Where are people finding all these stray cats?

[plan]

After reading so many threads here, plus articles and forums on other sites, I constantly see anecdotes about people rescuing abandoned kittens, finding stray cats in bad situations, yadda yadda.

Yet I can count on one finger the number of stray cats I've seen in the last year and a half: Literally one cat, who I saw late at night walking toward an enclosure that houses dumpsters for my apartment building, about 150 feet from my balcony. I never, ever see stray cats anywhere, and it's made me wonder if it's a regional thing or if the rescue organizations are just really good in my area.

(FWIW I live in Westchester County, NY, which is the second-wealthiest county in the U.S. and home to places like Scarsdale and Rye. I can look out the window right now and see Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, BMW...you get the idea. I feel like a pauper in my Honda lol.)

Last year, when I drove to North Carolina to vacation with my friends in the Outer Banks, I saw stray cats hanging around a gas station in Maryland, and one night when we were eating at an outdoor restaurant in NC, a beautiful Calico came up to us, started rubbing up against us, etc. I felt really bad because it seemed like this cat was so used to humans and was probably someone's lost pet. We fed him (probably not what the restaurant people wanted,  but whatever) and petted him, but didn't go beyond that. I didn't know the area well, and for all I knew, it could have been someone's outdoor cat and maybe wasn't lost after all.

Anyway, like I said, I live in an apartment so it's not like I can feed strays by leaving food on the doorstep, but I do wonder if my area is just unusually good at managing feral populations, or if ferals in general hide from humans.

 

[Columbine]

True ferals do hide from humans, and generally come out at dawn and dusk. Ferals that are part of a managed colony may, in time, become more comfortable around people and may therefore become more visible.

The cats that will be more obvious are strays and cats that had early human socialisation but are now living as feral, for whatever reason.

 

[gilmargl]

I live in Germany and didn't realize the problems with ferals and strays until we had a cat of our own who seemed to attract stray kittens. In this case, I was quite sure that people, knowing we had kind-hearted children purposefully put cats on our doorstep. Later, working for an animal charity, I was taken to areas where feral cats were living so that we could set traps for TNR. I was told that for every cat you see at these sites - also at restaurants, in cities such as Athens or Rome, there are another 20 or so timid creatures (true ferals) hiding in the background.

 

[Ms. Freya]

In our last house we were unfortunately close to a apartment complex that had a high tenant turnover...as a result a lot of young-ish cats were left behind when people moved and a number of them made it into to yards of the houses on our street where people would feed them and try to bring them in. Not all of them were that friendly, though, and some would always get pregnant and the kittens would be feral.

You'd see the true ferals once or twice a year, the  friendly ones that would come onto your porch to eat or walk into a trap were almost always left-behinds from the apartment.  

 

[shadowsrescue]

I live in the middle of suburbia and until 5 years ago I had never seen a stray or feral cat in my yard or neighborhood.  Flash forward to present day and I have 3 ferals living on my deck, one that transitioned to inside and 3 others who have passed away and one that moved on.  There is a neighborhood not far from me that has rentals.  People move and leave their cats.  Next the cats wander and end up finding me.  Out of the 7 cats, 6 have been males and not one of them had been neutered.  The lone female was spayed, but came to be battered and ill.  I have done TNR on all of the males.  I get so frustrated with many of neighbors who allow their cats to roam. 

It also seems where ever I travel, I always see feral and/or stray cats.  I think that when you know where to look and the cats know you are cat friendly, you will find them or be found by them!

 

[Ms. Freya]

True. When we moved into our new house we noticed a bunch of healthy lookng cats in our neighbours wooded acre. Everyone was very careful to not mention the cats untill they found out our three were rescues. Turns out all of those cats (there are 9 currently) are a colony that the neighbours manage. The previous owners of our house hated them and everyone was worried we would too..

Personally I love living by the colony. They keep the mice out of the wood sheds and are hilarious when they sprawl on our fishing boat to sun.

 

[freyaandzelda]

I think it's a regional thing. I live out in the countryside, and I see cats and kittens wandering out and about in places they shouldn't be all the time. If I had to guess, I'd say about 70% of the cats I see are stray, or at the very least they're outside cats that get minimal human contact and care, and are generally not spayed or neutered.

