HALIFAX -- Muffy is one of dozens of feral cats that recently made the journey from Little Bay Islands, Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, where he and other felines will make a new life.

"We were expecting a lot more feral cats than what we've got,” says retired veterinarian and Spay Day HRM volunteer, Hugh Chisholm. “So it's a really happy ending for a lot of these cats that otherwise might have been left in the wild or potentially put down.”

After learning 70 cats would be left on the remote island after residents were relocated, volunteers with Spay Day HRM decided to help.

"We went up to Newfoundland because we found out the cats at Little Bay Islands had been left there, and the government was going to possibly euthanize them,” says Spay Day HRM volunteer, Tracey Galusha. “So Linda, with Spay Day, asked if we could go up and start doing some trapping."

Linda Felix organized the entire expedition.

"It just struck me that it was a really sad ending for cats who were obviously used to people that they would suddenly starve to death,” says organizer Felix. “It seemed very cruel and it just kind of worked on me and worked on me until I said ‘ok, I think we need to do something about this."

"This is a unique project because these cats have come from another province and crossed on a couple of ferries to get here,” says Chisholm. “But you know, if somebody says ‘you can't do it,’ that's the type of project that Linda likes to take on."

Volunteers with Spay Day HRM rescued 37 cats with four additional cats on their way to Halifax. Additionally, a group in Newfoundland is also helping to relocate cats from the island and has set up a centre there.

“Every morning and every night, the girls come in and they do the care with the cats – now pretty soon they're going to move on since they've all had their spay and neuters,” says Galusha. “The feral ones are going to go into the barn program with Spay Day,  and some are going to go into foster care – there's already a bunch of people that stepped up to help foster and take them in and work with them and socialize them."

Overall, the cats were in good health upon the rescue.

"They're in much better shape than the usual ferals we deal with – several will be adoptable,” says Felix. “We had one with a serious eye injury who has since had his eye removed – he's going out to foster today—we hope to give him an indoor life."

Meanwhile, volunteers say the community helped out with donations such as food and litter, as well as a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of the rescue operation – which reached its $21,000 goal.

"They'll go on to live nice long happy lives with full bellies,” says Galusha. “It's a good thing for them and it's a good thing for us – it was a good Christmas present."