What would you do?

Today I had to make a very hard decision to take a ferral female cat to the animal shelter. I have 4 cats, I am caring for 4 kittens from this ferral cat (2 which I finally was able to get to after trapping mom) and I have a 1year old and 2 elementary aged girls. I work full time and live in a suburban neighborhood. I wanted to care for this momma but she will not let me. She would only eat from a bowl about 15 feet away. For the health and safety of my children and my other cats and the kittens I decided to take mom in so that I could provide proper care for everyone else. I am devestated. What would you do?

I think you did the right thing (but I hope you took her to a no kill shelter). If the health and safety of your children were at risk there is nothing else you could have done. By taking her to a shelter you made it so that she can no longer keep producing litter upon litter of feral cats. You could have got her spayed but that wouldn't solve the health and safety issues. So, given your situation I would have done the same thing.

Well, I am definitely in favor of TNR whenever possible, so I would most likely have had her spayed & shots given, then released her. However, since you mentioned health and safety, if the cat was agressive or in serious peril of being in traffic, or threatened by neighbors, then, yes, I would have surrendered her, too. I'm not that convince that a feral cat is arbitrarily a health or safety issue to children, since my children were raised to leave strange cats & dogs alone, period. What's done is done, and you may very well have saved this cat from a fate worse than death. As it is, you have already stopped an unfortunate cycle of homeless kitties, besides giving her babies a much-needed chance for a better life. We'd love to save them all but unfortunately we can't. And you should give yourself a big hug for sacrificing your valuable time & resources for helping out all these cats that came into your life. If only more others were as willing (sigh).

Originally Posted by JenniferSHahn

Today I had to make a very hard decision to take a ferral female cat to the animal shelter. I have 4 cats, I am caring for 4 kittens from this ferral cat (2 which I finally was able to get to after trapping mom) and I have a 1year old and 2 elementary aged girls. I work full time and live in a suburban neighborhood. I wanted to care for this momma but she will not let me. She would only eat from a bowl about 15 feet away. For the health and safety of my children and my other cats and the kittens I decided to take mom in so that I could provide proper care for everyone else. I am devestated. What would you do?

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I would have had her spayed and returned her back outdoors. By dropping her off at the shelter, chances are she will be euthanized. Most shelters do not have the resources or time to try to work with feral cats so they simply hold them the manditory amount of time and then euthanize them. I doubt if you had had her spayed and returned her outdoors that she would have caused either your children or your other cats any issues(you had even stated she would only eat 15 feet away). I understand your concerns..but I would have handled it differently.

BTW...I do hope you had the kittens checked out by a vet before you introduced them to your kids or your other cats.

Katie

About the Solution to Feline Overpopulation: TNR
TNR is a comprehensive plan where entire feral colonies are humanely trapped, then evaluated, vaccinated, and neutered by veterinarians. Kittens and cats that are tame enough to be adopted are placed in good homes. Adult cats are returned to their familiar habitat to live out their lives under the watchful care of sympathetic neighborhood volunteers.

TNR works. Cat populations are gradually reduced. Nuisance behaviors associated with breeding, such as the yowling of females or the spraying of toms, are virtually eliminated. Disease and malnutrition are greatly reduced. The cats live healthy, safe, and peaceful lives in their territories.

I agree with Katie. It sounds like you wish you'd had a better option, unfortunately I think you didn't know about TNR.

Based on what was described, I'd say you made a reasonable decision and were behaving very responsibly.

There are always people who will go further, but sometimes there are other obligations to consider and it is not fair to neglect our primary responsibilites chasing down every last "what if". I would rather see someone stay within themselves than over-extend and default on their lofty promises.

I am sorry you had to give up on this girl. I live in the country, so I could always put one more outside. But you need to stay focussed on helping the kittens you have left.

As TNR said, you can spay and release back outside, but of course that assumes there is a fairly safe area for her to go to. But you did stop the endless reproduction of this girl, and are giving her babies a safe life.

Please forgive yourself for not being able to save them all. I have a feral girl in my barn who I adopted as a spayed feral. She was injured over a week ago, and I haven't seen her since. Just because you give them a fairly safe area, doesn't mean they stay safe. And as she is feral, I had no way of catching her to help her. I will continue to do what I can for the cats I have, and continue to hope to see the feral (Peaches), but if she passes, at least I gave her one safe winter outside. As you gave your girl a warm home, and plenty of food. And safety for her kits. You should be proud of yourself!

I think based on your situation you did the only thing you thought you could to save this cat. Hopefully the shelter won't euthanize the mom, but if she was going to live outdoors and not be spayed, her life would be shortened anyway. That is cruel to say but it is true. Others, such as myself would do differently, but only because some of us have been doing this a very long time, and by trial and error understand now what works. Had she been in my backyard, I would have trapped her, gotten her spayed and tried to find her a place in someone's barn where she could live out her life. But again, not everyone knows what to do with stray cats with heavy feral tendencies. They are a challenge to socialize and the only reason they are aggressive is because they have to be, otherwise they would die. People do rotten things to cats living outdoors-