Finding Furever Homes
Miche Faust teamed up with community members to relocate a feral cat colony in Colchester EVA SOLLBERGER
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iche Faust had years of experience volunteering with cats at shelters in Florida before Marge Serisky with a foster cat she moved to Burlington in 2019. When she arrived, Miche was dismayed by the number of homeless cats in the area, so she founded Queen City Cats in February 2022 to provide feline-specific resources to the public. She has since rescued 90 stray, lost or feral cats and found homes for 61 of them. In November, Miche began helping Linda Hill deal with a feral cat colony at the Hillcrest resident-owned mobile home park in Colchester. Linda and her neighbor Dick Charles were feeding a large population of cats and providing them with warm winter shelters. Other neighbors did not approve of the colony, so the cats, including a litter of kittens, needed to find new homes. Miche trapped 12 of the cats, had them spayed or neutered, and put them into foster care. She has a network of about 20 volunteers who host the cats and help transport them to vet appointments. Linda adopted two of the felines, named them Monique and Blue Eyes, and began socializing them. Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger met up with Miche and Linda on a frigid January day to watch Miche put out traps for the three remaining months for him to trust Episode 682: Queen City Cats feral female cats. The cats were caught that me, and he has blossomed evening, were transported to Middlebury into a very affectionate cat. the next day to be spayed and are currently It is amazing how cats can in foster care. If they can be socialized, Miche will try to overcome former abuse and learn to love again. find them forever homes. Eva visited Miche’s house in I’ve covered cats in just about every way possible over Burlington to meet nine of the shy feral cats from Hillcrest the past 16 years: cat cafés in Montréal and Barre, a therapy that she is currently fostering. cat who visits nursing homes, a popular feline on the interEva also joined Miche at Marge and Pete Serisky’s home net, a cat show, a cat photographer, and yoga with kittens. in Shelburne to meet Cheese and Alaura, two other foster I even adopted my cat Lexy from the Great Vermont Corn kittens from the feral colony. The Seriskys are carrying on Maze in Danville back in 2009, when making a “Stuck in the legacy of their daughter, Kira Jaye, who was a foster Vermont” video. Filming feral cats is hard, as they are afraid of people. mom for 40 kittens, many of which were newborns requiring frequent feedings and care. Kira died in 2021, at age So, in some ways, this story is more about the people who 17, from complications of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Since worked together to save these cats. then, her parents have fostered about 20 kittens, with some help from Kira’s cat, Arminius, and her rabbit, Maple. SD: How did you hear about Queen City Cats? ES: I have a few friends who foster for QCC, and I had Unstuck: Episode Extras With Eva seen Miche’s activity on social media. My friend Tessa Valyou suggested I cover Miche and her work. Tessa and SEVEN DAYS: What is it with you and cats? her family are part of Miche’s network of volunteers and EVA SOLLBERGER: Well, I am your typical crazy cat foster cat parents. lady, as seen in Grey Gardens or “The Simpsons.” To quote Miche and I talked on the phone about how best to Cara Hartmann in her viral, and satirical, “eHarmony capture what she does. We commiserated about how Video Bio”: “I love cats. I love every distressing it is to see so many online mentions of lost kind of cat.” I have rescued a or stray cats during the winter. It seems there are many few, and they bring a lot of felines who need help. purrs and relaxation into my Linda Hill was in a difficult situation with the feral life. My cat Loki had a very cat colony near her home. She called a few places before difficult existence before finding Miche, who agreed to help her. This was the first I found him. It took time Miche worked with a large feral cat community, and
she managed to spay or neuter 17 cats. Four have found homes, and 13 are being fostered. I hope this story will inspire people to get involved as foster parents or adopt some of these cats. It takes a special sort of human to adopt timid feral cats and let them slowly acclimate to their new home. But the rewards are immense. SD: Did anything surprise you when making this video? ES: Oh, yes. When I began editing the footage from Marge and Pete Serisky’s home, I realized afterward that there was no audio recorded. Yikes! Marge was generous enough to meet up again for another taping of her interview. I never got a chance to meet Kira, Marge’s daughter. But as Marge told me about her, I began to feel like I knew her. Marge and I speculated that perhaps Kira had disliked something about the original interview and decided to jinx the audio. She must have approved of our second take, because there was sound. Phew. Another surprise: Miche is allergic to cats! But she rarely has allergic reactions, which makes her work possible. SD: What other cats has Miche helped? ES: Miche told me about a couple who relinquished 14 cats to QCC because they were being evicted. It turns out that this couple lived on my street. I had seen their cats and read on Front Porch Forum their pleas for help rehoming them. I felt extremely guilty that I didn’t step up to help. At the time, I wasn’t sure what to do or whom to call. Now I know. And all 14 of those friendly cats were fixed and found furever homes. That makes my heart glad. ➆
Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger has been making her award-winning video series, “Stuck in Vermont,” since 2007. New episodes appear on the Seven Days website every other Thursday and air the following night on the WCAX evening news. Sign up at sevendaysvt.com to receive an email alert each time a new one drops. And check these pages every other week for insights on the episodes. SEVEN DAYS FEBRUARY 1-8, 2023
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