A day in the life of Brooklyn’s leading feral feline rescuer
For Heidi Systo, the self-appointed patron saint of stray cats, a typical day involves fried chicken traps, microchips, flea baths and beyond
More than 100,000 feral cats live in Brooklyn. These felines fight, forage and fornicate at rates that boggle the mind. The only thing preventing the borough from a complete takeover is a small army of cat rescuers, certified through a program called TNRM (trap/neuter/return/monitor), who spend their days seeking, trapping and whisking rescued cats between vet appointments and foster parents. The highest-profile among them is Heidi Systo, who lives in Bed-Stuy.
Better known as HeidiWranglesCats on Instagram (26,000 followers) and TikTok (615,100 followers), Systo is an eight-year veteran of the TNRM cause. She’s a part-time professional photographer who traces her origin story to a stormy night, drunkenly walking home from a party, less than a month after finishing school. She heard a stray cat meoooowing through the din and dark. She tracked it down. It followed her home. The rest is history.
We asked Brooklyn’s preeminent cat wrangler how she spends her days now. Excerpts:
Systo and friend
Early morning cat transport
If I have ASPCA appointments booked in the morning, which is often, I’ll usually wake up around 6:30 a.m. The other day I picked up two cats from different foster homes on the way and had an adopter drop one off. One of the fosters has been caring for a feral nursing mom—we have like four of her kittens—so I basically have to steal her kittens from her using one of those grabber sticks they use to reach high things at bodegas. I transferred them into a trap and dropped them off at the ASPCA in East New York for spay and neuter appointments, where they also get vaccinations and microchipped.
On the way home I’ll usually get McDonalds, which is honestly fucking psycho and embarrassing.
Cat care at home
When I get home, I’ll take care of my cats. The whole summer I’ve had like 20 cats at a time, so right now I only have five, which is, like, unheard of for me. They’re not being good eaters right now, so I like to syringe feed them with a high-calorie supplement. Then I’ll scoop out their litter boxes.
Breaking for work
I’m a serious procrastinator, so when I inevitably open my laptop to do work for my day job, I always end up responding to texts and emails from fosters and adopters. Basically, I end up doing a bunch of random cat shit. When I finally get to work it usually involves editing photos and uploading them to our website, running the backend of our Shopify and sending emails and texting with my boss. If I’m really focusing, I can get that done in two or three hours.
Cat housekeeping
In the afternoon I always have adoption applications I need to go through. Basically, when I come across someone I like, I’ll shoot them an introductory email and I’ll CC my adoption coordinator, and she’ll take it from there. I also might have cats that I need to upload to Petfinder, or I’ll try to make a social media post. Then I’ll drive back to the ASPCA and pick up the cats, which are usually loopy from anesthesia.
Trapping at night
After I get home from the ASPCA I’ll get ready to trap some cats. If for whatever reason I’m not trapping, I’ll usually do recon, which involves scoping out an area, bringing cat food along with me and establishing goodwill with people in the neighborhood. If I am trapping, I’ll go to Crown Fried Chicken near my house and I’ll pick up two or three breast pieces for bait. I usually have everything else on hand—sardines, traps and trap covers. Then I’ll meet up with my friend Dana Heif, who rescues with me. One of us will usually bring beer or cocktails. Then we’ll set our traps and if we’re lucky, we’ll catch them within an hour. Sometimes it takes a few hours and sometimes we don’t trap any. It all depends on the day.
Washing and winding down
We’ll usually bring adult feral cats back to Dana’s garage. I’ll take home any kittens. If they’re gross and covered with fleas, I’ll give them a bath—I usually recruit my roommate Kara. I’ll wash them one at a time with soap and warm water and she’ll dry them. At that point I’ll start them on dewormer and give them some food.
I always sit with them while they eat, just to start making positive associations between me and food. At that point I’m exhausted. It’s probably around 9 p.m. I’ll sit on my couch, drink a beer and stare at my phone. I’ll edit footage from the day for a social media post and respond to DMs if I can. Then I’ll watch ASMR on TikTok and go to sleep.
This article first appeared in the Fall 2021 issue of Brooklyn Magazine. Click here to subscribe today.
