Coyotes aren't the only threat

This story is going to be hard to tell, and difficult to read for some. I will not fill in any details. I told the member who shared this story that it should be repeated here in the forums to stand as a warning for anyone who has a litter of kittens and a mom cat outside. Many of you know that I have inside/outside cats. But anytime there is a pregnant mom-cat or a litter of kittens regardless of how they will behave inside, they are captured and placed inside. And this is one of the reasons why:

The cat showed up a few weeks ago, looking very pregnant. The person started feeding the mom cat, and she went under the house where she had her kittens. Not understanding the risks of keeping a litter of kittens outside, the person allowed her just to be under the house, continuing to feed her and trying to bond with her so when the kittens were weaned the cat could be spayed.

Yesterday morning as the person was backing out of the driveway, there were two dogs in the yard- a shepherd mix and lab mix owned by a neighbor and hardly ever out of their yard. Tippi the mom cat came out from under the house, just watching. The person drove off to work.

When he got home, he saw a battle zone in his front yard, blood everywhere. No sign of the momcat. He scrambled under the house found no kittens just bloody pawprints.

This is a story I unfortunately hear all the time. By the time I do hear it, the people are full of regret that they didn't bring the family into some sort of sheltered envirionment. Please understand that if you have a pregnant female or a litter outside, they are exposed to so much risk. More than you would ever even think about or want to. Even a pair of companion animals that just seemed to be out for a morning sniff.

That was hard to read....but very important to know about.

Katie

I can't tell you how many "friendly pets" turn out to be the ones involved in animal attacks. We recently prosecuted a repeat offender whose pets have a history of attacking and killing other pets. The most recent was an 18 year old cat sunning himself on his front porch. The two dogs played tug of war. I hope to put the owner in JAIL! Her attitude was that animal control was picking on her and the cat shouldn't have been outside. No issue with the fact that her dogs were 4 blocks from home and have done it before. Her kid went after us with a baseball bat. Nice stable family environment. These situations can cause neighbors and friends to part ways under the worst of circumstances and it is a tragedy when any animal suffers regardless of the cause. I hope that others heed the warning and do their best to bring the pets into their homes and not just their hearts.

Go get 'em, Mark. I have no sympathy for callous people.

I often have to remind myself that it's [us] compassionate "bleeding hearts" who are the "last line of defense" against a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering in this world. People who are callous, apathetic or cruel seem to occasionally get the upper hand. Whenever I talk to people about ferals, many of them seem to say, "why get involved?" Because going out of your way to stand up to someone or round-up those kittens, keeping an eye on their welfare, makes an instant difference.

I haven't ever actively encouraged people to bring pregnant feral strays inside and that will change! We live in a rural area that doesn't have a dog (or coyote) problem, and I tend to forget that cars and coyotes aren't the only threats. What tragic and horrible stories.

What a terrible tragedy to happen. It is unbearable to think about, but it is good that there is something we can do about it. Sometimes there are feral cats about and we don't even know they exist. It wasn't until I started feeding a feral tom cat, trying to seduce him so that I could capture him that I discovered another feral was coming round at about 3am in the morning. We don't of course have coyotes in the UK, but we do have dogs and I have a lot of foxes around where I live. I believe foxes will avoid cats if they are strong and healthy, but they attack the feeble and the kittens. Once at 3am in the morning when I was trying to lure this tom cat I noticed a young kitten but it was too quick for me to catch, and I have never seen it since. I thought perhaps there must be a she cat around, although I have never seen her, and probably hiding if very timid until the middle of the night. I have a large garage that is empty, so I put some cardboard boxes, a bench, an empty book shelf and a draw in there. There is a very small window that has no glass in and I haven't had it fixed because I feel it is somewhere for the cats to go during the day/night to be safe. It isn't big enough for a fox to get through and a dog couldn't reach it. I will start checking it out during the day, to make sure there are no pregnant cats or kittens in there. If there are I will take them in.

OMG.That is so sad.Poor kitties.



This sort of reminds me of my conversation with my friend this morning.
She has a cat that had kittens about 4 weeks ago(yes,I did get her to agree to get her spayed as soon as babies are weaned) and they are under her doublewide.
I told her I was coming out to get the kittens out of there because for one,they would be wild and harder to adopt out, and she said there was no way to get to them,just a small place to get under.I said I would figure something out and asked her if she could keep the mom and babies inside at LEAST until kittens are weaned,fixed,and adopted and mom is fixed.No go.I asked "Well,if I come out and get them out of there can I take them and mom cat until babies are weaned so I can get them and get them fixed for you and find them homes?,and I will bring mom cat back home??"She said it was fine with her.
Soooooo,this weekend I am going on a kitten hunt.LOL.

I lost the feral mom of a litter last May to the neighbor's dogs. When she had her kittens off my front porch, we built what we thought was a dog proof shelter over them. A large wooden box weighted down with cinderblocks and an opening that had twists and turns so a cat could come and go but dogs couldn't get in. The mom was obviously caught outside the box and while we did not have the blood that MA described in the other story, there was enough evidence to understand what happened to her. Her 4 kittens were 10 days old at the time and needless to say, Muddy, Koko, Jake and Elwood have great homes now.

We have been successful over the years with building cat shelters for feral moms, but this was an awakening to us. Thankfully no kittens at our house this year, but I will rethink our approach real hard if we have them in the future. It all goes back to: spay / neuter - it saves lives.