Tricia Rupiper, left, and Sunshine Duffy, manager and assistant manager of The Cat Hut are shown in front of the new atrium, which will be dedicated today. There are always kittens and cats available for adoption at The Cat Hut, and all have been neutered or spayed, wormed, have all shots and a tiny microchip implant which can be encoded with the cat's name and address in case it becomes lost.

The Problem

It doesn’t matter if you live in town or on an acreage or farm. It doesn’t matter if you have a cat, or never have. Even the most ardent cat lover understands the problem: Too many homeless, unwanted cats are roaming our countryside and streets.

As it marks its second anniversary, The Cat Hut has much to celebrate and much work ahead of it. If you’ve wondered what Cat Hut does, what it hopes to do, and how to get involved, read on.

The Cat Hut is the realization of a dream for Monica Becker, who, with considerable understatement, said recently: “Sheltering homeless cats is a passion of mine.”

Becker, a Webster City native, was director of the Steven Memorial Animal Shelter, Oskaloosa, from 2001 to 2003 and, after that, worked as operations manager for the Animal Rescue League in Des Moines. She came home to Hamilton County in 2011 to manage her family’s business, but cats are never far from her mind.

“Cat populations grow very quickly. You can easily go from two cats to 20 in a year, as cats can get pregnant as young as four months and have three litters a year. It’s normal for feral cats to be pregnant most of the time.”

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates more than 6.3 million domestic pets are taken to animal shelters in the United States each year; that number is almost evenly split between dogs and cats. There are no official government statistics, so the precise number of homeless cats is difficult to estimate, but they probably number in the tens of millions.

There are many reasons people give up their cats. Some of the most common are economic (the inability to pay for cat food and veterinary care); advancing age, which can make keeping up with cats, especially kittens, difficult; a change in residence, employment status, or simply a loss of interest in having to care for an animal.

The Solution

Experts agree the answer is something called Trap-Neuter-Return.

Trapping a feral or homeless cat is just what it sounds like: A cage-like trap is baited with food, placed where it will be noticed by cats, and retrieved when a cat takes the bait and ventures inside.

Next is neutering or spaying. These simple operations limit the number of cats that will never find a home and may, ultimately, have to be euthanized. In spaying, females have their ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus removed. Neutering a male involves removing their testes. In Webster City, both surgeries are done by Dr. Mike Yanda, and the staff of Webster City Veterinary Clinic.

WCVC serves as an animal shelter for the City of Webster City and is paid a quarterly stipend to provide the service.

Yanda explained, “We fix and vaccinate the cats before they can be adopted. There’s hardly any euthanizing anymore; we keep cats for months until they find a home.”

Yanda praised The Cat Hut’s facilities and staff, saying, “The building is first class and Tricia (Rupiper) and Sunshine (Duffy) do such a good job. They really care about the work, the staff and cats in their care.”

He continued, “and Monica is a peach. She’s driven to tackle a very big problem and has put lots of her own time, money and effort into it.”

The Cat Hut: The Back Story

The Cat Hut had humble beginnings and has come a long way in the seven years since its founding. It was started by Becker and Hamilton County Auditor Kim Anderson in 2017, as Hamilton County Animal AdvoCATes with one purpose: to begin dealing with the unhoused and unwanted cats they saw around them.

Anderson remembers, “Monica and I got it going, and were then joined by Tina Seiser.” Anderson started the Missing Critters Facebook page to raise awareness of the problem of overpopulation, and help people find lost pets or adopt homeless ones.

“Pretty soon, both city and county law enforcement were checking the page. Through them, we found one of our first clients, an elderly man on a farm near Stratford.”

Like many, he was feeding stray cats in his barn, but caring for an ever-larger number of cats had out-stripped his abilities, both physical and financial. He needed help. Using borrowed traps, Becker captured the feral cats one by one and paid for them to be spayed or neutered at Webster City Veterinary Clinic. Finally, she released them near the site where they’d been trapped.

Anderson remembers, “With her background in animal rescue, Monica was on it! She found homes for some cats, and got others spayed or neutered. She was out nights and weekends, trapping and hauling cats, while holding down a full-time job. She even housed cats at her home and business, trying to find homes for them.”

Becker purchased the former Pizza Hut restaurant, 1118 Second Street, Webster City, in 2022.

“The facility allows us to house and protect cats until they can be adopted,” she said.

Organized as a nonprofit, The Cat Hut holds an animal shelter license from the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

“It legally defines what we can do. We’re inspected by the state once a year, and also by a veterinarian, to ensure the facility meets the basic health needs of the cats.”

The license requires all cats cared for at The Cat Hut to be vaccinated and spayed or neutered before they can be adopted. It strictly limits the number of cats that can be accommodated at any one time, based on the size and scope of facilities in the physical building.

Today’s Celebration

Today, The Cat Hut is holding an open house to celebrate its new atrium, an enclosure of glass panels in the middle of what was once Pizza Hut’s dining room. It provides space for up to 16 cats.

Trisha Rupiper, The Cat Hut manager, explained, “The atrium gives us more capacity, more flexibility, and gives the cats a better quality of life.” When The Daily Freeman Journal visited for this story, a dozen cats were playing, sleeping and clearly enjoying each other’s company within the safety of the atrium.

In addition, The Cat Hut is showing off new window cling films to attract people to stop and come inside. It will also hold a drawing for two tickets to its annual fundraiser, “Whiskers and Wine,” a comedy night, scheduled for Briggs Woods Conference Center on Saturday, October 19. Normal admission for the dinner-comedy show is $50 for individuals or $375 for a table of eight.

Today’s event runs from 4 to 7 p.m., with ribbon cutting at 5 p.m. Food trucks will be on hand, and there will be special offers for anyone thinking of adopting a cat. Everyone is invited.

The doctors will see you now. Dr. Mike Yanda, and his practice partners at Webster City Veterinary Clinic — Doctors Jennifer Arnold, Timothy DeWaard and Brook Ruiter — have worked closely with Cat Hut in spaying and neutering cats. Together, they are slowly bringing the city’s homeless cat population under control.