SILSBEE, Texas — A Southeast Texas woman is taking action for the stray cats that seems to taking over Silsbee neighborhoods.
Lexi Swindell founded a nonprofit focused on spaying and neutering the stray cats called the Satsuma Valley Cat Coalition.
The non-profit started just two months ago and have already fixed over 30 cats.
The Satsuma Valley Cat Coalition started out as a few individuals, catching cats and taking them to get spayed and neutered.
Now it has grown into a nonprofit that is helping solve what has become a big problem in Silsbee.
"There's cats everywhere. Every neighborhood that you go through there are cats just roaming," said Swindell.
The four legged felines seem to have taken over Silsbee, strolling behind businesses and through neighborhoods.
"A lot of the problem stems from people not taking their pets and getting them spayed and nurtured.," Swindell told 12News.
Satsuma Valley Cat Coalition has used the three step trap, nurture and return process to fix 32 community cats so far.
"We are a trap, nurture and return program, so with the overwhelming population of cats in the area, all the rescues and everyone are just so overwhelmed," Swindell said.
Swindell's foundation does more than just spay and nurture the cats they rescue.
"We set live traps and we take them to the vets. They get spayed and nurtured, we get their rabies vaccinations. We even have their ears tipped or notched and that's just a universal sign that that cat has already been fixed," said Swindell.
Swindell told 12News this program helps to both decrease the growing stray population and keep stray cats from being euthanized.
"They help to control the rodent population in which rodents spread diseases faster than anything so having them around actually is a service to us," Swindell said. "We actually went before our city council and they issued a statement of support for the program. Our animal shelter is not set up for cats so right now legally there's not much that can be done by the city for cats since there is a three day hold period."
Returning the cats back to where they were trapped from keeps a new larger colony of cats from taking it's place according to Swindell.
Swindell says that Satsuma Valley Cat Coalition wants people to foster or adopt the stray cats that they trap.
You can call 409-781-9418 about stray cats that need to be spayed and nurtured. Swindell told 12News that they are always accepting donations to pay for the services and fosters for cats.