Cat Alliance keeps Trinity's furry friends safe

While roaming around campus, one may see a local Trinicat making its way and greeting students on their way to class, the library or other stops on campus. Trinity has been known for their cats and the Cat Alliance (CAT) program, a nonprofit organization and volunteer group of students, faculty, staff and neighbors. CAT is also a non-funded organization and follows the ‘TNR’ or Trap-Neuter-Release structure. TNR keeps cats on campus and around San Antonio safe and is seen as the most effective and humane way to reduce the feral cat population.

Maggie Enriquez, junior environmental studies major, is the president of CAT. Enriquez shared that CAT is open to all sorts of volunteers and has a strong officer leadership team that makes sure the club runs smoothly. Officer meetings are held every other week to keep the club organized.

“We get a lot of emails about people wanting to volunteer and help out. It is an open sign-up program so whoever wants to volunteer can,” Enriquez said. “Each station on campus that homes the cats has a station manager who is in charge of making sure there is food, water and anything else required for the cats.”

Sophia Relyea, junior psychology major, is the campus outreach officer for CAT. Relyea shared that in the past and present there are misconceptions about the club’s role.

“We don’t foster cats and we are not a shelter,” Relyea said. “Our club is very environmentally friendly and not harmful at all. That is our main mission along with the TNR strategy. We also don’t want to be seen as a blowoff club–the cat’s lives are important here.”

On Aug. 23, two of the most popular cats on campus, Dit and Trinity, sadly passed away. Students called Trinity University Police to contact the club’s sponsor, Mindy Morales, who was the founder of CAT and ran it for some 20 years. Morales has been a great resource for the club and an emergency contact for when conflicts like this arise. A memorial for Trinity and Dit is being held at the Beze station soon.

“Right now we have around 20 cats,” Enriquez said. “We used to have around 50 but we wanted to keep the number of cats less because we are not a shelter and can’t foster that many cats. When random cats show up around campus, it means people might have left them or they are stray.”

One of the main issues that CAT has faced is their expenses. Enriquez said that last year they spent almost $4000 on just cat food, and that it is expensive to take care of cats considering their veterinary visits and all the other care protocols that go into it. They are hoping to do more fundraisers and social events, not only to grow the club, but to gain more support and student involvement.