With great sadness, we announce the loss of our New York City TNR Director, Meredith Weiss. Last Wednesday, May 22, she passed away peacefully at home from cancer. We know this will come as a shock to the many people in our community who worked with, admired and loved Meredith. We have waited until now to say anything out of respect for her desire for privacy in her last days.

Meredith was an early member of Neighborhood Cats and joined forces with us back at the turn of the millenium to help the cats on Front Street in lower Manhattan when the block was just a row of dilapidated, empty buildings. She also fed the cats at the Manhattan-side base of the Brooklyn Bridge where a large colony could be found at the time. Meredith fed the dozens of cats every day, including one group who refused to come down to the street level from the second floor scaffolding of their abandoned building. Never one to be dissuaded, Meredith would take wet cat food, shape it into balls and put them in her freezer. Frozen meatballs in hand, she stood down on the street and hurled the food up to the scaffolding. She dutifully trapped every single one of her colony cats and got them spayed and neutered. When reconstruction of the street began, she trapped them all again and found them new, safer homes (including a couple who found a haven at her place!)

This was the dedication and determination Meredith brought to her work with Neighborhood Cats as one of New York City's pioneers of TNR and one of our first paid staffers. There was never a situation she wasn't willing to dig into, no cat or caretaker she did not want to help, and as a result of her many years of work, she touched the lives of thousands of caretakers and cats. Not only was she an expert trapper and fierce advocate, she was a talented photographer whose portraits of feral cats captured their individuality, were featured in the NY Times, ASPCA magazine, Cat Fancy and many other publications, and won awards from the Cat Writers Association and Alley Cat Allies. She was an educator as well, a trained teacher who brought her skills to our live TNR workshops where she passed her knowledge on to so many New Yorkers. For as far back as we can remember, Meredith served on the Neighborhood Cats Board of Directors.

She was one of a kind, was Meredith, and we miss her deeply as we're sure those of you lucky enough to have known her also do. A memorial service will be arranged over this summer and we hope you'll come and share your favorite tales and remembrances. Her cat, Delilah, is being cared for and a new home has been arranged, so all is well on that front.

Rest in peace, Meredith, a life well lived.