TNR & colonies

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.

Scheduling a trap night

Open a colony's record, go to the Trap events tab, and click Schedule trap night. Enter:

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

Scheduling a trap night doesn't ask for cats-trapped or cats-altered counts up front -- those start at zero and get updated once the trap night actually happens. Each event 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.

Calendar, trends, and exports

Above the colony list, the Trap calendar tab shows every scheduled trap night across all your colonies grouped by month, and the Trends tab charts cats trapped vs. altered over the last 12 months alongside your trap-night success rate and alter conversion rate. For paperwork, use the Colonies CSV button for a roster export, or Clinic / Rabies CSV for a per-cat rabies and unaltered-cat list formatted for clinic voucher applications.

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?

There's no separate archive action -- edit the colony and set its Status to 'Archived' using the same Status select you used when creating it. Archived colonies drop out of the default list (filter by Status to find them) but their history is preserved.