Yard Cats

hello first time reader , first time poster ..

long story and not sure where to start , so ill start off at the beginning , 

I work for an earth works company in Hobart Australia , and in our huge yard where trucks and trailers excavators and other various forms of machinery are we have a smallish population of feral cats.

I never really minded the cats , and where this all starts off is with the mother of all the babies named "puss" , she was a great little cat , while i worked during the daylight hours she would be by my side , she never minded if i was welding grinding or anything else loud she would always be by my side , puss had 3 babies and ofcourse i brought one home , and 2 stay in the yard with puss , as time passed puss became older , the babies grew up , and then i noticed puss wasnt around .

When puss left , and the babies needed feeding i started feeding them , I had to , noone else would care for them .

So the babies grew up , the boy "tiger" mated wit hthe sister "bubba" and they inturn had babies of their own .

the first litter she had are gorgeous , a boy that we havent named other then puss , and the girl we havent named so she got the name little  bubba aswell.

Bubba snr had a second litter not long ago and had the babies in the roof , so i pulled the roof down and grabbed the babies and they are here now and slowly growing , they are 2 weeks old , their eyes have opened , and my partner alyshia wakes up and feeds them every day and night.

now this is where the story takes a horrible turn , bubba jnr has just had one single baby , and i found her this morning on the cold concrete floor . i brought the baby home and she is now with bubba snrs babies sso hopefully it survives , the problem now is that i noticed bubba jnr hopping and her back leg looks floppy and i suspect its broken

what do i do? i know i have to take her to the vets but im not sure if they will save her , i dont mind spending the money as we had a rabbit that broke its leg , and we paid$650 Aud to have it repaired , but my problem is im scared they will put bubba jnr down , and the only life she knows it at the yard , and it may not be the best life , but its her life , i dont have the heart to knock her on the head , and i know she has to be fixed up , as other posters / readers will know its a very strange feeling to have this little friendly animals life in your hands , to fix her she might die , or do i let her run around on 3 legs and in a lot of pain .

as others have written , it plays on my morals to have a cat put down , she maybe feral but she comes to me every day , they all do! lifes choices of life and death , neither is right , these are not just cats , but my little friends , who dont care about anything other then eating , and lazing in the sun on warm days , and snuggling on a home made house they have inside the workshop , to take their life and give it to someone who will end it , is a decision i cant make on my own .

so i search the interweb , reading stories on this site of others in my position.

what to do?

kind regards yard cat

Hi Yard Cat.

A broken leg is no real reason to put a kitten down. One of the stray kittens I care for broke her pelvis a few months ago but she has recovered completely now. I recommend taking the little one to the vet to get some x-rays done. Broken bones sometimes need to be set properly so that the Bubba Jnr won't have a limp, but the good news is that at that age kittens heal really quickly.

If you have any questions about how to make sure she heals well, or what to do if it turns out to be a more serious break, they are plenty of people on this site you can talk to.

Have you thought about getting all your Yard Cats spayed or neutered? From what I know of Australia they are keen to control the feral cat population over there. There are probably some organisations in your area that can help you TNR them, so that your cats stay healthy and don't multiply too quickly. It sounds like you've got quite a big cat family already.

Again, there are plenty of people who can give you advice about how to do that if you need it.

Welcome to The Cat Site.

So sorry to hear this and glad to hear the leg most likely can be helped. I am wondering if you know why the sister and brother would mate together. Are they somehow confined to an area without access to a greater gene pool? Also, are you removing the babies who need to nurse still at two weeks? Was Bubba jnr up in roof looking for babies and got leg hurt? I am confused. Do you see the cats hunting or are you the sole source of food? I ask because moms leave sometimes after they feel their job is done and the babies can survive through their own means. 

thankyou norachan! 

and hello pocho , the cats arent in a confined area , our yard is in the countryside , so i presumed they mated together thats all , there are 7 cats in our colony , and i removed the babies from bubba snr because they were perched in the roof on the framing , so if they had crawled out they would have fell 6 mtrs to the floor , and we removed bubba jnrs baby because she left it on the concrete floor and i wasnt sure if it was the best place to leave the kitten , so i had a think about the situation and come to the conclusion that the kitten can come home to a nice warm house with bubba snr babies who live at home here.

i hope this helps 

oh I see, Maybe they arent inbreeding then. Could be activity you arent seeing and other cats you arent aware of? The ferals I watch over live outside and I found where most the females prefer to have their babies. It was in and under a bunch of old junk cars behind a fence in the woods next to my apt complex. Next to them I placed some rubbermaid insulated shelters with stray. Thought it would be nice for winter... They now prefer that to keep babies. Could you convince your kitties to make better choices when choosing their baby nests by offering other options on the ground? Apparently new moms have a learning curve...

Are you sure she doesn't currently have more kittens? I wonder if she was moving the one and got injured and distracted from it.

I don't know what the Australian vets' policies are on feral cats.  Some here want to euthanize all of them; some are involved in "Trap, Neuter, and Release" programs where feral cats are neutered and returned to their colonies.  This keeps down the birth rate.

