Friends of Roman Cats has three different programs to help cats in both the U.S. and Italy. While our Humane Trap Program benefits many cats in Italy, our Cats On The Job Program and St Francis Fund are both strictly for Bay Area homeless cats.

If you would like to donate towards one or more of these programs, contact Susan Wheeler at rappwheel@aol.com or Mary Kennedy at marezie@comcast.net.

We also have a mailing address (and a paypal account coming soon):

Friends of Roman Cats
P.O. Box 12571
San Francisco CA 94112

NEW PROGRAM! Cats On The Job

Roughly translated in Italian as “Gatti al Lavoro”, this Bay Area program is quickly gaining popularity. This program looks to place under-socialized and special-needs cats that are not being accepted in shelters and are at risk living on the streets. Placement can be in shops, barns, safe warehouses and businesses as well as backyards where the cats can practice rodent control and deterrence, something they have successfully done for centuries.

Cats on the Job is a highly appropriate program for FORC to sponsor. Italians have appreciated cats’ ability to keep down rodent populations for a very long time. Roman sailors may have brought some of the 1st cats to Italy as a byproduct of keeping Roman ships free of mice and rats. The Venetians tell the story of looking for a tough race of cats in the 13th and 14th centuries to help control the black rat population. Today, Italian cats perform the same function, both in the cities and in the countryside.

This program is working in conjunction with SF The Cats on the Job Council and also with the San Francisco SPCA. We have developed a rigorous protocol for placing cats so that both the cats and the business or person who takes the cats are protected.

Please contact us if you or anyone you know are looking for cats to help keep down rodents without poisons or traps.

Check out www.sfwcat.com for the main information site for the Cats on The Job Program.

St Francis Fund

The purpose of Friends of Roman Cats’ St. Francis Fund is to provide assistance in funding for
medical needs of Bay Area feral or homeless colony cats. If a cat meets the eligibility requirements, FORC will provide as much financial assistance as we are able, which will depend on the amount in our St. Francis Fund at the time. Download and print the information sheet and registration form, email it to Susan at rappwheel@aol.com and someone will get back to you as soon as possible about your eligibility and how much we can afford to give.

Click here to download the printable registration form.

Humane Trap Program

For a donation of $75, we will send a trap to a cat sanctuary in Italy with a favorite cat’s name on it. These traps are invaluable in helping Italians become more proactive in humanely catching Free-ranging cats to take them in to be spayed or neutered.

FORC has a short-term goal of purchasing and delivering at least as many humane cat traps to Rome as we can each year. Anyone donating $75 or more can have their name, or the name of a special companion animal, affixed to the trap.

Traps at Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary in Rome lends their traps to people who catch cats and bring them in for spay/neuter. Traps at the Piramide Sanctuary in Rome have helped rescue cats that are dumped in the ruins and are too frightened or wild to let anone touch them. Traps in Venice and outside Florence are helping the shelters there catch more cats. The shelter outside Florence, in Bagno di Ripoli, says their trap was invaluable in helping them catch cats that were too wild to handle when they moved to a new facility next to their old delapidated one. Veterinarian Dr Dorothea Friz, has been using her traps to trap cats throughout Southern Italy.

The following people have donated traps named in honor or in memory of a loved one:

Many more are needed so if you would like to help with this wonderful program contact us!

Mille grazie! (Italian for “many thanks”)