 

[catminionjess]

I live in the suburbs of DFW. When I first moved into my house, I'd see different cats hanging out in my backyard. I'd see cats walking up and down the street. I don't really know if they were all strays or neighbors cats. Most would run off when I'd open the blinds on the patio door. One tabby would hang around all the time and want to play with me. Eventually she lured out a black cat I'd seen before from my unused shed. He was a formerly domesticated turned feral. A lot of time and care later, he's now one of my indoor cats. One of my other cats was a stray kitten found by my sister when she used to work in a more rural town.

They are probably out there, but they just don't want you to see them, like my shed cat didn't want me to see him until he knew that I was actually friendly to cats.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

My old neighborhood had a number of strays.  The lady who lived behind us was doing what she could to get some fixed, socialize the kittens and get them into homes.  Some were friendly some were not.  I heard some cat fights in the street at night.  There was one very friendly tom cat who had some battle scars yet he was still friendly with people.  I opened my front door one morning to find a kitten curled up asleep on my deck.  I also saw one very sickly kitten and the inevitable ones that lost their lives to traffic. 

  

My mother's neighborhood is a nice place; but they also have a stray population.  Several years ago I remember someone luring some kittens out of a storm drain.  There are outdoor cats in the neighborhood as well; but definitely some strays there having babies.

I see barn cats where I live now.  Most belong to the family across the street (retired, elderly farmers).  Some come from the farms behind us.  There was one from across the street that was a regular in my backyard for almost a year before he disappeared.  He did a great job keeping things out of my garden!  But I never could get close to him.  He sheltered under my grill and my kid's playsets when summer storms would creep up.  And he would lounge in the grass sometimes if we were outside; but we never got within 20 feet of him like that.  He definitely did not trust us.  I do see kittens across the street from time to time.  I have also seen them feeding the cats.  

When i worked in the mall we saw cats around the trash compactors all the time.  That always scared me and I always hated having to be the one to start the compactor!!  I've also seen kittens near the dumpsters at gas stations when we take long trips.  

 

[alia]

Depends where you are.In Romania we have more stray cats than we have in the house.I saved over 30 cats and i found good owners for them but i also have 20 feral cats where i am.

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• alia
• Aug 18, 2015

 

[alia]

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• alia
• Aug 18, 2015

Those are some cats that i found on the STREETS! Some of them looks like a breed.The black cat and a white kitten from the first cat are mine

 

[tabbybono]

were we live we are overrun with strays most of them left behind by old neighbors it is so sad we have a little stray girl who in March started appearing mainly in the shed we managed to get her into the house as we thought she may be pregnant and then she had 4 kittens unfortunatly one of the owners of the new kittens let her out the house before we could get her spayed not to be found anywhere a lot of people around here leave food out for the strays as there is alot of them . well 2 days ago she has returned this time she just meowed at the back door to be let in and guess what very pregnant again i know i will pay out for her to be spayed and if she never comes back at least i know she wont be having litter after litter as she only seems to appear when she is pregnant probably knows im a sucker and will ensure she is safe warm and well fed 

 

[jolie0216]

I think it really  just depends on the neighborhood - I live in a city, not a rural area, and have lived in many different areas of the city.   In the nicer areas, I never saw a single stray cat.   My roommate at the time accidentally lost her cat - it snuck outside one day - but she put up some fliers and about a week later she got a phone call from a neighbor who had found her cat!

Now, I don't live in such a great area in the city, and there is a HUGE stray cat problem.   I never had a pet cat until we moved into this house.   Now we have 4!  All street rescues from around here.   A lot of people leave food out for them, but only one of my neighbors (in addition to myself) are actively trying to trap and neuter/spay them.   He's gotten several of them into the clinic to get fixed......I've gotten 2 so far.   But it's really sad - there are so many cats.   And most of them are quite friendly, which leads me to believe they just got left behind when people moved...... I really never gave a second thought to the stray cat problem before  I moved into this neighborhood - but when it's staring you in the face every day, it's hard to not want to help and do something about it.

 

[picklespepper]

Just curious, how can you tell when a cat is a true stray and not just an outdoor cat with a happy home?  I used to live in a lower middle class neighbourhood (young families/retirees) and we had different cats coming through our yard all the time.  Drove our indoor cat nuts!  None had collars but they were all fat and glossy-looking.  They usually wouldn't let me pet them but they weren't overly afraid either.  I just assumed they were the neighbourhood cats.  They certainly weren't begging for food.  And since it was a poorer neighbourhood I'm guessing the owners didn't get them fixed.  (Heard a lot of kitty weddings outside our bedroom window...)

