It's great that you were finally able to spay her. I hope you can do the same for the new kitten.
Badge awarded.
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Friend of Ferals Award Badge - Apply Here
- Thread starter Anne
- Start Date
Badge awarded.
Hi.
Last year around Valentine's Day Cally was born to a stray cat down the street in this elder disabled lady's shed. With a good heart and meaning well she let these kids take her for a pet. She was to young for that. After the kitten started loosing her little baby look the kids gave her to a very simple minded man. He mistreated her then dumped her across the street. She turned feral but made friends with our little old dog. He brought her to us. She was SKINNY. It took time but I won her over. She is spayed and is now my house cat. Soon after a stray beautiful orange and white tabby showed up. He was dirty, stinky, but friendly. Well he is clean, smells good, and is neutered. He is also a house cat. Smokey is black and gray. She is 100% feral. She lives under my carport. I have a house for her, litter box, and feeding station. I have no picture of her because, well I cannot get her to stay still for a pic. I have to be very relaxed, calm, + easy going around her. I cannot get close enough to touch her. I love these cats. All three.
Last year around Valentine's Day Cally was born to a stray cat down the street in this elder disabled lady's shed. With a good heart and meaning well she let these kids take her for a pet. She was to young for that. After the kitten started loosing her little baby look the kids gave her to a very simple minded man. He mistreated her then dumped her across the street. She turned feral but made friends with our little old dog. He brought her to us. She was SKINNY. It took time but I won her over. She is spayed and is now my house cat. Soon after a stray beautiful orange and white tabby showed up. He was dirty, stinky, but friendly. Well he is clean, smells good, and is neutered. He is also a house cat. Smokey is black and gray. She is 100% feral. She lives under my carport. I have a house for her, litter box, and feeding station. I have no picture of her because, well I cannot get her to stay still for a pic. I have to be very relaxed, calm, + easy going around her. I cannot get close enough to touch her. I love these cats. All three.
All three are so lucky to have found a home with you! Has Smokey been spayed? You can't pick her up and put her in a carrier, obviously, but you should be able to rent or borrow a trap from a local shelter or rescue.
Badge awarded!
Badge awarded!
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I care for a backyard colony of around 20 cats. I also feed neizghborhoood strays and larticipate in TNR and rescuee. At any given time I usually have about 12 rescues in my house up for adoption. Of course during kitten season that number goes up. I also recover hundreds of cats after they are spayed in the summer and Ive helped relocate two colonies that were in bad situations. I am currently working on relocating a colony of 12 after their feeder oassed and the family called the shelter to have them pick them up and eventually euthanized. I have the womans 16 year old cat. I am aslo working on an abandonment situation of 8 cats and four kittens. I have found homes for most but there is still one or two out there.
I am a newbie to the world of cats....one fine day a female feral showed up at my yard crying for food.. and then it was like she adopted me.. she was the sweetest thing I have known...and in India cats are not even considered pets in general and there is a bad omen about them... feral cats live neglected lives here... after meeting her... I have taken her kittens in and will not stop at this... they deserve better...
Hi Scooping4life.
You are a wonderful candidate for a Friends of Ferals badge.
Thank you for sharing your story, and badge awarded, of course.
I can see from your threads that you've been spaying as well, which is essential when looking after ferals and strays.
You're doing a wonderful job looking after these kitties, especially when cats are not as accepted as readily as in some other places... Badge awarded of course.
A couple people have suggested I apply for this and now that it looks like we'll be caring for 5 strays/ferals I figured why not. We've taken 3 into our home officially, feeding and a 'rest stop' for a 4th feral, and as of this morning will be looking to take a 5th into our home in some capacity that he'll determine. We are now also feeding the ferals outside and looking into becoming a registered TNR colony in a couple of months. All the gory details are here http://www.thecatsite.com/forum/newestpost/314008
I second @JMJimmy's application. He's done a superb job of caring for a number of ferals.
