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Lighting the way forward.
Changing the future for cats by preventing homelessness before it begins.
Every cat we spay or neuter is a life helped and a step toward preventing future suffering.
But how do we move from keeping up with the number of unowned cats to steadily reducing it, so fewer cats face homelessness with each passing year?
Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County is developing Beacon to help answer that question. Beacon is a data-driven planning tool designed to help us understand Sonoma County’s unowned cat population and identify where focused spay/neuter efforts can make the greatest difference in reducing future births.
By connecting the information gathered through our everyday work, we’re building a clearer picture of where cats are living, where populations may be growing, where unaltered cats remain, and where to focus next.
The knowledge is all around us
More knowledge. More focused action. More cats helped.
A community member calls about kittens. A volunteer discovers a group of cats behind a business. A clinic visit provides another piece of their history.
Each encounter tells us something important. But those details can live in different records, notes, and systems, making it difficult to see how they fit together.
Beacon is being built to connect that knowledge so it can better guide the work of finding, helping, and following up on unowned cats.
Where can the next surgery make the biggest difference?
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From knowledge to action
Turning information into action
We’re developing Beacon to help our team:
See where help is needed
Bring together community reports, trapping observations, and clinic records to better understand where cats are living and where unaltered cats remain.
Follow through on work started
Connect what was originally reported with the cats we’ve helped and the observations that follow. This helps us identify cats that still need to be altered and plan follow-up before more kittens are born.
Make the most of every clinic day
Use what we know to guide trapping and scheduling, focusing our resources where timely, sustained spay/neuter can prevent more births.
Understand change over time
Look beyond the number of surgeries to assess what is happening at the locations we serve. What progress can we document? What need remains? What do we still need to learn?
An illustrative example
Where could the next 20 surgeries make the biggest difference?
Imagine we have 20 clinic spaces available and several locations where cats need help.
How do we decide where to focus?
One location may have a larger group of cats, most already altered. Another may have fewer cats but more breeding females and repeated reports of kittens. At a third, a concentrated effort could bring nearly all the remaining unaltered cats into the clinic.
Beacon is being developed to bring those details together with population modeling so we can compare where a surgery, or a coordinated group of surgeries, could make the greatest difference in reducing future births.
Every surgery matters. The opportunity is to understand how the location, timing, and combination of those surgeries can help a population decline over time.
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Research put to work
Looking ahead, using what we know.
Beacon uses peer-reviewed research to calculate potential population growth ranges and model how different spay/neuter strategies could change those outcomes.
These projections help us explore what different approaches could mean for cats over time. They are ranges based on stated assumptions, not guaranteed outcomes.
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Rooted in hands-on work
Built from experience. Guided by people.
Forgotten Felines has been helping unowned cats since 1990. Beacon continues to grow out of that experience and the knowledge contributed by our staff, volunteers, and community.
Our goal is to put that knowledge to greater use while keeping decisions in the hands of the people doing the work.
As we expand clinic capacity, Beacon is being developed to help us direct that capacity thoughtfully.
More surgeries, combined with better information and consistent follow-through, can help us reach more cats before another generation is born into homelessness.
In active development
Growing thoughtfully.
We’re connecting historical information, checking records against field experience, and testing how Beacon can best support our team.
We’re now refining how we estimate the number of unowned cats living in an area, bringing together clinic records, community reports, and field observations. A better understanding of the population today will help us apply our models more effectively and assess change over time.
As Beacon develops, we’ll share what we’re learning, what we can demonstrate, and where questions remain.
Our vision is simple
No more homeless cats.
Beacon is one way we’re working toward that future, helping turn years of experience and community knowledge into more focused action for cats.