Friend of Ferals Award Badge - Apply Here

TN two brown tabbies last summer, Punktchen and Mae, that is, I didn't return them to the Garden Center that stopped allowing its employees to feed them anymore. They were both pregnant despite being quite young for that. After we all recovered from the ordeal they happily  "escaped" into my yard and got accepted by my neighbor's feral colony. They share three of the outrageously expensive but apparently useful kitty tubes.

I caught and relocated two more, The Sassy Cat and Beautiful, who already had their ears tipped but still needed a place to go. They are all in the backyard now except Sassy, who lives in the front and still refuses to submit to Rascal, the emperor.

Then there's also Hannibal, all black with yellow eyes, who appeared on my porch on Halloween and who I was able to actually pick up and stuff into the trap. He seems to have forgiven me for that. He also prefers my self-made shelter to his kitty tube, because he can sit on top and watch me through the window. I let him in once in a while but not for long so as not to upset His Eminence too much.

Roguethecat, your colony sounds beautiful. Can we see some pictures? Hannibal sounds especially photogenic.

Just an update on the status of "my" feral cats TNR project.  I have now had 7 of the females spayed and all are doing well after being released back to their colony.  I know that I said that I had 8 females but I have not seen March for about 3 weeks now and I have no clue what has happened to her.  My next step in this project is to get the males in and have them neutered.  But first, I have to help my sister with her colony.  She has 3 females left that need to be spayed and they will be going in on the 25th.  I am so amazed by the clinic that I am going to.  Their dedication is so inspiring.

Do abandoned kitties count? We are a regular hot spot here for drawing in these poor little lost souls, most are starving, beat up, and scared to death. I have found homes for at least 30, counting the 17 kittens one poor mom had in one year before we said enough is enough and had her spayed even though she may have been a neighbors. We kept her after that and no one ever came looking!    We had 5 females spayed so that they were better able to find good homes, and neutered 7 males. I still have my original very feral male, Russell, who we neutered and still comes to be fed twice a day for the last 6 years. We can stroke his head but that is it! We also had a very old cat that all the neighbors said had lived around here for a lot of years with no home, come to us to die. He died in a heated bed eating the best food we could give him, and I just wish we could have loved him longer. I am now involved with the local shelter, offering my support, time and money to try to establish a TNR Law with our city council instead of their no feeding feral animal law  and euthanizing ferals law that they have now. Our biggest block is finding a vet to provide low cost spaying and neutering. Thanks for listening!

I've been taking care of ferrel cats for over 6 years.  We had about 12 cats outside of my work.  Slowly, I trapped them.  Some of them had Aids, and which i sent them to an aids colony...some were not so ferrel and found them good homes.  One cat got pregnant and had babies after babies.  I actually had to hire someone to trap her.  She was too smart and would release the lever of the trap and get out.  After trapping "mama", i had her fixed and released her back.  she is the fattest ferrel cat you will ever see.  Before, she was just this little thing, reproducing so often..and not by choice.  These male cats would jump on her and she was afraid of them.  Now, she is happy and very healthy.  I feed her wet food everyday.  My work threatened that they would fire me if I didn't "stop feeding the cats".  Not recognizing the fact that I help the issue by trapping and releasing these guys so the population wouldn't become out of control.  All they see was that I"m feeding the cats.....we always have to do what we feel the right thing to do is. period. Some people are scared to stand up for what they believe is right. Or they just don't want to deal with it.  I encourage everyone to get involved.  If they can help the situation, then notify someone who can.  

Kudos to you Torn!!  And sometimes one is all it takes.

So glad I am not alone. Our first 3 cats were fully feral. We got them between 4-6 weeks old. We harness trained them. Best thing ever when we moved from Alaska!!

I am working on harness training my new batch of babies. Mew is twice as big as the other two and it barely fits. The other two slide right out. They are pretty tiny. Fluffy but tiny.
Darren, my husband tried to take Mew out... for a walk. She did not like any part of it. They will be indoor cats,as our first set of babies were.

Di and Bob said:

 
Do abandoned kitties count? We are a regular hot spot here for drawing in these poor little lost souls, most are starving, beat up, and scared to death. I have found homes for at least 30, counting the 17 kittens one poor mom had in one year before we said enough is enough and had her spayed even though she may have been a neighbors. We kept her after that and no one ever came looking! 

