Please dont ignore strays

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booktigger

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As it is Ginger's anniversary, I thought it woudl be a nice tribute to him to bump this up, for any newbies.
 

pat

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Good message to bump up. Ginger sounds like an exceptional kitty.

Fwiw, 3 of our kitties are strays that we rescued - two were starving, one was dirty, cut up and desperate for us to take him (he picked us..tried to get to my husband twice in one week but the first time ran up the neighbors drive where dh was talking to our neighbor and their dog chased him up a tree...a week later, he saw us coming out our door, ran up, rolled over and made biscuits in the air...I kid you not!)
 

kaylacat

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Sorry for your loss and thank you for the important reminder.

It makes me so sad to think of all the homeless kitties out there. One thing I don't understand is people who say they are animal lovers but think that the strays and ferals are pests. If you feed them they don't get in your garbage and you are helping making their life a little easier. They really do appreciate it.

Our house is the neighborhood stray and feral cat safe place. They know that they can come here to get a drink and some food in their belly and a place for shelter on our inclosed back porch when its cold out. I can never turn away a kitty who needs me.


Some of them wind up being permanent residents but unfortunately we can't take every one of them in permanantly.


Molly came to us as a stray kitten. She came in and didn't have any plans of going back out.


Buddy was born to a feral momma under our house and I caught and tamed him and his sister as kittens (his sister is no longer with us).

Pumkin is our semi feral and it took him years to trust us enough to let us pet him or come inside but he is staying inside more and more now. He will even come and sit with us in the living room now. I am hoping to make him an indoor kitty eventually.

The rest were born to a stray momma that we took in. They are lucky not to know what it is like to have to fend for themselves.

I will always have a soft spot for ferals. They might not show affection the same as tame kitties but they do show you that they are thankful in other ways.
 

rosiemac

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I'm always watching for any, and that's how i rescued 2 from across the road from where i work just recently, because the woman who had them put them out on the streets because she had a baby, prat!


I'm a member of the Cats Protection, but i'll be giving them extra money in a month or so to stock up on kibbles for the winter for the strays and ferals that they look after
 

carwashcats

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So proud of all of the above people! So sorry about your Ginger, bless both of ya'll!
I have my 4 strays, feral, had I not intervened! Then there would
of been so many more strays, ferals, homeless cats just wondering around
aimlessly,what gets to me is how people, just dispose of, disreguard,
demean, cats especially! The mentality of these kinds of folks is not
even measured.
I have witnessed more animal neglect just in the past couple of yrs.
it is literally making me sick! Although there are people like us, and then
there is those jerks, but most of the other people are 'flatliners' is my
description of them, you know the type, don't want to get involved,
it is not their problem' Their the worst of all, they are the majority, if we
could get more of those folks to get involved, like pick up a stray, have one spay/neutered, give money to shelters to feed the animals, something!!!
We maybe could slow down the over population a bit! That way there
wouldn't be so many needy animals! The flatliners (Heartless)
might actually feel good about something if they were to give back just
a little. I have come to the conclusion that people are just scared,
of everything anymore, they have lost their will to actually care about
anything! That is so sad! I am glad to have read this thread, it has
inspired me, so your babydoll, Ginger, has an amazing legecy!

Thanks!
Monique
 

lnbandcats

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This is a very emotional thread. I, too, would like to say thank you to everyone who works with strays, or has adopted them. There are no strays that I know of in my community - I think because there is a retired nun who has worked for several years trapping, neutering, and either adopting or releasing. My girls are shelter kitties and I love them to pieces!
These stories do remind me to buy extra food and supplies for the local shelters -and to stop down and ask the "cat lady" how she is doing with her efforts...maybe she could use my help!
 

coco maui

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Ginger was a lucky kitty to have found you! I found a stray a few years ago. I thought for the longest time that she, Peaches, was a neighbors cat. She kept coming over for food and loving. Eventually I put a collar on her with a tag reading "my owner call" with my phone number. I never got a call so I took her in and promised to take care of her. She was a bit scared of my other cats and was not happy in my house so she move in with my step sisters mother and has a happy home now.
 

jean-ji

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Originally Posted by booktigger

so please dont ignore strays and think they will be fine, especially not at this time of year.
I'm so sorry to hear about Ginger, but loved reading your story about taking him in. These stories always make me cry and a good ending is the best.
Strays are my soft spot. Sam's owner moved and left him outside and we adopted him from a sancutary. I didn't reailze Pru was homeless for six months until it became cold out and she was still hanging around. Bringing Pru into the family is one the best things I've ever done and she thanks me very day.