Life outdoors anywhere is a rough on cats; they're small enough to be prey from other animals, and many humans have no qualms about abusing them.  You've apparently done your best with your little colony.

pocho said:

 
oh I see, Maybe they arent inbreeding then. Could be activity you arent seeing and other cats you arent aware of? The ferals I watch over live outside and I found where most the females prefer to have their babies. It was in and under a bunch of old junk cars behind a fence in the woods next to my apt complex. Next to them I placed some rubbermaid insulated shelters with stray. Thought it would be nice for winter... They now prefer that to keep babies. Could you convince your kitties to make better choices when choosing their baby nests by offering other options on the ground? Apparently new moms have a learning curve...

Click to expand...

will try and do that , so hard when the yard we work in is about the size of a city block , the cats come to who ever opens the doors up in the monring , like a bunch of meercats with tails up and everything , then they take a seat somewhere and just observe until im on my own they come out to have a pat or something to eat , quite a social bunch they are

That is awesome. They know how to survive and that includes placating to friendly people and the hunting you probably dont see. There is alot of debate over just how miserable or good their lives are and even different statistics over their live span. So you might not need to be as anxious as you are, if you are? You could maybe coordinate with other people in this area? I believe there are over 10 people in my situation who feed and love these cats. I started finding them and all thought they were the cats only help! Very clever on the kitties part I would say .

If they are doing a valuable job of keeping the rodent population down in your machine yard, and you're willing to take ownership and pay for her treatment, there's no reason the vet would put her down. Avoid using the word "feral" and just say that she's one of the cats you keep around for rodent control and she got hurt.

It would be healthiest for the females if they were spayed---if you really want more cats around you could either adopt homeless cats from other places or let the females have one or two litters each before being spayed---so you might ask about that too. Neutering will help the males stay closer and not fight or spray as much, but it's not as pressing of a need since they won't be having millions of babies :tongue2:..

I agree with Willowy.  When you take Bubba Jr. in for her leg, talk to the vet about spaying her.  Then, set up a plan for catching the rest of them for spaying and neutering as well.  There may be programs near you that can help.

You can buy a trap or, if you are lucky, you can catch them and place them in carriers.  With the way both Bubbas are reproducing, time to get busy!

Thank you so much for helping them!

well we have an update , and bubba jnr is now at the vet , although the news is not as what we were hoping for , she has a crushed foot , and compound fracture of her right rear leg , so the decision has to be made to keep the leg [which vet has told us she still could lose the leg as it may get infected ] or have it amputated , amputation seems a hard decision , but either way she will be welcomed into our house and hopefully she decides to stay here and not run away , she is a brave little cat , today was the first time she has let me pick her up completely , and put her into a carry cage , went into the vets and she let the vet pick her up ,and examine her .

So now she comes home to be with her baby , and hopefully a long and enjoyful life as apart of our little family 

will post up some pics of them all together when we get her home !

Poor little thing!

She's so lucky to have you to take care of her.

I hope she has a speedy recovery, I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of them all.

This has been very intense even just to read about. I am happy she gets to be with her baby and such a caring family. I think animals know when you are trying to help them. Bet she will like it there and stay. I will pray for all you guys.

Poor boo-boo.  She is a smart and lucky little cat to have found you.  Bless you for caring for her and the others!

hello everyone i have afew pics of bubba jnr now at home , she was picked up at 2pm aussie time , and the kids have been talking to her in the office , and when i got home shes calmed down now and she purrs for the kids , shes on medication so itll be helping for the pain , but she doesnt appear to be in any pain , shes even lying on her amputee side .

the first pic is the yard with the cat family eating , and the others are of bubba jnr after the operation

one thing i wonder now is she is just like any normal cat except she has one leg , but mentally shes a totally transformed cat now , just happy to be warm and in a nice place with a family

What a wonderful person you are, taking care of these cats. Did the vet remove Bubba jnr's leg? Only looking at the picture I can only see 3 legs but can't see where you actually say it was removed. I too have a Bubba, he was the runt of my Ginny's litter but to see him now you wouldn't think so.

It's good to see Bubba standing up and eating so soon after her surgery. Cats do pretty well on three legs, I've heard. Thank you for taking good care of her and giving her a loving home.

mamabirdy said:

What a wonderful person you are, taking care of these cats. Did the vet remove Bubba jnr's leg? Only looking at the picture I can only see 3 legs but can't see where you actually say it was removed. I too have a Bubba, he was the runt of my Ginny's litter but to see him now you wouldn't think so.

Click to expand...

yes her leg was removed yesterday shes doing really well now , we have introduced 2 of our younger cats to bubba it will take time i think for her to be accepted by the others but shes doing great for now

Norachan said:

 
It's good to see Bubba standing up and eating so soon after her surgery. Cats do pretty well on three legs, I've heard. Thank you for taking good care of her and giving her a loving home.

Click to expand...

yeah shes laying on her amputee side which i thought would give her pain but it doesnt seem to , she sits on my desk while i type ,my partner hopes the other cats dont leave because we have a new baby , i hope they all stay and bind together

Oh bless her heart - and yours! You've done a wonderful thing. Did the vet say anything about what might have happened to her?