West Linn Girl Scout Troop to host cat food drive

Girl Scout Troop 10375, a group of 11 fourth and fifth graders from West Linn, will hold a cat food drive this May as part of its effort to help local feral cats.

Between May 1-10, community members who would like to donate can do so at several locations throughout town including the West Linn Public Library, Nature’s Pet Market and Cloudberry Lane Animal Chiropractic. The troop will also be hosting an in-person collection event from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, May 11 at Robinwood Station on Cedaroak Drive.

Both dry and wet cat food are accepted.

"As Girl Scouts it's nice to be able to pitch in and help,” said Rosalyn, one of the scouts from Troop 10375. “I noticed my neighbor needed help feeding all her cats."

In pursuit of the bronze award, which is one of the highest honors in the Girl Scout organization, Troop 10375 decided to help feral cats. The Troop is doing this not just through the food drive but also by working with Cats Meow Cat Rescue and the Feral Cat Coalition to trap, vaccinate, spay and neuter stray cats before releasing them where they came from.

The group also built feral cat shelters to donate to the Feral Cat Coalition and made cat toys for the Cat Adoption Team.

So far, the group has trapped seven feral cats, which were brought to the Feral Cat Coalition to get spayed or neutered.

"We've already collected 35 pounds of cat food and it would be really cool if we got to 100 or even 300 pounds,” said Sophia, another member of Troop 10375.