Moving & don't want to leave feral cats behind

[lenag3]

Hi there,

I am in the Bay area (East San Jose to be exact) and I have been feeding feral cats in the neighborhood for a few months now. I will be moving out soon but I was hoping to trap and neuter these cats and possibly adopt them out if possible. I have been calling the humane society and other animal care centers nearby but all of them are swamped and unwilling to help if it involves adult feral cats. Should I try to trap them myself and socialize them as much as possible before I leave? I am no animal care expert so I am very hesitant to do this but I really don't want to abandon them and just hope for the best. I really don't want to cause unnecessary stress to the animals either so I am starting to lose hope all of this will lead to a happy ending...

 

[daftcat75]

Can you post to NextDoor? It is possible that you are not the only one feeding these cats. Or you may be able to find someone in your neighborhood who can take over the feedings.

Adult ferals can take years to socialize. In the meantime, they can be miserable and terrified as indoor cats. And there are always other cats who can be socialized and adopted. Trying to socialize a feral takes time and resources away from these cats. As sad as it is, adult ferals are better off remaining where they are.

If there are kittens, they might be young enough to socialize. Just make certain they aren't too young to be separated from mother. You can contact Adopt a Cat or Kitten San Jose | 13th Street Cat Rescue | 13thstcats.org or Gatos de la Noche/Cats of the Night for help with trapping them and getting them to a rescue where they can find fosters. You may also consider TNR'ing (trap neuter release) the adults you can catch so they don't continue to add to the colony. Feral cats who have already been TNR'ed will have the tip of an ear cut off as any easy way to recognize they don't need to be TNR'ed again.

 

[fionasmom]

Feral Friends Network® Connect

Alley Cat Allies has a Feral Friends Network nationwide where you can post and ask for help or advice. It is very quick to do and worth a try. I do have to add a disclaimer that sometimes people get help and sometimes they never get a response but in your position I would give it a try.

A lot depends on the sociability level of these cats. If you are talking about ferals who have no interest in human contact, as a couple of "mine" do not, you can't realistically hope to adopt them. If they are friendly, approach you, allow touching, you may be able to work with some of them to get them off the streets. Nextdoor is a great resource locally.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Hi there,

I am in the Bay area (East San Jose to be exact) and I have been feeding feral cats in the neighborhood for a few months now. I will be moving out soon but I was hoping to trap and neuter these cats and possibly adopt them out if possible. I have been calling the humane society and other animal care centers nearby but all of them are swamped and unwilling to help if it involves adult feral cats. Should I try to trap them myself and socialize them as much as possible before I leave? I am no animal care expert so I am very hesitant to do this but I really don't want to abandon them and just hope for the best. I really don't want to cause unnecessary stress to the animals either so I am starting to lose hope all of this will lead to a happy ending...

Hello L lenag3 and welcome to TCS! THANK YOU for caring about these cats and trying to help them. The suggestions already given are excellent, and I would just add bestfriends.org as another source to look at for possible help, as well as animalrescuedirectory.net, where you can choose entities in your area to contact. The fact is that during this pandemic, a lot of services that would ordinarily be available are overwhelmed and/or closed and we are in the middle of "kitten season" which in CA runs basically all year round, but is more pronounced in spring and summer. People are on months-long wait lists to get their own cats spayed/neutered! but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Also, if you're on facebook you can search using their search engine for groups/rescuers in your area; google and/or bing can also turn up leads.
Some experts believe that truly feral cats are best NOT fed by humans, because they will catch wild prey (chiefly small rodents, insects, and occasionally birds, but contrary to cat-hating bird fanatics' disinformation, birds are NOT cats' main prey and healthy birds generally escape cats. It's the old, sick weak, and babies who don't, which means cats are actually doing their natural service to keep bird populations healthy) and not depend on human feeding which may be inconsistent. Truly feral cats are not often seen by most people as they are afraid, rightly so, of humans and tend to feed at dawn and dusk, staying hidden from humans. Of course our instinct as caring people is to want to feed them. I can't tell you what to do in this instance, but I would say that if you are willing and able to get them neutered, you would be doing them, and the community, a great service.

 

[Whenallhellbreakslose]

I can really relate to your thread. I was on a block with 2 other cat feeders, one move away less than 2 years ago and the other said she take on her cats, but eventual they were all dumped on me! This feeder seems to be pushing more cats my way and I had a huge falling out with her last year because she kept lying to me. Right before that happened, I tried to find a place for some of them at the request of her husband and had a place lined up where the person running it was going to waive his fee. The other feeder went berserk over that. She is a bully and a hoarder who thinks it is okay to dump cats on others. The fact is I may have to move in the near future, so I am going to have to start looking again. I would not be surprised if this lady moves away before I do and dumps ALL her cats on me. I have been having bad feelings lately about this.

First thing first, it is best to get those cats tnred right away. It will increase any chance you have of finding help(Cat Caretakers do not want to inherit a cat colony that is not tnred and stabilized) Then check around your neighborhood to see if their are reliable Cat Caretakers who could take on these ferals. The Next Door App was previously mentioned, you can also look at FB TNR/Cat Care taker Groups and also Rescue Groups. Also, do check out the Ally Cat Allies Feral Friends Network that another member mentioned to you. Relocating a colony is a LAST resort option, so you want to look for a care taker who is reliable and very dedicated to helping cats. If I wasn't around, the cats on my block might have fared out poorly. The other cat feeder is feeding too many and cats would have slipped through the cracks, no doubt! So get the most reliable person you can and you may want to buy cat food for them, at less for a while. Please consider finding homes for the friendly ferals if there are any. Please contact No Kills and Rescue workers for help. Do not go with any kill shelter (E.G Animal Control). The more you get your perdictament out there, the better ( But please keep your exact location a secret until you find decent, reliable people.) As mentioned before, colony relocation is the last option, but if the cats lives were in danger or there was a legal mandate to relocate-- that is when most Care takers relocate their colony. Transferring cats to another colony is one such option. It will require that the cat be placed in a crate outside in the day for 3 weeks to get use to the new enviroment and the cats in that colony. This is important to do because cats get stressed in new environments and wind up running away or get in a bad conflict with the other cats. The more expensive options are Barn Programs and Animal Sactuaries. Barn programs uses Rescue organizations to place feral cats in barns in the country. The cats become working cats( for pest control) and get fed by the farmers. There is usually a life time fee for placement and that could be $300 and up per cat. Animal Sactuaries cost a lot of money to run and because of that-- fees can be easily be in the range of $3,000-5000 per cat as a life time placement fee. This is out of reach for most people. People have placed pet cats that they can not take care of any longer in these Animal Sactuaries. It is very expensive as you can see.

Well, I listed everything I could think of. Your best bet is finding another cat care taker who can come to your area and feed the cats daily. True Cat Care takers are very dedicated people. I have come across quite a few who when they moved, they took their cats with them. But realistically speaking, not many of us can do this. I wouldn't be able to do that, that's for sure.

I hope you find some help soon. I know you want to do the best you can for your colony cats. Hang in there.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Just remember that the bottom line should ALWAYS be care of and for the CATS. Only people who truly care should be considered.
bestfriends.org is an organization that does barn and working cat placement. You may want to contact them. They have a lot of links and fact sheets that may help.