I never set out to help ferals, but I always had a love for cats and one day I ended up taking in a cat and her two newborn kittens. My mother used to work at a car recycling plant and they had a colony of ferals who roamed the warehouse. Two cats ventured out further and became office cats, but were still adverse to human contact. Long story short, a man in the warehouse noticed one of the office cats was hiding in a large dumpster-like bin filled with packaging foam and with her were two small kittens. The cats were right next to heavy machinery, toxins, and loud noise so my mom decided to take the three home to give them a fighting chance. I named the cat Calico, because of her coat, but the nickname Callie is what stuck and is still her name today. The cats stayed in my room away from our resident animals and it was tough because mama cat did not like being confined in with a human. I gave her time and space, while monitoring from afar to make sure the kittens were growing steadily. I had spent hours researching what and what not to do with ferals (it is how I first learned about the feral cat world) and young kittens. Soon the kittens were crawling, walking, and climbing all over. At night they would curl up behind my legs while mom slept by my feet. Eventually Callie let me pet her and pick her up for short periods. When the time came, her female kitten, Madeline, was adopted to a family friend, Callie went to my neighbor who's cat had passed recently, but her other kitten, Michael, got hurt trying to climb a baby gate. We rushed him to the clinic, but were told that unless we were going to keep him that we would have to relinquish rights to knowing what happened to him. After three years I just found out that he was only in shock and was adopted out quickly after he recovered. I took in a feral for two and a half months and managed to survive. I called them "the fosters" because my goal from day one was to find them all a home. This experience led me to educated others who had unneutered animals and give a few speeches at my college about the importance of controlling the pet population.
Three years after I said goodbye to my fosters, I found a young kitten in my backyard. We have a handful of cats that roam my neighborhood and my family has given each names in order to tell them apart. A russian blue named Lancelot, black and white scavenger named Snowball, the fluffy black one named Midnight, and finally the small tabby named Peaches. The little kitten was hiding behind Lancelot when I first saw her, but she frightened and bolted. Three months later the little tabby showed back up in my backyard and wouldn't budge. At that point I estimated her to be six months old and she fascinated me because she was the spitting image of my mature resident cat, Kitten. I got attached to Peaches and started feeding her food, she was at my door everyday. I would sit outside with her as she ate and eventually she let me sit within a few inches of her. It went well, but then winter came. I was shoveling one night and saw something in the middle of the road. I got quiet and she came running towards me crying, her paws were frozen over with ice. I let her inside and baby gated her of from the rest of the house, gave her food, water, a litterbox, and left her be. I knew I couldn't take her in as my own because my resident cat is aggressive towards other female cats, but my shelters kill feral cats. I was going to TNR but she got out after a few days and I left it be. The snow resided and I thought I was done, but she came back a few weeks later and came back inside. My plan was to socialize her until I could find a family or a shelter that would give her a chance, but after four weeks I noticed her belly had grown. I started looking into spaying her, but she broke out of the carrier I put her in to take her to the vet. She gave birth shortly after. I was stressed out about having five new fosters to care for, but the day after the kittens were born we had a terrible storm that I know they wouldn't have survived. Now I am caring for mama and four kittens. She lets me hold them and feed her treats by hand, but she still isn't as socialized as I would like.
I never set out to foster ferals, but somewhere along the line they found me. I know I didn't do things like the book, but if I hadn't stepped in then Callie's kittens probably would have been crushed by machinery. Callie, Michael, and Maddy all found loving homes. Now I am faced with something similar, but much more challenging; Peaches, Dublin, Havana, London, and Paris.
Three years after I said goodbye to my fosters, I found a young kitten in my backyard. We have a handful of cats that roam my neighborhood and my family has given each names in order to tell them apart. A russian blue named Lancelot, black and white scavenger named Snowball, the fluffy black one named Midnight, and finally the small tabby named Peaches. The little kitten was hiding behind Lancelot when I first saw her, but she frightened and bolted. Three months later the little tabby showed back up in my backyard and wouldn't budge. At that point I estimated her to be six months old and she fascinated me because she was the spitting image of my mature resident cat, Kitten. I got attached to Peaches and started feeding her food, she was at my door everyday. I would sit outside with her as she ate and eventually she let me sit within a few inches of her. It went well, but then winter came. I was shoveling one night and saw something in the middle of the road. I got quiet and she came running towards me crying, her paws were frozen over with ice. I let her inside and baby gated her of from the rest of the house, gave her food, water, a litterbox, and left her be. I knew I couldn't take her in as my own because my resident cat is aggressive towards other female cats, but my shelters kill feral cats. I was going to TNR but she got out after a few days and I left it be. The snow resided and I thought I was done, but she came back a few weeks later and came back inside. My plan was to socialize her until I could find a family or a shelter that would give her a chance, but after four weeks I noticed her belly had grown. I started looking into spaying her, but she broke out of the carrier I put her in to take her to the vet. She gave birth shortly after. I was stressed out about having five new fosters to care for, but the day after the kittens were born we had a terrible storm that I know they wouldn't have survived. Now I am caring for mama and four kittens. She lets me hold them and feed her treats by hand, but she still isn't as socialized as I would like.