  We had 5 females spayed so that they were better able to find good homes, and neutered 7 males. I still have my original very feral male, Russell, who we neutered and still comes to be fed twice a day for the last 6 years. We can stroke his head but that is it! We also had a very old cat that all the neighbors said had lived around here for a lot of years with no home, come to us to die. He died in a heated bed eating the best food we could give him, and I just wish we could have loved him longer. I am now involved with the local shelter, offering my support, time and money to try to establish a TNR Law with our city council instead of their no feeding feral animal law  and euthanizing ferals law that they have now. Our biggest block is finding a vet to provide low cost spaying and neutering. Thanks for listening!

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Every kitten counts   and your work with the local shelter promoting TNR most certainly counts!! Thank you!

roguethecat said:

 
TN two brown tabbies last summer, Punktchen and Mae, that is, I didn't return them to the Garden Center that stopped allowing its employees to feed them anymore. They were both pregnant despite being quite young for that. After we all recovered from the ordeal they happily  "escaped" into my yard and got accepted by my neighbor's feral colony. They share three of the outrageously expensive but apparently useful kitty tubes.

I caught and relocated two more, The Sassy Cat and Beautiful, who already had their ears tipped but still needed a place to go. They are all in the backyard now except Sassy, who lives in the front and still refuses to submit to Rascal, the emperor.

Then there's also Hannibal, all black with yellow eyes, who appeared on my porch on Halloween and who I was able to actually pick up and stuff into the trap. He seems to have forgiven me for that. He also prefers my self-made shelter to his kitty tube, because he can sit on top and watch me through the window. I let him in once in a while but not for long so as not to upset His Eminence too much.

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Thank you for helping the cats. Shame on that Garden Center owner.   - these cats were very lucky to have you come to their aid.

rachelinaz said:

So glad I am not alone. Our first 3 cats were fully feral. We got them between 4-6 weeks old. We harness trained them. Best thing ever when we moved from Alaska!!

I am working on harness training my new batch of babies. Mew is twice as big as the other two and it barely fits. The other two slide right out. They are pretty tiny. Fluffy but tiny.
Darren, my husband tried to take Mew out... for a walk. She did not like any part of it. They will be indoor cats,as our first set of babies were.

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Thanks for sharing the story. We have quite a few members who take out their cats on a harness and leash. 

Torn said:

 
I've been taking care of ferrel cats for over 6 years.  We had about 12 cats outside of my work.  Slowly, I trapped them.  Some of them had Aids, and which i sent them to an aids colony...some were not so ferrel and found them good homes.  One cat got pregnant and had babies after babies.  I actually had to hire someone to trap her.  She was too smart and would release the lever of the trap and get out.  After trapping "mama", i had her fixed and released her back.  she is the fattest ferrel cat you will ever see.  Before, she was just this little thing, reproducing so often..and not by choice.  These male cats would jump on her and she was afraid of them.  Now, she is happy and very healthy.  I feed her wet food everyday.  My work threatened that they would fire me if I didn't "stop feeding the cats".  Not recognizing the fact that I help the issue by trapping and releasing these guys so the population wouldn't become out of control.  All they see was that I"m feeding the cats.....we always have to do what we feel the right thing to do is. period. Some people are scared to stand up for what they believe is right. Or they just don't want to deal with it.  I encourage everyone to get involved.  If they can help the situation, then notify someone who can.  

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Well done! I'm sorry you're having trouble at work over this. Maybe you can bring them some leaflets about TNR that will show them the benefit of your actions, beyond the humane aspect?

We have people who think we are crazy for the leash and harness. It seems more common NOW then it did 13 plus years ago.
I am just glad we can save them, even if it is 3 at a time. We wouldn't dream of it any other way.

I have a teeny feral colony of four (!) that have adopted me as their caretaker over the past few months.  It all started with two, a female and male with a strong pair-bond, then a third friend followed them "home", and now a fourth little one has insinuated herself into the family.  (I'm assuming it's a her, but so far I've been spot on in guessing their gender.)  I provide food and shelter, in the form of a little house with sherpa bed to one of those igloos that can house an entire litter, and lately I've been thinking of contacting local rescues for TNR purposes.  I had no idea I'd get this involved in cat rescue, but here I am, and now I'm looking forward to doing more, meeting like-minded people, and eventually becoming a foster mom for feral kittens.  I'd planned on fostering a feral kitten I caught five years ago, but the local rescues informed me that she was too old for adoption (she was 5 mos. at the time), so I ended up keeping her and she's been the most loving, brilliant, entertaining pet I've ever had the pleasure of sharing a home with. 

 do you have any pictures?