 

[mollyblue]

I think there are several factors to consider about stray populations.  First, what is the animal control's policy.  Our neighborhood recognizes that it is a cat's inherrent nature to roam and hunt and there is no ordinace preventing cats from running freely around.  Other neighborhood may have laws governing a cats freedom so there would be less strays as animal control will pick them  up.  Here, there are a lot of strays because unless the cat is dying, animal control will do nothing to help them.  There are also a lot of strays because I live in an apartment complex, and as someone else has mentioned, people will leave their animals behind (don't want to pay pet deposit at the new place, so move in cat free and then get another kitty when opportunity arises and skip paying pet rent.  I think also though because the dumpsters provide good feeding grounds for them.  In the more affluent neighborhoods, I think the garbage is better concealed, enclosed, and threfore not as accessible as like at our apartments where they are overflowing.  Finally, I think in neighborhoods where everyone drives lexus, etc., if cats live there, they are probably high dollar cats, and very pampered and protected.

Finally, as others have said, dawn and dusk are prime kitty times.  The more time you spend out doors, especially in the predawn, and dusky parts of the day, the more likely you are to see wildlife in your area, including the feral cats if any there be.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I think the"opportunity" to abandon pets in a neighborhood and the availability of food is key. So, two ends of the neighborhood spectrum would be rural areas (common place to leave abandoned cats, lots of "wild" food like rodents, etc.) and high density urban areas (high turnover rate of humans & so, common place to abandon cats, plus availability of food is usually high).

It's sad with ferals, strays and semi-ferals... so many get hit by cars. I remember years ago when our involved neighborhood was taking care of The Bronte Sisters (two semi-feral females, Emily and Charlotte) so well and for so long, and one day they both got hit and killed by passing cars. Emily got hit by a car, and Charlotte had followed her onto the road... and got hit too. The neighborhood literally got together that night and mourned.

 

[missycab]

Where I live it's pretty common to find stray cats. A lot of people don't neuter their pets, and then abandon the litter somewhere else. In fact, Cleto (my profile pic) was a stray kitten. He was dumped in the garden of a person I know, and he was pretty scared of people. If we hadn't rescued him, he'd have become a feral. Still, I think he had some sort of human socialization when he was a little kitten, because he got used to us really quick (in hours!)

At my parent's home, we had several visits from strays. One of them was a huge white cat. At first, he was very shy, but since we started to give him food, he became much friendlier. We couldn't keep him: he was already making out cats very nervous (he even got inside the house), but the last time we saw him, we tought he was adopted: he was in much better shape and fat!

 

[nansiludie]

I think the reason a lot of people who live in cities/suburbs do not see many stray or feral cats is due to the amount of resources there are, Humane Societies, Animal Control. Out farther in the country, where there isn't as much help for the cats, they do breed and have kittens and those have kittens, and it goes on until they either are fixed or pass away but there are always cats out there, lurking somewhere.

 

[msaimee]

I live in a suburb in Western PA on a dead end street with a small patch of woods around the block. Here and elsewhere in my area, people drop off and dump their cats, or move and leave their cats behind. In the 15 years I've lived on my block, my neighbors and I have taken in at least two dozen of these cats and some ferals. Here is the problem where I live. We have a Humane Society, but they are always full. People want to surrender their cats, but are told they can't. There is also a HS in Pittsburgh, but few people want to drive that far, and there is a surrender fee. I live in a mostly working class area where people don't want to spend money to surrender a pet, or to TNR feral cats to keep down the population--so there are always strays and ferals everywhere. I imagine that in wealthier areas, people handle situations differently. 

 

[mollyblue]

Well, if they are micro-chipped is one way to tell.  If you frequently see them in same yard or hanging out on someone's porch, that is a subtle clue... while cats like to roam and hunt, they also are pretty territorial, so if they are owned, they may visit others, but should tend to hang out in a general vicinity.  Some cats have wised up to the benefits of co-ownership and will adopt several families in a single area... and that gets pretty tricky.  Some people don't realize that if you feed a cat 7 days a week, for weeks on end, that it becomes their cat.  They think, well, we never wanted another cat, or this cat doesn't come inside or doesn't let me play with it, therefore it is not our cat... but I think maybe the cat has other ideas.