I never set out to foster ferals, but somewhere along the line they found me. I know I didn't do things like the book, but if I hadn't stepped in then Callie's kittens probably would have been crushed by machinery. Callie, Michael, and Maddy all found loving homes. Now I am faced with something similar, but much more challenging; Peaches, Dublin, Havana, London, and Paris.
My first experience of feral cats was when I was a kid. A tuxedo DSH turned up at the house (one in a long line of hopefuls...We had six cats - seven briefly but the best we could do for him was pts after a week - and we only went and chose two of them!). Mum started feeding him and he eventually turned into a lovely indoor/outdoor cat. I have to say that my abiding memory of him is one of being trapped at the top of the stairs because I didn't dare step over him and he wasn't going anywhere!
I joined this site to get advice about catching a semi feral cat who appeared at the yard where I keep my pony. She's a beautiful tabby and white DSH, fully grown and very healthy looking. We've been feeding her since before Christmas, and we were asked to remove her approximately three and a half weeks ago. She acts as though she has had some previous human contact...she'll show herself in the daytime (her favourite sleeping place is on top of some hay bales at the back of one of the barns) and shes very vocal once she starts to trust you (the meows turned to hisses after I screwed things up). I've had a few setbacks (my fault for rushing things
),but I'm going to keep on trying. Since I've been asked to remove the cat from the yard, the plan is to spay her and re-home her with a friend who has previously had three ferals. I was initally wondering about taking her on myself, but my home set up isn't suitable and my friend will be able to give her a happier life than I can.
During this process, another cat appeared. She was much smaller. Initially I though she must've been the daughter of the older one, but I seriously doubt that now. I began to be really worried about her when I realised that the older girl wasn't allowing her to eat. She was confined to some cellars under the barn, using moulding grain as hedr bed and another pile for her litter box. Knowing that there was poison down, I was really concerned that she might end up eating a poisoned rat or mouse. She was much more trusting than the other cat...though I really think desperation and extreme hunger made her bold. She seems to be a bombay or a burmese mix and, if I'm right, that may also explain her trust of me. when I first met her, she crept up from the cellar after lots of crying and ate ravenously. She moved like a feral...furtively and low to the ground...but was far more scared of the other cat than she was of me. My mother thinks she saw fleeting glimpses of her before Christmas, but sat that point she wasn't prepared to expose herself to people.
Anyway...after three days of feeding, I was determined to get her as soon as I could. I went down with a cat carrier for her (one that didn't have the scent of the older cat all over it!) and she appeared almost as soon as I arrived. She was trusting enough to eat out of my fingers, but she was too clever to follow a food trail into the carrier. Desperate, I put on thick sheepskin gloves to protect myself and grabbed her while she was eating. She was very surprised, but I got her into the cat carrier before she cottoned on, and I had her
We went straight to the vet. A nurse examined her, and I realised how right I'd been to get her out of there. She was half the weight she should be, had multiple old bites on one paw and bad bruising all the way up the same leg, ending in two lumps, each 4mm-6mm across. It was initally thought that she was in the early stages of pregnancy, but the 'babies' turned out to be her kidneys...she was that skinny. She was admitted overnight for tests and treatment (FIV, FeLV, worming, de-fleaing, spaying...but she wasnt well enough for that so they left it for the time being...and sorting out and fully assessing the extent of her injuries). Little girl, Asha, is now home with me and doing well. Being younger (she was aged at between 9 months and a year old), she'll adapt better to being an indoor cat, and she's less likely to be a threat to my old british shorthair (she'll also, hopefully, adapt better to living with two big dogs). Asha is doing well and is gaining confidence and trust by the day. one of her favourite sleeping places is now my lap or stomach! I've noticed that she's started grooming herself properly...I hadn't even realised she wasn't doing it until she started. I think she's very relieved to be somewhere safe and warm. I'll never know her backstory or what happened to her. I wish she could tell me what had happened to her.
