Fix and track the outdoor cats on a $0/month LoRa mesh, put pigeons on the roofs and receivers on the chimneys, map every rat burrow and hand it to a licensed operator, run the clinic out of a warehouse the city already owns, and staff the whole thing through the city's own job programs. The scale: an estimated 30–40 million unowned, free-roaming cats in the United States (Alley Cat Allies / peer-reviewed population estimates), about 3.2 million cats entering shelters every year and roughly half a million of them euthanized (ASPCA) — and every city is paying for it today with no map. This is not another program that manages the problem forever. It is an end to it: fix past 80 % and the stray population stops breeding, then ages out naturally over the years, every cat that can be a pet is listed for adoption — we list them, we help the adopters, every cat gets the chance — and every cat still fit to work goes to work for us on a yard that needs it. Tracked, counted, humane — and finished. Every piece has its own page.
Every fixed cat gets the tip, so no cat is ever trapped twice. Collars go on working cats at fenced private sites and owned community cats — Phase 1, and only where the TNR partner says yes.
The shelter and the TNR partner trap, fix and hold the cats. We supply the collars, the gateways, the dashboard and the report.
The colony collar has a consumer twin. Petfindr is a 30-gram LoRa tag on a normal collar — no cell plan, no subscription — and every Cat City node, pigeon and drone in town is already listening for it. Your cat wanders; the mesh says where. Pet owners fund the network the strays ride on. And no — you don't have to tag the silly ones (the pigeons, the deer, the bear). Your own cat sits for it. Mostly.
Every city funds stray-cat control today. None of them can see the result. Cat City is the map, the mesh and the crew that makes the number go down.
Ear-tip is the ID, the collar is the radio. Breakaway only. Buzz-before-food means we never trap the same cat twice: we call it.
Breakaway strap, a solar strip, a LoRa radio the size of a thumbnail, a buzz motor for recall. Under 30 grams. It talks to every other collar, every pigeon and every chimney box in range.
Five cats is a mesh. A thousand is a city that can see itself. Every collar relays for the others, so the map fills in from the edges.
Tracked TNR colonies at street level, breakaway collars, buzz-before-food recall so no cat is ever trapped twice. The layer the city pays for, because it is the one that ends the problem.
Thermal drone sweeps find every burrow. A licensed operator eliminates; working cats and re-sweeps keep it empty. Chicago spends $12.5-14.9M a year losing this fight.
Owned club birds with 15-gram solar nodes on the ledges cats cannot reach. Three thousand per city, a relay blanket nobody can switch off.
Caretakers, field techs and builders hired through the city's own programs; a free text network on Lifeline phones for the unhoused; pet food and basic care for owners who need it; every cat we find adoptable.
TNR + tracking pilot + a report the council can vote on. Breakaway collars, vibration recall, ear-tip ID, litter stations. Cats →
Thermal drone night sweeps, licensed treatment subcontracted, working cats and re-sweeps. Rodents → · Thermal · Contracts
12-15 g solar tags, feed stations that check them, the math on 3,000 birds per city. Pigeons → · PidgeyFLok
Final-year students earn surgical hours fixing colony cats under a supervising DVM; basic shots and treatment for every animal. Clinic →
Crate acclimation, buzz-before-food, the daily/weekly/monthly schedule, pet food for owners who need it. Care →
Every role, its cost and its funder: animal grants, workforce grants, sponsors, the city. Budget → · Careers
Ground-to-roof temperature, air, rodent hotspots, RF dead zones, welfare alerts. Data →
NYC $53.7M/yr, Miami-Dade $39.7M/yr, Chicago $14.85M/yr on rats, SF $11M/yr, the cities' own numbers, charted. Studies →
Caretakers, builders, field techs, data checkers through Human Services, CalWORKs, recovery and neurodivergent employment. Jobs →
Every node relays for every other. A cat in a storm drain reaches a cat on a fence; a pigeon on the ledge hears both; a chimney receiver on Wi-Fi puts it on the map; a drone parked at 400 ft hears the whole district.
New York's shelter contract averages $53.7M a year; Miami-Dade Animal Services is $39.7M and holds 500,000 stray cats "steady"; Chicago spends $12.5-14.9M a year on rats and its own audit says the plan is unlikely to work; San Francisco runs Animal Care & Control on $11M. Targeted, tracked TNR has a published end-state: intake down 66 %, euthanasia down 95 % in two years in the treated area.
Sources on the studies page: NYC Comptroller 2025, Miami-Dade FY23-24 adopted budget, Block Club Chicago / The Center Square, SF Chronicle, Levy et al. 2014.
≈ $75,000 all-in with labor, training, boarding, surgery and margin. 20 collars, 5 gateways, one colony, a TNR partner, a caretaker on it every day, and a report the council can vote on. Every line item →
1,000 tracked cats, 3,000 pigeon nodes, 50 gateways, the map, the monthly report, a warehouse that holds, trains and neuters on site. $520,000 if the city lends an unused building.
Fully loaded, warehouse included. The shelter line works out to ~$1,400 per animal handled. We are not competing with the shelter; we make it smaller.
A letter of support, an intro to Animal Services, one city roof for a gateway, and the name of the grant program. Have an unused building? Lend it as the hub and the price drops.
Warehouses, breweries and logistics yards: working cats against rats, a chimney receiver on your Wi-Fi, a dashboard for your block.
PidgeyFLok →
AntlerFlok →
Check out Petfindr
Little adventures. A way back home.
The cat program →