Hi there (again!)
I posted last year regarding the feral cats in my area hoping for advice. I got lots and am very thankful to everyone who helped out. Thing is, it was a very busy autumn, and I went from a 2 cat household to a very full 9. Many feel I'm crazy (including myself some days), but surprisingly (maybe not so surprising to some on this forum) it works.
Very brief history: There were 3 ferals that I saw regularly and was feeding, who must have lived on my neighbour's farm-ish property. I made arrangements to have 2 TNR'ed (a young adult male and a female kitten). We had them neutered/spayed and brought them into the household. We had 2 already, so with these 2 it made 4. The third feral cat was unfortunately pregnant (with her second litter of the year) and had given birth before the appointment date. At the time I felt it was not an option to have her done with an unknown litter somewhere out there (hindsight has me thinking otherwise now). All kittens (5 total) were trapped by my neighbour and we offered to foster them while my neighbour found homes as they had a very small house and no rooms with closing doors except the bathroom (I know, sounds weird). Anyhow, long story short, no homes were ever found for the kittens and 4 cats became 9 cats. They are now past the six-month mark, I've had them all spayed/neutered and feel as though I am over the "crazy-stress" hump. It works, they get along and they're all well taken care of, but my household is definitely at its LIMIT.
Enter current situation:
Third feral cat (we call her Scruffles) is still outside and needs to be spayed. When all this was going on last year my neighbour agreed to take responsibility for getting her spayed this spring. I live in Manitoba, Canada and our TNR program only runs from spring to fall as we have very harsh winters. No local vets will take ferals in, so our nearest Humane Society was the only option and therefore doing it over the winter was not possible. We've had something of an early spring this year, which is great for most because who doesn't love warm weather, but this has obviously kicked the animals into early breeding. Scruffles looks pregnant again. And talking to the neighbour, she obviously left it too long to call the Humane Society and the soonest appointment is June. Clearly Scruffles will have had kittens by then and to be honest, neither I, nor my neighbour wants to deal with anymore kittens. If it was possible to get Scruffles in to be spayed, the pregnancy would have to be aborted, which at this point after everything that's happened, I think I could deal with, however there is no way that they will take her before June.
My neighbour obviously does not want to be trapping feral kittens again, especially when homes are so hard to find and I believe she is at the point where she plans to trap Scruffles and will drop her at the Humane Society where she will definitely be destroyed. Obviously, seeing as I have 9 cats, I clearly have too big of a heart. Scruffles is very feral and several years old, I am almost positive that she can not be tamed and with the 9 cats I already have it would be impossible to have enough time and space to dedicate to try to tame her. I think she is mostly happy outside and I would wish for nothing more than to have her live outside in peace and I would continue to feed her so long as she was spayed and we didn't have to worry about these babies anymore. I'm having a very hard time dealing with the idea of my neighbour taking her in to be destroyed. I think this cat has had a difficult enough life. We suspect she was abandoned by the previous owner of my neighbour's home and for her to have survived through several harsh Manitoba winters, she must be an exceptionally strong little kitty. She's a trooper, and it breaks my heart to think of her being destroyed. But I just don't know what to do.
My only idea is that my neighbour could try to trap her and if I could find the appropriate resources, perhaps I could keep her in a cage/pen in my garage so that she would give birth in semi-captivity. Then the location of the kittens would be controlled and they might be tamer being born in captivity like that. Scruffles would also be trapped and then we would theoretically be able to have her spayed some time after giving birth.
I don't know how sound this idea is. I don't know if it is workable or not. I'm not sure if it is just pure desperation. I thought perhaps some people on this forum may have more knowledge than me and could advise whether it sounds possible or not. Please be honest.
My main concerns (besides the difficult task of finding homes for kittens):
how to regularly feed her in a cage
how to regularly keep a litter box changed
whether she would give birth in captivity
I do appreciate any and all feedback. I'm sorry this post ran so long. ^_^
I posted last year regarding the feral cats in my area hoping for advice. I got lots and am very thankful to everyone who helped out. Thing is, it was a very busy autumn, and I went from a 2 cat household to a very full 9. Many feel I'm crazy (including myself some days), but surprisingly (maybe not so surprising to some on this forum) it works.