As I type this, I've realised that there's a third cat we look after who may count. Her name is Pushkin, and she's an elderly brown tabby DSH. She was at the yard when we moved there. Another livery told us a previous farm worker had brought her to the yard to control the rat and mouse population, and ha dthen moved on and left her. She wasn't fed for ages, and she used to break into the horse feed bins in desperation. Another girl was feeding her, but then she moved on and asked us to take over. We gave her her name, and she took up residence in my exmoor pony's stable. She loved that pony (who I still have btw)...she used to share her stable at night, used her bed as a litter box, and would even sit on the stable door and groom the pony's face!
Over the years, we've taken responsibility for her, including two major vet stays for injuries...one from another cat and one from a horse treading on her (we did get the horse owner to contribute to that vet bill though!). As she's aged and got sicker (we're pretty sure she has some sort of thyroid condition...her frame is petite, but she's *huge* and definitely not overfed. No point testing as there's no way we'd get meds into her. She has a good quality of life, and we're keeping a close eye on her - ready to aid a peaceful end if need be), she's more or less moved into a room off the tack room. It's sheltered, little used and she has an old sofa with vetbed and cushions on it, two small upholstered chairs, a litter box and food and water. She's happy there, and comes out when the doors are open. Sometimes someone locks her out by mistake (we can't be there all the time and people are in and out all day. Most people are too preoccupied to bother whether Pushkin gets shut out all night or not),but we do our best to make she's shut in her room at the back before we go. She doesn't fully understand people. She hisses and growls at mum, even when she's feeding her. Pushkin generally has a purr for me, and will get on my lap from time to time. She'll even come to call for me like a dog! Very helpful if we're trying to get her back to her room for the night. She turns with no warning though...she'll be cuddly and purring one minute, and she suddenly flips into hissing and growling. I've had cats all my life, and I *do* know how to read the signs. It's weird. I think she must have had bad experiences as a kitten. So...that's my ferals story. I don't know if it counts as, at the most, these cats are semis and not true ferals. It would be an honour to have the badge. I really admire those of you who care for and work with colonies and true ferals.
You are a natural !
It takes a strong and loving heart to take them in and then, when the time comes, give them away to their forever homes. I've never met a Cat I didn't fall in love with, and I get very attached. Cats are my HEART. If I were to foster Cats routinely, I'd either have 100 of them - or I'd be a heart-broken wreck. :/ Fortunately, there are many ways to help ferals. I get MUCH joy from doing TNR. It's safe to fall in love with them, and I get to see them go from worn out, skinny, restless, and sometimes sick "Kitten machines" - to spayed/neutered, (de)-wormed, flea-treated, and more relaxed animals who show up for regular meals. <3 Also, with their ear tipped, there's much less chance that a neighbor might trap them and take them to the animal shelter. The universal symbol that tells people "this cat will not be having kittens or spreading disease - somebody is taking care of this one !" Of course, giving them to a loving forever home is first choice. I just LOVE hearing stories of other people who love Cats, and what they are doing to help them. Thank you and God Bless !
They do have a way of finding those who'll help! 
that your latest "batch" find homes. Badge awarded!
Back in 1987, I was living in Norfolk, Virginia in a one bedroom duplex. Everything seemed fine, overall, until I brought home a cat.
This one cat led to two, and they got along so well that I contemplated getting a third, but I decided not to. After all - it was a one bedroom duplex!
All of that changed when I noticed something...other cats. The neighborhood seemed to have a lot of them, and most of them didn't really look to be in good health.
These weren't ferals, at least not that I could tell, but just abandoned, lost, or otherwise homeless cats...and winter was fast approaching, with a forecast for a lot of cold, wet snow. So what to do about these poor babies? Simple...take them in.
I brought them inside, cleaned them, spayed them, neutered them, vaccinated them, took care of their fleas, their worms, and their whatever else. Most importantly, I gave them love.
