On July 12, 2025, exactly 27 years to the day since the first-ever Operation Catnip Spay Day clinic, alumni of the UF Shelter Medicine Program returned to Gainesville for a milestone event: a reunion trap-neuter-return (TNR) clinic as the program approaches its 100,000th surgery.
What began as a grassroots effort to serve Gainesville’s community cats has become one of the most influential TNR programs in the world, a model for other communities seeking humane and effective population management.
And on this day, it all came full circle.
Twenty-three UF College of Veterinary Medicine alumni, many of them now leading shelter veterinarians, joined six current veterinary students, dozens of volunteers, and the full Operation Catnip team to spay, neuter, and vaccinate 400 cats. Cats arrived from across 12 Florida counties, with the furthest cat traveling 120 miles from Seminole County. One even came microchipped and was reunited with their person after being missing for eight years.
“This month marks a momentous accomplishment for us as we close in on 100,000 TNR surgeries since our training collaborator Operation Catnip was founded in 1998,” said Dr. Julie Levy, co-founder of both Operation Catnip and the UF Shelter Medicine Program. “It’s now one of the largest TNR programs in the world, and yet it still embraces its roots as a grassroots town-gown nonprofit organization serving Gainesville and the surrounding communities.”
“I’m in awe of the impact this grassroots organization has had on so many – caregivers, community members, students, and alumni,” said Audrey Garrison, executive director of Operation Catnip. “It would have been hard to imagine back in 1998 that one day we’d all come together and approach our 100,000th cat.”
“Returning to UF’s surgery lab and taking part in a large Operation Catnip clinic again, after more than a decade, was incredibly meaningful,” said Dr. Alyssa Comroe, class of 2015. “Operation Catnip shaped so much of how I approach this work, and I’ve carried that forward into the large scale Spay Days I now organize at my own shelter.”
The reunion clinic was also the capstone event of the Community Cat Management course, a five-week summer intensive supported by the Joy McCann Foundation. Students enrolled in the course learn best practices in humane community cat management, population medicine, and hands-on HQHVSN (high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter) surgery.
While this was the largest TNR clinic in Operation Catnip’s history, what made it truly extraordinary was the mentorship on display. Veterinarians who had once been taught in these very clinics returned to coach and guide the next generation.
“The minute that I saw the first posting on social media about this, I knew I had to come down,” said Dr. Jill Kirk, class of 2014, who traveled 1200 miles from Toronto to participate. She was on board as a mentor for veterinary students participating in the event. “It was truly exciting to coach veterinary students through their spays and neuters, to be able to be there for them like mentors of the past had been there for me.”
The day wasn’t without its remarkable moments, including special surgeries such as enucleations, amputations, and hernia repairs. Nearly 2,000 surgical instruments were washed. More than 2,500 syringes were used. Seventy-one volunteers, five Community Cat Management Summer Fellows from four different vet schools, and the entire Operation Catnip team made it happen.
“I was one of the first volunteers for Operation Catnip as a vet student,” said Dr. Irene Lee, class of 2000. “The experience I gained in feline examination and surgery was truly invaluable. Operation Catnip taught me the importance of shelter medicine and inspired me to stay involved with TNR and rescue throughout my career.”
For Dr. Levy, who was there at the very first Operation Catnip clinic in 1998 and again for this one, the reunion was more than just a clinic.
“I am overflowing with pride for how this program has blossomed into a model for similar programs across the globe,” she said.