The Maxeys Cat-itude Adjustment Initiative will hold a yard sale and bake sale from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15 at the Maxeys Community Center (190 Laurel Lane, Stephens) to benefit the Lake Oconee Humane Society.
Carrie Hayes (left), with Wild Friday, and Cynzia Sanchez have teamed to form The Maxeys Cat-itude Adjustment Initiative, to help solve the town’s stray cat issue. They’re working with the Lake Oconee Humane Society to catch, spay or neuter the cats, and then return them. (Abigail Hayes/The Oglethorpe Echo)
Carrie Hayes noticed a large stray cat population in Maxeys when she moved there 11 years ago. As time went on, more and more cats showed up.
She knew she had to take action.
“I knew it wasn’t just me,” said Hayes, a city councilwoman. “It was our neighbors, it was people two streets down, it was several people that said we’ve got too many cats in Maxeys.”
Cynzia Sanchez, co-owner of The Gillen House Bed & Breakfast in Maxeys and an architect, who was also well aware of the cat problem, discovered the Lake Oconee Humane Society had a program that could help.
“The moment I found out about it, I contacted Hayes because (she) has been the one person in our community that has been taking care of the ferals for the longest time,” Sanchez said.
Together, they formed the Maxeys Cat-itude Adjustment Initiative this year.
Despite the fact that the LOHS generally serves Putnam, Greene and Baldwin counties, it was willing to make an exception and help Maxeys.
LOHS works through a program it calls a trap, neuter, vaccinate, return program. It allows the cats to be taken and fixed, and then returned to their community so they can stay in a familiar environment while also limiting overpopulation in the area.
“LOHS, even though we’re not in their group of counties that they support, just couldn’t say no,” Hayes said. “They’re so sweet, and that’s sort of how it all got started.”
In Maxeys, the first round of the TNVR program included placing cages at homes that had large numbers of stray cats. Once the cats were caught, the LOHS picked up the cages and took the cats to be fixed and have wellness checks.
The cats were then returned to Maxeys.
The program has fixed about 27 cats.
“The cats are helpful, but we don’t want to be overpopulated with cats because, especially the males, they will fight and they will get hurt and then it’s really sad when they suffer from that,” Hayes said. “To have a few cats is wonderful, but to have a high population (means) they can carry diseases if they’re not vaccinated and they’ll get sick so easily.”
With a second round of TNVR coming up, Hayes and Sanchez will hold a yard and bake sale on Saturday, Aug. 15 to contribute to LOHS.
“This is a community that has been embracing the cats, but a lot of people cannot afford $60 shots, especially if you have multiple cats that show up at your house,” Sanchez said. “So far, everybody’s so excited about the program, (I mean) everybody in this community is impacted by the cats, because we think there are more feral cats in Maxeys than people.”
Abigail Holloway is a 2026 graduate of Clarke Central High School. She plans to major in journalism and political science at Mercer, starting this fall.