Do you know what it's like to sleep through a cold winter's night with 17 cats curled up on top of you and purring? Who needs comforters?
I left it to them to choose whether they wanted to be primarily outdoor cats, indoor/outdoor, or come in and stay. Most chose indoor/outdoor. One chose primarily outdoor, and two took up permanent residence beneath my roof.
They all got along for the most part. Oh, there were a few challenges, a few skirmishes, and a few out-and-out brawls, but these were quickly dealt with and no one wound up with more than a scrape or a scratch (well, except for me...I still have scars to this day).
I took pictures and posted flyers but nobody came forth to claim a lost kitty. I was never looking for a reward - seeing this cat saved was reward enough.
When enough time had passed, I found loving homes for them all - except for one that I kept. He was skin & bones, covered in fleas, and incredibly skittish. I left him some food and shooed away the other cats so that they knew it wasn't theirs. He ate it, and eventually came back for more. Finally, he let me approach him, and in a very short time, he was purring and rubbing against me. It took only another couple of days before I could pick him up and bring him inside for care. It took almost a year, but he filled out very nicely, his coat was shiny and thick, and his eyes were completely clear. He was one of the very rare male calico cats in existence, and he wasn't neutered, and the vet almost begged me not to have him fixed. Sorry, but I don't run a kitty mill. He lived a happy, healthy life with me. even got a bit fat and lazy toward the end...he deserved it. He'd been through so much that who was I to tell him that he couldn't have that can of gooshy food because he was getting too heavy?
My Zoey today reminds me of him in some ways. It's the attitude. Free-spirited, aloof, loving, but always with that feral streak lurking just under the surface that reminds you where cats came from...the wild!
And it's only just a very small step to return there, isn't it?
There are feral cats along the lake where I work. Two people come out and feed them, groom them, and care for them. They've been doing this for years. It always makes me smile, seeing these beautiful cats being cared for by loving souls, and I've noticed something...at my marina, we have a rat problem in the summer and autumn months. We didn't have this problem until Animal Control started roaming the area, and we did use to have a feral colony along the rocks overlooking San Francisco Bay. We don't anymore...just rats.
We don't have rats at the lake.
Try telling a city that ferals can be a boon and they'll laugh at you. Try caring for them and you may wind up with a citation. They don't care about compassion. They only want the "alley cat problem" dealt with...and then they wonder why the rats come out at night...
This one cat led to two, and they got along so well that I contemplated getting a third, but I decided not to. After all - it was a one bedroom duplex!
All of that changed when I noticed something...other cats. The neighborhood seemed to have a lot of them, and most of them didn't really look to be in good health.
These weren't ferals, at least not that I could tell, but just abandoned, lost, or otherwise homeless cats...and winter was fast approaching, with a forecast for a lot of cold, wet snow. So what to do about these poor babies? Simple...take them in.
I brought them inside, cleaned them, spayed them, neutered them, vaccinated them, took care of their fleas, their worms, and their whatever else. Most importantly, I gave them love.
Do you know what it's like to sleep through a cold winter's night with 17 cats curled up on top of you and purring? Who needs comforters?
I left it to them to choose whether they wanted to be primarily outdoor cats, indoor/outdoor, or come in and stay. Most chose indoor/outdoor. One chose primarily outdoor, and two took up permanent residence beneath my roof.
They all got along for the most part. Oh, there were a few challenges, a few skirmishes, and a few out-and-out brawls, but these were quickly dealt with and no one wound up with more than a scrape or a scratch (well, except for me...I still have scars to this day).
I took pictures and posted flyers but nobody came forth to claim a lost kitty. I was never looking for a reward - seeing this cat saved was reward enough.
When enough time had passed, I found loving homes for them all - except for one that I kept. He was skin & bones, covered in fleas, and incredibly skittish. I left him some food and shooed away the other cats so that they knew it wasn't theirs. He ate it, and eventually came back for more. Finally, he let me approach him, and in a very short time, he was purring and rubbing against me. It took only another couple of days before I could pick him up and bring him inside for care. It took almost a year, but he filled out very nicely, his coat was shiny and thick, and his eyes were completely clear. He was one of the very rare male calico cats in existence, and he wasn't neutered, and the vet almost begged me not to have him fixed. Sorry, but I don't run a kitty mill. He lived a happy, healthy life with me. even got a bit fat and lazy toward the end...he deserved it. He'd been through so much that who was I to tell him that he couldn't have that can of gooshy food because he was getting too heavy?
