CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When visiting the campus of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi you may witness different factors that make up the Islander community such as students, faculty, and cats. The Islander Cat Assistance Team or iCAT takes care of the campus cats and help them live a better life.
“Our goal is when we have a cat on campus who is adoptable, would make a good house cat we spring into action to get that cat off the campus and into a shelter,” said TAMUCC Assistant Professor Shane Gleason.
Gleason is also apart of iCAT who helps feed, get the cats spayed/nurtured, and provide the cats with what they need. However, Gleason says the campus is not a cat sanctuary, meaning folks should not drop cats off at TAMUCC. The action is not only illegal but it also brings challenges to the volunteers.
“We do periodically have issues with cats being dumped on campus what that does though is it adds a cat to our population if the cat is not spayed or nurtured that requires us to very quickly get the cart out and into a shelter and shelter space is at a premium,” said Gleason.
The team is asking folks not to leave cats on the campus but instead to reach out to local organizations like the Cattery or the Gulf Coast Humane Society.
“When cats do get added to campus, very often we find they’re scared cats can be pretty territorial so these cats here are all pretty friendly and chill but if you introduce a new cat to them it’s not a given that they’re going to get along,” said Gleason.
Gleason also says there are about 70 cats on the campus and some have even made the Island University their home for the past 10 years. But the goal is to find these cats a forever home.
