Spanky and TK’s Friends – making a difference in the animal world

By Editor | February 12, 2025 |

Karen Waller takes care of one of six colonies of feral cats, in the North Greene area, this one located in White Hall. Waller and two friends feed the cats daily, provide shelter and medical care when needed. (Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press)

By Carmen Ensinger

Most people have never heard of Spanky and TK’s Friends and there is a very good reason for that – because they work mostly behind the scenes, taking care of the feral cat colonies in the North Greene area. Currently, they feed and care for six colonies in this area with a total of between 175 and 200 cats.The rescue was started by Karen Waller, who came to this area from California three years ago.
“We moved into this little farm house and went and got two mousers, Spanky and Tiger King (TK), to take care of the rodent problem,” Waller said. “It was maybe a year later when Spanky just disappeared. Then, 90 days later, TK disappeared.”
Waller put flyers up all around trying to find her two beloved kitties.
“I had one neighbor tell me she thought she saw one of them run under a porch,” Waller said. “Then, six days later, Dottie went missing and I’m like who is taking my cats so I went out at 5 a.m. and began walking the area looking for her.”
Waller heard a cat crying and followed the pitiful cries.
“It led me into a neighbor’s u-shaped shed where he had her in a trap,” Waller said. “She was near death because she had hypothermia. It was like minus 10 degrees out and she was stuck in this trap with no shelter at all. I had never seen anything like it before.
Waller figured out how to get her cat out of the trap, took her home and warmed her up. She then called the sheriff.
“I told the officer that someone was illegally trapping cats and doing lord knows what to them,” she said. “I was shocked to find out that they were more concerned about me trespassing on his property to get my cat that he had illegally trapped. They said he could press charges against me when all I was doing was saving my cat that he had lured into the trap with cat food.”
Waller was told that it was her fault because she let her cats out and he could do anything he wanted to them on his property.
“I said, ‘oh, no, no, no and I immediately called the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and told them what was going on,” she said. “They came down, talked to him and he admitted that he killed the raccoons and possum but apparently with the cats he just took them out in the boonies and dumped them.”
In the quest for looking for her cats, people began telling Waller where all of the cat colonies were located in both Roodhouse and White Hall. She went to those locations and looked and saw literally hundreds of cats, some of which had been dumped trying to adjust to a life of homelessness now.
“It was then that I realized there is a situation going on here that doesn’t make sense and it has taken me three years to figure out how crazy it really is,” Waller said. “Because I have never before experienced a county with no animal control or no affordable vet care.”
Waller said that if just one of those problems could be addressed, namely affordable vet care, the problem could be fixed.
“Being able to afford vet care could potentially stop a lot of cats from being dumped,” Waller said. “A cat breaks it’s leg and the family can’t afford the vet care and they just dump it. We had a cat at one of our colonies show up with a broken front leg. Our goal was to trap him and get the leg taken care of because we do not want to see any of our cats suffer.”
Another reason cats are dumped is because people can’t afford to get their cats fixed. If they are a male cat, when they reach a certain age, most of them begin spraying. If they are a female, they get pregnant and have kittens. So, unable to afford the surgery they are dumped.
The rescue makes a point of, when they notice a new cat at one of the colonies, trapping it and getting it spayed or neutered.
“We have two resources close in this area which are fairly reasonable, Cass Veterinary and the Animal Protection League in Springfield,” Waller said. “I would say we have gotten about 95 percent of the cats in our colonies fixed.”
Even though they are, for the most part considered feral, the cats in these colonies are taken better care of than many cats who do have homes. They are fed every day, both dry and canned cat food and Waller even cooks up rice and chicken for them. They have warm beds full of hay and Waller keeps medicine on hand in case she sees any sign of sickness in any of them. Plus, they are all vaccinated.
Within the last year, Waller has taken on two helpers who help with the colonies, Sherry Hopkin and Jennifer Day.
“Before we started taking care of these colonies, there was one near the school in Roodhouse where the cats were starving and dying and the school children, when they were out for recess, were witnessing this,” Waller said. “Now, all of those cats are healthy and not dying and it is a much healthier situation, mentally, for those children.”
What people don’t realize is that the cats in these colonies are actually working cats, providing natural rodent control.
“Since they are fixed, the nuisance behaviors of spraying and fighting are stopped,” Waller said. “They are being fed, their medical needs are being met and they are working cats, doing a service for the community.”
In the past three years, Waller has spent around $50,000 of her own money getting these cats fixed and taken care of should they have broken bones or need some other kind of medical care, plus the cost of food, which averages around $2,500 a month.
“I’m at a crossroad now because I have used all my savings, all my inheritance, everything,” Waller said. “We need to try to get some state funding or I’m really limited on what I can do from this point on. We are going to try to do some fundraising to get some funds to help with their care. I work part time and can use that to pay for their food.”
Waller said she has a goal for Spanky and TK’s Friends.
“My dream for Spanky and TK’s Friends would be, that if any family ever calls and needed a surgery for their cat or dog or any animal that we would pay for the surgery and medical bills,” Waller said. “Or for the spay or neuter and all the shots. That is what my dream is.”
Together, the three ladies also have another even bigger goal.
“We would really love to be able to build a cat sanctuary,” Waller said. “We have the land to do it or, the old Meehans building is just sitting there and the grocery store is never going to reopen. Let’s make that an animal shelter. That is a pretty big dream, but it is still a dream.”
Waller said one big problem that has to be corrected in this area is the idea that – it’s just a cat – it’s life means nothing.
“At the end of the day, it has totally been normalized that if you no longer want a cat that you just take it and dump it or take it out and shoot it,” Waller said. “Someone has to do something because kids can’t grow up thinking it is okay to shoot a cat. They can’t break the law and know the law is going to turn a blind eye. The way we are set up, we are forcing residents to break the law. Not taking care of this the right way is encouraging people to literally be criminals. The law is letting people trap them, dump them and shoot them. They are letting them break the law because they don’t care. We are functioning like we are in a third world country and it’s horrible.”
Waller said she will do everything in her power to help anyone out to save the life of an animal.
“I will build a shelter for them or find a way to get them a shelter for their animal,” she said. “If I know who they are, I will help them shelter the kitties and help them feed those kitties. I will find a way because I want people to take care of their kitties because, in the end, that helps us because those kitties don’t end up in our colonies.”
Spanky and TK’s Friends are in need of donations, whether it be cat food or monetary donations. They have an account set up at UCB Bank in Roodhouse and also a Venmo account. More information about ways to donate can be found on their Facebook page, Spanky and TK’s Friends.