Apartment strays.

[k9canders]

Hello all.

I have a situation that I need your help and advice with. I have bee living in an apartment complex for about 9 months now. At the begging of the summer there was about 5 stray/feral cats. The apartments trapped and had 3 euthanized. The other two, grey friend and orange friend, have eluded all efforts to trap them. Grey friend is blind, and orange friend leads him around. They are bonded as far as I'm concerned. One other neighbor has lived here for about 8 years and says that both of the cats have been outside since he's lived here. Well the issue that I'm having is now its dropping into the 20's at night. They both sleep outside my front door and are up in the morning and night by the door waiting for food. However they will NOT even use the feral cat shelter I built them and my apartment have asked that I remove it. So what can I do for them. Should I put straw in the bushes? Should I just hope they can stay warm enough? How can I provide them with shelter and warmth?! Help!!!!

 

[wingwalker]

I am guessing, they have shelter somewhere. Maybe not a shelter made for that purpose, otherwise you or someone else would have spotted it. But they have some place to spend their nights, especially since they have been around for so many years. Maybe under a deck, in a colver, or in some other protected place.

Try to get them trapped yourself to avoid them getting killed by some morons.

Are you familiar with trap-feeding? Find a local rescue that can loan you a box trap or two. Depending on the mechanism, you either slide a rod across the open trap door to keep it open or if it is a Tru-Catch model, a bungee cord will hold the door open.

Then you start feeding in front of the trap. Move the food a little bit further each day. Once the food is all the way behind the trigger plate, you can set the trap. Just make sure you have a plan before you trap. Who is going to spay/neuter them? What are you going to do with them then? If they are really feral, they would need a barn home. If they are friendly with humans, they can be adopted. List the options, get information. At the same time get them used to eating in the trap.

If a box trap does not work at all, a drop trap is the next option, but it requires more time and effort because you have to bet there to trap, it´s a man-controlled trap.

Let me know if I can help any.