Articles by Cathryn Williams Freeburger

Article - News; by Cathryn Williams Freeburger - 6/13/13

FACT: You Can Have Your Cat Fixed for FREE

Humane Society of Calvert pays, but you don’t have to live in Calvert

The Humane Society of Calvert County will pay for your cat to be spayed or neutered. Fix A Cat Today, FACT, is available in Anne Arundel County south of Annapolis; Bowie and points south in Prince Georges County; and Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties. FACT is supported by a limited anonymous grant and will continue until funds are exhausted. Any cat, feral or domestic, is eligible. So are multiple family cats. Spay Spot in Upper Marlboro and...

Article - Creature Feature; by Cathryn Williams Freeburger - 6/13/13

Phoebes Take On UFOs

The dads take fatherhood seriously, too

Phoebes are inconspicuous in plumage, but you will hear them from wooded areas loud and clear: FEEE-bee-bee-bee! Eastern phoebes, part of the flycatcher family, swoop down from understory branches to catch moths, mosquitoes and other Undesirable Flitting Objects. The generic name for flycatchers, Empidomax, is from the Greek for king of the gnats. Prim grey coloring belies the phoebes’ bold and charming nature. A sporty convertible crest pops up when extra emphasis is...

Article - News; by Cathryn Williams Freeburger - 4/4/13

The Rescuers

Helping cats and kittens on their way to adoption

Perfection: our younger son, a philosophy major, insists there is no such thing. I disagree, because nature provided kittens. True, kittens don’t stay kittens for as long as I’d like. Our house is too small to continually add more. So until we can retire to a cat ranch, my husband and I enjoy perpetual kittens as part of a five-county foster-home network. The payoff is twofold: along with contributing to an orphan’s bright future, we get the playtime fun a...

Article - News; by Cathryn Williams Freeburger - 3/7/13

Dogs Can’t Vote, So Here We Are

Calvert high schoolers learn to lobby to save animals

I can’t resist a kitten. For six years I’ve mothered orphan kittens for Patuxent Animal Welfare Society. But it was the numbers I couldn’t help that made me an activist. Every year in Maryland, 45,000 dogs and cats are destroyed. Maryland ranks 39th on the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s state report card on animal-protection issues. My passing-60 promise was to get involved in making broader changes, so I got up before dawn one...