I'd like some advice from the feral experts about the stray/feral cats on my property, and one cat in particular.
There are multiple ferals which frequently pass through my large backyard, and a few litters of kittens are born each year. There is a large, probably 150-200 unit, apartment complex built behind my back fence on what used to be a forest (circa 2002), and a 30-50 unit condominium complex on the other side of the fence on what used to be an open field (circa 2005). With that many transient tenants, the stray/feral cat population is never ending.
I have no interest, nor the finances, in managing a feral colony on my property. To some extent, they are preventing me from vegetable gardening because of finding cat poop in the tilled soil. Cat poop may be natural and organic, but it's not the kind of organic I want to grow vegetables in. That makes them nuisance animals. I'm not sure there is a long-term solution since there are always going to beidiots people who believe in letting their cats roam but don't believe in spaying/neutering (or the cats just get lost when people are moving in or out). I'd appreciate any ideas, but over the last multiple years, have just pretty much accepted roaming cats as a given.
The other question is that there is this one cat who sits in my yard and watches me play fetch with my dog. It sits in the shadows and watches when I take my senior cat out for a few minutes of sunshine, and I see the cat sitting outside the bedroom window looking at the feral kitten we trapped in my office warehouse in January and I adopted early February. Essentially this one cat seems tamer than the all the other cats who run and scatter. It does run if I approach it.
The only attraction to my yard I can figure is that I keep a 5 gallon bucket of rainwater for the one planter I keep. I've seen this tamer cat drinking from it, but none of the other ferals are brave enough (at least not during the day).
Sorry for the long story, but I'm considering trapping this one friendlier feral and having it spayed/neutered and vaccinated. I'd be happy to feed this one cat as an outdoor kitty, but I do not want to feed the entire colony of community cats. Should I do that, or just leave things as they are?
Any advice would be appreciated.
There are multiple ferals which frequently pass through my large backyard, and a few litters of kittens are born each year. There is a large, probably 150-200 unit, apartment complex built behind my back fence on what used to be a forest (circa 2002), and a 30-50 unit condominium complex on the other side of the fence on what used to be an open field (circa 2005). With that many transient tenants, the stray/feral cat population is never ending.
I have no interest, nor the finances, in managing a feral colony on my property. To some extent, they are preventing me from vegetable gardening because of finding cat poop in the tilled soil. Cat poop may be natural and organic, but it's not the kind of organic I want to grow vegetables in. That makes them nuisance animals. I'm not sure there is a long-term solution since there are always going to be
The other question is that there is this one cat who sits in my yard and watches me play fetch with my dog. It sits in the shadows and watches when I take my senior cat out for a few minutes of sunshine, and I see the cat sitting outside the bedroom window looking at the feral kitten we trapped in my office warehouse in January and I adopted early February. Essentially this one cat seems tamer than the all the other cats who run and scatter. It does run if I approach it.
The only attraction to my yard I can figure is that I keep a 5 gallon bucket of rainwater for the one planter I keep. I've seen this tamer cat drinking from it, but none of the other ferals are brave enough (at least not during the day).
Sorry for the long story, but I'm considering trapping this one friendlier feral and having it spayed/neutered and vaccinated. I'd be happy to feed this one cat as an outdoor kitty, but I do not want to feed the entire colony of community cats. Should I do that, or just leave things as they are?
Any advice would be appreciated.