My Zoey today reminds me of him in some ways. It's the attitude. Free-spirited, aloof, loving, but always with that feral streak lurking just under the surface that reminds you where cats came from...the wild!
And it's only just a very small step to return there, isn't it?
There are feral cats along the lake where I work. Two people come out and feed them, groom them, and care for them. They've been doing this for years. It always makes me smile, seeing these beautiful cats being cared for by loving souls, and I've noticed something...at my marina, we have a rat problem in the summer and autumn months. We didn't have this problem until Animal Control started roaming the area, and we did use to have a feral colony along the rocks overlooking San Francisco Bay. We don't anymore...just rats.
We don't have rats at the lake.
Try telling a city that ferals can be a boon and they'll laugh at you. Try caring for them and you may wind up with a citation. They don't care about compassion. They only want the "alley cat problem" dealt with...and then they wonder why the rats come out at night...
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My sister has a dilute tortie who's a male. I took him to the vet's office once, and all three vets had to take a closer look at him. :lol3:
There's the same lack of understanding and compassion for ferals around here. Our shelter has a resident feral colony of around 30 cats, and it's surprising how many people fear them, although they're in an enclosure.
Badge awarded!
There's the same lack of understanding and compassion for ferals around here. Our shelter has a resident feral colony of around 30 cats, and it's surprising how many people fear them, although they're in an enclosure.
Badge awarded!
Thank you, Tricia!
I've already begun plans to see just what happened to the feral colony over at Marina Park, and will hopefully be able to report some good news, but as I mentioned re: the Animal Control van patrolling around, it doesn't look promising. However, if I can find out what happened to said colony, and whether positive OR negative, bring this to light in the eye of the general public, maybe something good can come of it.
It looks like a little of my wife may have rubbed off on me. She was an investigative journalist with a law degree, and didn't know the meaning of the phrase, "Give it a rest."
I've already begun plans to see just what happened to the feral colony over at Marina Park, and will hopefully be able to report some good news, but as I mentioned re: the Animal Control van patrolling around, it doesn't look promising. However, if I can find out what happened to said colony, and whether positive OR negative, bring this to light in the eye of the general public, maybe something good can come of it.
It looks like a little of my wife may have rubbed off on me. She was an investigative journalist with a law degree, and didn't know the meaning of the phrase, "Give it a rest."
I started volunteering with a non-profit TNR group 11 months ago. The first month I started by helping to feed 3 colonies (a total of about 40 cats) on a daily basis, and I learned to trap ferals for TNR. The next month I took in my first foster feral kittens and had them successfully adopted out after being neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. Here I am a year later, and my husband has built a cat sanctuary in our yard that we have 7 adult ferals from a colony threatened to be killed (there were 14 that we were trying to rescue, we don't know the other 7's fate). We also have a "kittery" on our patio for raising foster kittens. I adopted 3 of my fosters that had food allergies and IBD, and have successfully adopted out as of this past Saturday, my 18th feral to tamed foster kitten in 11 months!!
Of course I have to thank my husband for all of his support, and my dogs for helping to socialize kittens with dogs, and my original 3 older cats for allowing this parade of strange kitties into their once quiet home!!
And thank you to the cat site for all of the great wealth of information!! Although I was a veterinary technician for 17 years previously, there is nothing better than real life experience for learning!!! I am the first to admit that with all of the knowledge that I acquired as a vet tech, I have dealt with only a handful of feral cats. In just 1 year of volunteering with this TNR group, I've learned more about ferals than all the years as a vet tech!
Of course I have to thank my husband for all of his support, and my dogs for helping to socialize kittens with dogs, and my original 3 older cats for allowing this parade of strange kitties into their once quiet home!!
And thank you to the cat site for all of the great wealth of information!! Although I was a veterinary technician for 17 years previously, there is nothing better than real life experience for learning!!! I am the first to admit that with all of the knowledge that I acquired as a vet tech, I have dealt with only a handful of feral cats. In just 1 year of volunteering with this TNR group, I've learned more about ferals than all the years as a vet tech!
