That is so awesome! The only thing that bugged me was they they said you can't make a feral cat adoptable. We had a feral kitten, it took 4-5 years for him to want loving from us, and now that he is 8, he wants to sit on laps now! But still what they did was wonderful, I wish they would do that up here, a local community college is over-run with ferals!
chixyb I totaly agree with you , Ferals can be socialised (sp) . But what can you do , most people would not even try to deal with a cats behavior while using the outsite of litter box
I just joined. I'm the one that made the comment about not making ferals adoptable. It is true, you can make them sociable. And, a stray can be domesticated again. But, those born in the wild to a second, or third generation are extremely difficult to tame down so they can go into an adoption center. The three that I have in my yard were relocated there when they were adults. After four years, I can only sit on the steps and feed them bits of chicken. They won't let me touch them. As for the kittens, I rescue over 100 each year and tame them. But, they are less than 12 weeks old. I usually bottle feed a couple litter at a time. No taming needed there.
what a joy it is to take care of colonies. They seem to want to be totally free but yet, want your attention at the same time. Since our group takes care of over 3000 ferals around the county, taming them all is just not possible.
As someone who specializes in ferals (the older ones) and not taming them, but socializing them, I disagree with cattrapper. Ferals can be made adoptable. I have had some arrive here that no one could get close to for months, even years, and in the end they have turned into the biggest purr babies of them all and great lap cats. If you approach them in the right manner, on their terms and work on their time schedule not yours, they can be reached and bonded with- but NEVER tamed. Socialized, yes, accepting of humans, yes, but tame, nope. Not on your life. They will still run at the slightest noise, hide under the bed when strangers come into the home and even hiss at you from time to time if you try and force yourself on them and they don't want you at the moment.
I wasn't trying to say you were wrong or anything, I just think all cats can be socialized, not in a year, it could take forever like my Mittens did. I totally understand how we can just say nope it can't be done. Because really, who wants to spend 5 years trying to socialize a cat? It would we waaaaay to hard to do in your case where you have thousands, but if it were one or two it would be fine.
It is my dream that all cats had a home, and that people would spay and neuter there pets to cut down on overpopulation. Just think, spaying and neutering those 308 cats stopped thousands and thousands of unwanted kittens being brought into the world. It is just so awesome!
I read a post that said the place where she works (local humane society), has a saying, "We'll be out of work someday. That could be true for all of us it the country would adopt another saying.
"Neuter and Spay, don't let them stray" It is that simple. There is another solution, that is to get laws passed to require pets stores to neuter and spay before selling puppies and kittens, exempting those pedigree breeders of course.
We are all delighted to have another feral friend on board. I hope you will visit often to share stories of your successes and ideas on what works best when doing TNR. I'm glad you're here!