LAKELAND, Fla. — A Lakeland woman is devoting an enormous amount of time and energy to helping feral cats. Jennifer Rader has captured countless feral cats so they can be spayed or neutered, vaccinated and then released back their original locations.


What You Need To Know

  • Lakeland's Jennifer Rader catches feral cats to give them a better life

  • The cats are spayed or neutered and vaccinated by SPCA, and released where they were trapped

  • Rader operates Saving Paws Rescue of Florida, Inc. to find forever homes for tame cats

  • Rader partners with PetSmart and Kitty Cat Lounge to find homes for the cats

On a recent morning, she was at Bo Davis’ home in the Combe Road area. He had about a dozen feral cats on his property. Rader set out a half dozen traps to catch some of the cats. “It’s all about trickery and luring the cats in,” she said.

“I’ve got tuna, tuna and canned food,” said Rader as she pulled cans of bait food from a bag in her car. “And sometimes I use salmon and rotisserie chicken.”

Rader put the meat into small paper containers and then put the containers at one end of the traps. “We’ve got a back door here. We put the food away from the trigger plate. We don’t want it under the trigger plate,” she said. If a cat steps on the trigger plate, then a door at the end of the cage where the cat entered quickly closes.

Rader takes the cats she catches to SPCA where they are fixed and vaccinated. Their ears are also tipped, so it’s clear they can’t reproduce. “The whole point is to try to reduce the population. So, the less cats that are breeding, then the less calls we get to take them into the rescue.”

Jennifer Rader does her catch and release work for a nonprofit, Street Cat Project of Polk County. She also runs a cat rescue organization on her own property, Saving Paws Rescue of Florida, Inc., for tame cats. Rader typically has about 125 cats that she puts up for adoption. She partners with PetSmart and Kitty Cat Lounge on East Orange Street in Lakeland to find the tame cats forever homes.

Rader managed to trap about a half dozen cats on the day she was at Bo Davis’ home. “The feeling is tremendous,” she said. “It’s aways nice to get these cats in. A lot of hard work. But it’s a great feeling when you hear that trap close.” After their visit to SPCA, Rader returned the cats to Davis.