Thanks for Ginger's story and a good reminder.
 

fostermomm

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Im really sorry about Ginger!
People dumped animals out here where I live all the time. Sadly the cats dont last long usually because of wild animals in the woods surrounding the apartment I live in. Wendseday I spent half the night outside with Joe trying to catch a very scared big white male cat that Joe saw somebody throw out a truck. Poor guy disappeared into the woods after we tried to catch him for awhile. I saw him this morning but hes still to scared to come. So Im taking a trap out tonight and see if we cant nab us a big white kitty.
 

littleraven7726

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What a wonderful life Ginger had after finding you.
I'm so sorry for your loss.

DH and I definitely don't ignore strays. In fact, half of the time they find us.
The last one was a torti looking to be 6 months old. We set her up in a dog crate in our garage for the night, but she escaped through the tray (we forgot to secure it). She would have gone to the humane society had she not got out of our garage. She did however get a dry, somewhat comfy place to sleep for the night, clean litterbox and as much canned food as she could eat.
I think she was thankful.
We haven't seen her since, so we are hoping since she was such a sweetie someone else took her in.

Previous to this apartment we had one in a lower income area. We took a couple cats to the humane society. The neighbors just turned them out.
We also found a kitten when we lived in southern California. Someone left her behind after moving.
We took her to Animal Control, and put a 3rd party hold but since she was a Siamese looking kitten she got adopted right away.
We had made arrangements to get her into a rescue had she not been adopted.
 

swampwitch

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I'm sorry to hear about Ginger.
He probably thought he'd found heaven four years and a month ago. You are so right; don't ignore the strays!

Oberon was a stray when my husband adopted him. He was eating out of garbage cans at a friend's house, and the friend told us about a cat with a collar that kept hanging around. Then, the friend said the cat lost the collar, so we went to pick him up.

He struggled against us for about 30 minutes, splaying his legs out so we couldn't put him in the carrier and physically struggling when we'd pick him up. But he never bit or scratched us! Finally, I felt him give a big sigh and he gave up and we took him home.


He's an old guy now, and hyperthyroid and in CRF, but he just had his checkup this morning, and his heart is strong and he's hydrated. Right now he eats what he wants (high-quality foods, no fish) and we were told that he's comfortable and not in pain, and we will be happy for every day we have with him.



There's more on Oberon in my profile.
 

carolpetunia

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I'm so glad this got bumped -- I hadn't read it before. Ginger was a lucky cat to spend his last four years in a loving home. What a relief it must have been to him when he realized he didn't have to fend for himself anymore!


I wish there was someone like you for every stray in the world.
 

menasmom

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I am so sorry for your loss. You gave Ginger the best years of his life.
Although I haven't seen any strays in my area, all three of my cats and their moms were strays before the adoption agency rescued them and I adopted them. Jiggy was born in the woods, Sophia in a trailer park, and Gette, well all we know is her father was a traveling salesman.
My sister feeds and neuters a colony of 9 feral cats in her neighborhood in NY and fosters and finds homes for whatever kittens are in the area. RIght now she's fostering a little fellow who may have a home soon. Mind you, she's got 7 cats of her own in a one-bedroom apartment.
Anyway, because of other people's kindness, my three "dopies" have all come into my life and I would never ignore a stray or feral cat. How could I live with myself if I did? No way.
 
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booktigger

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Thank you for all your responses, I am so glad that there are people who take notice of the strays out there, I just wish there were more people like us around, or that people who can't cope with fostering or helping out at a shelter would realise that there are so many little things they can do, such as helping us out with food, or things for us to sell.
Ginger was one of the lucky ones, I wish there weren't so many unwanted kitties in the world, this year seems to have been the worst so far, I have fostered more cats this year than previously - I did want to beat last years numbers, so far I have doubled it and added a few, and we still have another 3 months to go yet. I think Ginger has been doing some work - before he went, the bulk of my fosters came from owners, since he went 8 out of the 11 (excluding the kittens) have been strays, only 3 have come from owners.
 
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