The Trinity experience is not complete without the beloved cats that roam around campus, which are fondly referred to as Trinicats. Multiple stations set up around campus provide food and shelter for these furry friends, and Cat Alliance Trinity (CAT) is the group of students who care for the kitties. Since 2004, CAT has been a non-profit, but this semester, CAT became an official student organization.

Since becoming an official student organization, CAT has undergone a few changes and taken on new projects. Becca Hughes, senior music major, is CAT’s community outreach officer. She runs CAT’s Instagram account, and said that at the beginning of the year CAT raised $6,000 through San Antonio’s The Big Give fundraiser.

“Now with the money we’ve raised, we can use it to get things like self-heating shelters. So that’s been a really big development,” Hughes said.

A few weeks ago, CAT performed the Beze Station Beautification Project, which included building a new hutch for the Trinicats that live near Albert-Herff Beze Hall (Beze). Maddie West, senior history major, is CAT’s president and Maggie Enriquez, sophomore environmental studies major, is CAT’s vice president. Both West and Enriquez said that the station had gotten a little gross and needed some sprucing up.

“We have one of our oldest cats over there, Dit. She’s a really sweet, petite, small black cat. She’s 17, and there’s also Trinity who is fairly older,” West said. “It’s a heated structure which we can just plug into an outlet and it’ll be nice and cozy.”

Enriquez said that they also layered out new mulch, picked up all the trash and completely cleaned out the existing house.

“We put in new flytraps because there’s a surplus of flies over there,” Enriquez said. “So it made it a whole lot better, actually. And then we of course built the house. So that was really fun. And I’m really kind of proud of that.”

At the Student Involvement Fair, Hughes said that around 120 people signed up to be a part of CAT. Because they did not have enough jobs to give to interested students, they made a group of committees to make sure as many people as possible could be a part of CAT.

“I created the Photography Committee for two people who can help me document the cats and keep up with what they’re doing and stuff. There’s a Weather and Climate Committee which is going to be the people in charge of keeping the cats warm during the winter. There’s a TNR Committee, the trap neuter release, people in charge of doing that. There’s the Vet Runners, people to run cats to the vet if needed,” Hughes said.

Kira Kruegler, junior music major, said that during last year’s cold spell, people would go and put warming packs in the cats’ hutches. She thinks it’s great that the club is getting more organized through the addition of specific committees to perform those sorts of tasks. She said that getting involved with Cat Alliance when she was a first-year was the best decision she has ever made at Trinity.

“I’ve enjoyed it a lot. You know, you can see the cats anytime but when you’re in Cat Alliance, you have a dedicated time every week that you know you’re going to go see them when you’re a feeder,” Kruegler said. “It honestly keeps me sane.”

CAT is a unique student organization in that it does not necessarily have the social aspects that other clubs on campus do since its duties mostly just include tending to the Trinicats. However, the club is hoping to put on some social events in the near future.

“A lot of us that are officers are going to graduate, so we want to make sure that we help establish a foundation so we can have future officers or whatnot,” West said. “We want to make sure that the club is able to stay active.”

Kruegler said that she went to the initial meeting in the first few weeks of school that goes over CAT’s role on campus and that there were way more people than she expected. She said it’s cool to see so many new people this year.

“It just feels good to, you know, do something that’s good for the cats, good for animals, good for our campus,” Kruegler said. “And the people in Cat Alliance are awesome and hardworking and dedicated and caring. And so I’ve gotten to meet a lot of really cool people. It’s been a really good experience.”