Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Feral Cat Efforts

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

24 Jan 2008 02:23 PM

At the cats only boarding facility, they welcome cats of all shapes and sizes. We get some "mostly outdoor" cats whose owners bring them in to stay when the weather is bad. We get some pampered princes and princesses who require daily brushing and like to eat from fancy dishes.

I know for sure that my coworkers are cat lovers. But more than that -- they really care about the welfare of cats. All cats. Even the feral ones. Every day, we take all the leftover cat food and empty it into a big dish. After each shift, somebody brings the feast out to the back of the building to leave it for the feral cats. That way, food isn't going to waste and hungry kitties aren't starving.

We currently have at least one feral cat living in the brush behind the parking lot. She's called Mama. Why? Because for a while, Mama was pumping out one litter after another and bringing her babies in to feast on our leftovers.

Long before I started working at the cats only boarding facility, they made an effort to catch Mama and her kittens. The kittens were spayed or neutered and rehomed. Mama herself was spayed and returned to her outside life. No more kittens! It's a small contribution, but if every veterinarian or boarding facility around the world spayed or neutered just ONE feral cat, we'd have a whole lot less overcrowding in our shelters.

Mama is a little more cautious after all that. When I go to bring the food out, she'll meow at me from cover of the brush. As soon as I retreat far enough from the dish, she'll come forward to eat. From what I can see, she's a cute little black, white, and orange calico. What Mama doesn't finish is left for the birds or the occasional raccoon or stray dog (yes, we see those, too).

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mcmama (51978) 24 Jan 2008 05:48 PM

This is such an important contribution. Spaying and neutering these adult animals, and adopting the kittens on the condition of spaying and neutering (or doing it at the shelter) is critical to eliminating the problem and improving their lives.

Feral kittens are very inbred - often the same male impregnating generations of females over and over. So as I know full well, there are some quirks that show up when the cute kittens become adults.