GEORGE NEWS - Lurking in airport car parks isn’t how most of us would choose to spend our time, but for self-confessed crazy cat lady Rita Brock, it’s just another day at the office.

Brock, the founder of Cat Assistance Team (Cat) Garden Route, recently saved a cat family at the George Airport after flying home from Johannesburg.

"I landed in George and saw a beautiful black and white cat at the parking pay point. It was pouring with rain and I was, unusually, in my finest outfit and high heels. I needed to get home but I also needed to check the cat was okay."

A determined Brock found the cat and its friends. "That took so long it cost me R240 to get out of the car park," she laughs.

She later went back to trap them to have them neutered and released back to the airport.
Derelict and disadvantaged areas are the usual haunts of Brock and her team. In industrial estates, store yards and settlements, they patiently trap cats, take them to be sterilised, and return them.

Dealing with George Airport took two years of patient negotiation. "Security is, of course, a big consideration," says Brock.

"We have to be professional at all times, to never let the cats down. And although the wellbeing of the cats is our number one goal, we have to be aware that the structures and procedures of the businesses we deal with are respected and fully understood."

In August, with both sides satisfied, the George Airport authorities requested that Brock and her team deal with their furry friends.

"About 11 cats live on the grounds. The airport doesn’t mind them being there, they just want to act responsibly and make sure those cats don’t breed and become a problem," said Brock.

The Cat team undertook the first of its trap-neuter-release sessions at the airport in August. The cats were sterilised by the Garden Route SPCA.

For more information on Cat Garden Route, and to help them, please visit their Facebook page, @catgardenroute.

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