed and provides emergency care for stray kittens and mother cats.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 18, Surrey Cats held a bingo night that saw all 100 tickets sold in just six days, to raise funds and awareness about cat welfare in Surrey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get the word out there,\u201d said Ramsay, president of Surrey Cats. \u201cThe people we need to help us financially don\u2019t know that we exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of Surrey Cats\u2019 funding comes from donations, which can be inconsistent. Ramsay said Surrey Cats is struggling to find a sustainable financial channel as well as committed volunteers.<\/p>\n
She said the best way to prevent cat overpopulation and homelessness is to get cats fixed, but spay and neuter service can cost around $300, and not everyone can afford it.<\/p>\n
Surrey Cats invites low-income cat guardians to apply for the free spay and neuter service on the first of every month, next on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
Demand is high, and Surrey Cats is able to give away only 24 to 25 services monthly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not qualified for a lot of grants because we\u2019re not a \u2018rescue\u2019,\u201d said McKirdy, communication co-ordinator.<\/p>\n
Surrey Cats does not facilitate rehoming and adoption like a typical rescue would. Its first response neonatal care program primarily helps kittens get through the first few stages of their life for about a week or two, and then transfer them to a foster care to get adopted.<\/p>\n
Although Surrey Cats receives close to $2,000 a year in grants from the city, the amount is too little to run every program. Ramsay said Surrey Cats is like \u201ca bridge\u201d between the streets and foster care that steps up to fill in the \u201cgaps\u201d left untouched by the animal welfare system.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people think the SPCA takes care of everything, but they don\u2019t,\u201d Ramsay said, indicating that SPCA is operating with a restricted funding that does not equip them with enough resources to deal with stray-cat overpopulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of rescue centres don\u2019t have a place for kittens to come in when they\u2019re sick and infested,\u201d Ramsay said. \u201cThey say only 30 per cent of kittens survive on the streets after they\u2019re born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Surrey Cats took in a litter of seven kittens found in a wet, moldy cardboard box, glue stuck on their fur. As main caretaker, McKirdy helped stabilize the tiny cats by treating medical issues, making sure they\u2019re flea-free and healthy enough to be transferred to foster care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make sure that any cats that go into a (partnered) rescue will be fixed, and that rescue will take care of the fixing costs before the cats get adopted,\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love seeing Therese get the kittens healthy and happy,\u201d she added. \u201cThe best part is to get updates from the fosters that they\u2019re now beautiful young cats and have gone into loving homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKirdy, who was a nurse and a pharmacy technician, has 40 years of experience in husbandry. Her background in animal medical care helps Surrey Cats run its emergency care. \u201cSome days you just want to quit because you see what humans are doing, and the cats don\u2019t ask for it,\u201d McKirdy said.<\/p>\n
Surrey has struggled to control the stray-cat population, estimated at close to 30,000 cats in 2014. Updated numbers aren\u2019t available.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of people, their pets are their mental health,\u201d Ramsay said. \u201c(We) want to try and help people who have financial barriers keep the pets that they love. (We) don\u2019t want to see a cat that was so loved for five years in a home that has to end up in a rescue because their guardian can\u2019t care for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey Cats offers free spay\/neuter services to help cats and guardians Published 7:30 pm Monday, October 19, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-940012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}