Isn't it amazing how that happens?  I've had people tell me I must have a secret cat sign up by my driveway telling them that this is a safe haven and come on in.

I actually got warned by my old apartment manager not to feed the stray cats.started off at about 3-4 cats by the time we moved me and my neighbor had adopted 15-20. We left food and water outside and late at night I would go sit outside and try to befriend them.also there was a mother cat and her newborns dumped on our side walk in a diaper box double wrapped in trash bags! I'm soon happy I decided to check that suspicious box.we took them in and rejoined all of themthose are my best memories. And I have more. I love cats! :heart2:

roguethecat said:

 

 do you have any pictures?

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Me? I do, but I haven't transferred them over to my new computer just yet.  I'd hurriedly backed everything up to a portable hard drive that was waaay more complicated to use than I'd anticipated, so now I'm afraid to touch it   I guess I just found myself an excuse to spend a little time tormenting the kitties with the camera!  My two, that is.  The ferals are still highly skittish.  They'll let me observe them from behind my glass sliding door (their feeding station is close to the door, I sit on the floor near the door and try to get them used to presence), but so far I'm only allowed to glance in their direction.  I spend most of that time with my head bowed or looking off to the side.  If I look at them longer than a few seconds they tense up and prepare to flee.  The youngest is the most tolerant, but I am still walking on eggshells with that one, too.  I wish I had a way of communicating Food = Friend.  Why am I feeding you, silly things, if I mean you harm?  Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.  And we've actually made progress over the past few months, just veeeery slowly.

keyes said:

 
Isn't it amazing how that happens?  I've had people tell me I must have a secret cat sign up by my driveway telling them that this is a safe haven and come on in.

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Yes!  Like those symbols hobos would scratch into the dirt in front of a house they could count on for a hot meal, cats must have a way of communicating, "This person is a sucker for cats and you'll make out well here!"  

the3rdname said:

 
Yes!  Like those symbols hobos would scratch into the dirt in front of a house they could count on for a hot meal, cats must have a way of communicating, "This person is a sucker for cats and you'll make out well here!"  

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Well, I'll let you in on their secret. Feral cats sniff each others butts and can tell who is being well fed. Then they follow the well fed cats to see where they are getting their food from. That's why all the stray and feral cats in your neighbourhood make their way to your house.

Norachan said:

the3rdname said:

 

Yes!  Like those symbols hobos would scratch into the dirt in front of a house they could count on for a hot meal, cats must have a way of communicating, "This person is a sucker for cats and you'll make out well here!"  

Click to expand...

Well, I'll let you in on their secret. Feral cats sniff each others butts and can tell who is being well fed. Then they follow the well fed cats to see where they are getting their food from. That's why all the stray and feral cats in your neighbourhood make their way to your house.

:nod:

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That makes perfect sense! We adopted a feral years ago and were suddenly deluged with strays. We never figured out why. Thanks for that info.

the3rdname said:

 
I have a teeny feral colony of four (!) that have adopted me as their caretaker over the past few months.  It all started with two, a female and male with a strong pair-bond, then a third friend followed them "home", and now a fourth little one has insinuated herself into the family.  (I'm assuming it's a her, but so far I've been spot on in guessing their gender.)  I provide food and shelter, in the form of a little house with sherpa bed to one of those igloos that can house an entire litter, and lately I've been thinking of contacting local rescues for TNR purposes.  I had no idea I'd get this involved in cat rescue, but here I am, and now I'm looking forward to doing more, meeting like-minded people, and eventually becoming a foster mom for feral kittens.  I'd planned on fostering a feral kitten I caught five years ago, but the local rescues informed me that she was too old for adoption (she was 5 mos. at the time), so I ended up keeping her and she's been the most loving, brilliant, entertaining pet I've ever had the pleasure of sharing a home with. 

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Badge awarded! Sorry about the delay and thank you for taking care of the kitties!

I have pics but don't know how to post from my phone