Feral Cat Colonies

To make a long story short, I recently discovered a feral cat colony near my home. I've rescued and rehomed most of them, which strays from the norm. Most animal rescuers, trap, spay/neuter/vaccinate, and RELEASE the cat back where they found it.

If you live on a farm, where there are barns for shelter, food and water is plentiful, than this is fine. However, the above is rare and most stray, feral, or discarded cats are starving, sick, flea ridden, etc. with no regular access to food, water, or shelter. We have yet to rescue a healthy homeless cat. They've all had ear mites and fleas. And if that's all they have, we're doing great. But most of them have worms from eating your garbage on trash night. Several of them have had colds. And tragically, some have had Feline Aids.

Yes, it is easier to release them. Then you don't have to foster them, socialize them (most come in with ATTITUDES), feed them etc. It's our position that releasing a cat back into homelessness is not the humane thing to do. Sadly, it seems more humane to euthanize a cat that is unable to adapt to indoor living with people than to put it out and render it homeless and desperate again. Imagine how it must be to have to regular access to food, water, sheleter, and vet care (when hurt especially).

Our HANDS ON statistics tell us that homeless cats, whether feral or stray- feral cats are born in the wild; stray cats once lived amongst people but were discarded - want homes and crave some level of human companionship. EVEN if that human companionship just means you providing food, water, and shelter; they need us, after all it is US that domesticated them!

You can call places like Critter Control, but they do charge, so if you afford hiring someone to trap, spay/neuter feral cats, hiring experiences animal workers is recommended.

However, many people can't afford to hire animal rescue organizations to trap the cats considering the trapper is financially responsible for spaying/neutering, and vaccinating the cats once HUMANELY TRAPPED. HOWEVER, THIS IS AFFORABLE through local government based animal rescue organizations.

If you live in Cuyahoga County, your options are limited. I decided to take matters into my own hands and purchased a HavAHeart trap at Home Depot. The trap cost approximately $50 and is far cheaper than renting one from an animal rescue orgnanization.

Big Boy is our poster child. We found him living alone under a car near one of our rescuers garage. She started leaving it open and placed a cat bed inside for him to sleep in.He made us work hard to catch him, he was our pet stray for sure. He was sweet, came close, although he never did let us pet him (we didn't have enough time with him).

We were thrilled after we caught him! We couldn't wait to place him with a loving family. We knew he was meant to be a pet. However, when taken to the vet, Big Boy not only had fleas and ear mites, most of his teeth were absessed. He tested positive for feline aids and his immune system was already shutting down. So I'm sorry folks, this whole idea about trap, neuter, and release isn't as humane as people crack it up to be.

They're almost better off euthanized.

Need help managing a feral cat colony?

Check out the useful information we've compiled for you!

This is Pookey (above). She's a long haired Calico who was born in the wild, therefore considered feral. She wasn't rescued until she was 6 months old and has well adapted to her new lease on life indoors.

Humanely trapping feral cats

Building Warm Shelters for Feral Cats

Here are some links to pages I've found incredibly helpful for building EASY outdoor shelters for feral cats.

How to take care of an outdoor cat in the winter

Urban Cat League

YOU CAN FIND HOMES if you try! Use Craig's List, Flyers, the Newspaper. Where there's a WILL there's A WAY...