Pat Frederick has had her fair share of health issues: she has congestive heart failure, renal illness, gout, colitis, and osteoporosis, to name a few. Frederick, on the other hand, has never allowed her personal troubles to get in the way of caring for almost 80 stray cats in various colonies across Germantown, Philadelphia.
“I just adore them,” Frederick told The Dodo. “I know no one else would take care of them.” “I like being with them and ensuring their safety. I know I’m assisting them, but it’s also assisting myself because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.”
Frederick began caring for these stray animals around eight years ago, after returning to Philadelphia from Chicago to allow her parents to assist her while she received medical treatment. Frederick should have been concentrating on herself at the moment, but she couldn’t get her mind off the scrawny, starving cats that prowled the streets of her neighborhood.
“I pity them,” Frederick explained. “They didn’t have somebody to look after them, and they weren’t being fed.” People have been poisoning and murdering them because the cats were getting into their waste bags and consuming the rubbish.”
Frederick had some previous experience with stray animals. She had acquired two stray cats, Winston and Harry, after her 15-year-old cat Phoebe died in Chicago.
“The emergency vet phoned me and told me about two cats they’d captured on a farm in the suburbs, and they believed I’d make a wonderful mother for the cats,” Frederick explained. “I’d never heard of feral cats before.”
Frederick brought the cats into her apartment to live with her, but Winston took a year to allow Frederick to touch him, and Harry took nearly four years to seek out affection. But Frederick adored them, so it was well worth the wait – Winston and Harry stayed with her until their deaths. She stated, “They taught me how to enjoy stray cats.”
As a result, Frederick began putting food and water out for the stray cats in Germantown. Then she met a woman who assisted her in capturing the stray animals so that they could be vaccinated, spayed, and neutered. Frederick also attempted to locate homes for the friendlier cats, who she feels have a more difficult time living on the streets.
“I try to get the ones that aren’t terrified of humans off the streets so they don’t get injured,” Frederick explained, noting that homeless animals are sometimes targeted by people. “I’ve had cats snatched by the paws and flung into the air while being fired at with BB guns.”
Frederick does not attempt to rehome the cats that are terrified of humans; not only would it be difficult to find homes for these cats, but Frederick feels they have a better chance of survival than the friendlier ones.
“If they’re [completely] wild, they’ll just run away from humans,” Frederick added, “so I’m not as concerned for their safety.”
Frederick spends many hours each day caring for her stray cats, who are spread out around Germantown in 11 different areas.
“It takes approximately two hours to put together all the food trays for all the cats — I feed them both dry and wet food,” Frederick explained. “And feeding everyone takes roughly three to four hours.”
Frederick noted that the job is physically difficult since it requires a lot of going up and downstairs and up and downhills. “I’m usually out of breath after a couple of sites,” she explained. “So I take a short rest, then get up and [continue] doing it.”
Frederick struggles to pay for everything, in addition to the physical hurdles, but she always finds a way to make it work. She receives contributions, borrows money from her father, and pays for the cats’ care with her own money.
“I take money out to pay for my heart medicine, but I don’t buy anything else,” Frederick explained. “I’m not doing anything and I’m not going anyplace.” I cut my own hair because I don’t have the money — I could spend the money on such things, but then I wouldn’t be able to feed my cats.”
Nothing, however, has stopped Frederick from assisting these kitties. Frederick has served with the Pennsylvania SPCA and Best Friends Animal Society in addition to caring for the strays in her neighborhood colony.
Frederick’s enthusiasm and persistence astound Aine Doley, former leader of The Best Friends Community Cat Program, according to The Dodo. “She volunteered and trapped despite her illness, even winding up in the hospital during a mass trapping,” Doley added. “It never stopped her from assisting these kitties.”
“Pat is one of those people who dedicates herself 110 percent,” Kris Papiernik and Kia Griffin, cat rescuers and the women behind Kolony Kats, told The Dodo. “Always going above and beyond. Without Pat, so many cats would be overbreeding, starving, and struggling to survive on the streets.
She is a true hero.”
