Programs

TNR & colonies

Track your feral cat colonies, caretakers, TNR activity, and individual colony members. Fosterling keeps colony data separate from your main animal pipeline so your reports stay clean.

AdminCoordinator

Opening Colonies

Click Colonies in the left nav (under Programs). You'll see a list of all colonies with their location, caretaker, size, and last TNR date.

Creating a colony

  1. 1
    Click New colony.
  2. 2
    Enter the colony name and a location description (cross streets, landmark).
  3. 3
    Assign a caretaker -- this can be a volunteer or external contact.
  4. 4
    Enter the estimated colony size and whether it's a currently active TNR site.
  5. 5
    Click Save.

Logging TNR activity

From a colony's record, click Log TNR activity. Enter:

  • Cats targeted
  • Cats trapped
  • Cats altered
  • Trapper name and phone
  • Clinic appointment
  • Notes (injuries, kittens found, weather conditions)

Each log entry is timestamped and stored in the colony's activity timeline.

Individual colony members

For colonies where you track individual cats (by ear tip, name, or ID), add them as colony members from the colony record's Cats tab.

Each cat can have a nickname, description, sex, ear-tipped and altered status, altered-on date, rabies vaccination date, status, and notes. Colony cats don't appear in your main animal pipeline or adopter gallery. Use the colony's CSV export to pull rabies and clinic voucher paperwork for a colony's cats.

Caretaker coordination

Caretaker name, phone, and email are plain contact fields on the colony record (click to call or email) -- for your own reference, with no caretaker portal or automated reminders attached.

Do colony cats count toward my SAC report numbers?
No -- colony members are excluded from your SAC report. Only animals in your main intake pipeline (with standard status records) are counted.
Can I track a colony that someone else manages but I support with TNR resources?
Yes -- assign their caretaker as an external contact and mark the colony's coordination level as 'Partner' in the notes field. The TNR log is still yours to maintain.
How do I archive a colony that's no longer active?
Open the colony and click the ... menu, then 'Archive colony'. Archived colonies don't appear in the active list but are searchable and their history is preserved.