Very brief history: There were 3 ferals that I saw regularly and was feeding, who must have lived on my neighbour's farm-ish property. I made arrangements to have 2 TNR'ed (a young adult male and a female kitten). We had them neutered/spayed and brought them into the household. We had 2 already, so with these 2 it made 4. The third feral cat was unfortunately pregnant (with her second litter of the year) and had given birth before the appointment date. At the time I felt it was not an option to have her done with an unknown litter somewhere out there (hindsight has me thinking otherwise now). All kittens (5 total) were trapped by my neighbour and we offered to foster them while my neighbour found homes as they had a very small house and no rooms with closing doors except the bathroom (I know, sounds weird). Anyhow, long story short, no homes were ever found for the kittens and 4 cats became 9 cats. They are now past the six-month mark, I've had them all spayed/neutered and feel as though I am over the "crazy-stress" hump. It works, they get along and they're all well taken care of, but my household is definitely at its LIMIT.
Enter current situation:
Third feral cat (we call her Scruffles) is still outside and needs to be spayed. When all this was going on last year my neighbour agreed to take responsibility for getting her spayed this spring. I live in Manitoba, Canada and our TNR program only runs from spring to fall as we have very harsh winters. No local vets will take ferals in, so our nearest Humane Society was the only option and therefore doing it over the winter was not possible. We've had something of an early spring this year, which is great for most because who doesn't love warm weather, but this has obviously kicked the animals into early breeding. Scruffles looks pregnant again. And talking to the neighbour, she obviously left it too long to call the Humane Society and the soonest appointment is June. Clearly Scruffles will have had kittens by then and to be honest, neither I, nor my neighbour wants to deal with anymore kittens. If it was possible to get Scruffles in to be spayed, the pregnancy would have to be aborted, which at this point after everything that's happened, I think I could deal with, however there is no way that they will take her before June.
My neighbour obviously does not want to be trapping feral kittens again, especially when homes are so hard to find and I believe she is at the point where she plans to trap Scruffles and will drop her at the Humane Society where she will definitely be destroyed. Obviously, seeing as I have 9 cats, I clearly have too big of a heart. Scruffles is very feral and several years old, I am almost positive that she can not be tamed and with the 9 cats I already have it would be impossible to have enough time and space to dedicate to try to tame her. I think she is mostly happy outside and I would wish for nothing more than to have her live outside in peace and I would continue to feed her so long as she was spayed and we didn't have to worry about these babies anymore. I'm having a very hard time dealing with the idea of my neighbour taking her in to be destroyed. I think this cat has had a difficult enough life. We suspect she was abandoned by the previous owner of my neighbour's home and for her to have survived through several harsh Manitoba winters, she must be an exceptionally strong little kitty. She's a trooper, and it breaks my heart to think of her being destroyed. But I just don't know what to do.
My only idea is that my neighbour could try to trap her and if I could find the appropriate resources, perhaps I could keep her in a cage/pen in my garage so that she would give birth in semi-captivity. Then the location of the kittens would be controlled and they might be tamer being born in captivity like that. Scruffles would also be trapped and then we would theoretically be able to have her spayed some time after giving birth.
I don't know how sound this idea is. I don't know if it is workable or not. I'm not sure if it is just pure desperation. I thought perhaps some people on this forum may have more knowledge than me and could advise whether it sounds possible or not. Please be honest.
My main concerns (besides the difficult task of finding homes for kittens):
how to regularly feed her in a cage
how to regularly keep a litter box changed
whether she would give birth in captivity
I do appreciate any and all feedback. I'm sorry this post ran so long. ^_^
I know that is so hard to do, but there are so many, many, many kittens, unwanted kittens that this would be for the best. OR at the very least, she needs to be trapped and kept indoors or in a large cage where she can have her kittens safely. Then they could all be socialized and she could get spayed and not ever have to have any more kittens. I really hope these people agree. Are these cat's owned by your neighbor? OR are they just strays she feeds. If the latter is the case, I would try to educate her gently on why it is so important to get them all fixed so no more kittens.... :cross: 
