Photo courtesy of Ahjané Forbes.
Imagine that, on your first day of school, a little black and white cat welcomes you, extending his paws out for a handshake and making you an unexpected mom to many more felines to come.
Claudia Cannam, a third-year law student and creator of Tender Loving Cats Campus Cat Initiative (TLC), came to Hofstra University for her studies but found herself saving the cats after meeting the black and white cat named Harvey.
“I went to get my student ID over at the [David S.] Mack Center, where they have the sports arena. This adorable little black and white cat came running up to me,” Cannam said. “I wasn’t really educated in TNR. At the time, I really just wanted to be a foster parent.”
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cannam says the cats were taking over campus. Cannam estimates that there were approximately 200 on campus at the time. If Cannam had not gotten involved, she said about 2,000 cats would be calling Hofstra their home.
Working alongside former Hofstra president Stuart Rabinowitz and the Town of Hempstead, Cannam and members of TLC were able to Trap, Neuter or Spay and Return (TNR) many of the kittens. TNR is a process in which feral and stray cats are taken to the vet to be treated and then ear-tipped once the process is completed.
To provide more care for the kittens, Cannam pitched an idea to Rabinowitz.
“I wanted to build a structure almost like a cat sanctuary-type structure, where we could monitor the colony that’s inside, everyone in there would be TNR’d, flea treated, dewormed regularly,” Cannam said. “It would make it so much easier for me to do my job.”
Having an enclosure for the cats would help prevent having people dump unwanted cats on campus. Harvey has since been adopted by an elderly woman, but before then, he was left here.
“He was dumped on campus, his owner died of COVID-19, and the family didn’t want him anymore. They left him here on campus and told Public Safety the story as they dumped the cat on campus. That was one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way, because it’s illegal to dump,” Cannam said.
New York State Agriculture and Markets Law states that anyone who abandons an animal will be charged with a misdemeanor.
While caring for the cats, Cannam became attached and started naming all of them. From Big Papa, Sativa, Indica, Spatula and Keurig, Cannam can identify the Hofstra cats (often called HofCats by students) from a photo.
“Mowgli, the cat on the left, I’ve never been able to touch him. The one on the right here is either Bella or Anastasia,” Cannam said.
Bella and Anastasia look very similar, but there’s one distinct difference: Anastasia is ear-tipped.
After the first three weeks of the fall semester, there were signs that read “Please do not feed cats here” around the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex to fend off students and other guests.
One student created an Instagram account @hofcathelper and a petition to shed light on the issue. From a feline feeder’s point of view, Cannam agrees with the university because some students can create a detrimental situation.
“You can’t really feed the cats French fries or pretzels. Last year, I had three that we had to euthanize due to stomach cancer from that,” Cannam said.
Seeing this happen first-hand was hard for Cannam to continue to feed the cats freely.
“All of that made me decide to step away, so that there wasn’t a reason for students to think, ‘We could try and pick up this cat or we can feed this cat whatever we want,’” Cannam said.
The cat that the petition was advocating for, Eddie, was very familiar to Cannam. She calls the cat ”Skunk” because he looks like one. Despite the different names, Cannam confirms that he does have an upper respiratory infection and was adopted by one of the feeders in early October.
However, one portion of the petition bothered Cannam and she wants to set the record straight.
“The fact that they’re saying Tender Loving Cats people seriously don’t give a shit about him,” she stated. “He’s literally with us. That is what I find so funny. I can 100% guarantee you I’ve even paid out of my own pocket hundreds of dollars for medicine for these guys. The people who don’t care are not us.”
Even though Cannam is no longer primarily helping out with TLC, she says she’s always available for anyone that wants to help.
“If somebody wanted to adopt one of the Hofstra cats, I would be happy to make that happen. We would put it through the program,” Cannam said. “It’s a $100 adoption fee, which covers spay, neuter, vaccinations, everything under the sun.”
Cannam hopes that more people will appreciate what she and many others do behind the scenes, but she’s not doing it for recognition.
“I don’t believe in publicizing what I do, because I don’t do it for any other reason than the goodness of my own heart and for the animals,” Cannam said.
If you would like to donate, help, feed or learn more about the HofCats, you can email Cannam at claudia@tenderlovingcats.org, join the Facebook group TLC Campus Cats – Hofstra and follow TLC on Instagram @tlc_campuscatinitiative.
