A very successful book sale!

On Saturday we had our second book/CD/DVD sale of the summer. We had one in June but we got rained out so since we still had a ton of books we decided to have another sale. Well, this Saturday the weather was beautiful, perfect for people strolling along Queen.

What a fantastic day we had. Lots of cat lovers buying books and many just giving a donation to help us out. Sandi's husband Robbin was a superb salesman.

Here I am on the left (with a cold) next to Sandi, Brenda and Tory. By the end of the day we had raised $740! Money we can put to good use getting the rest of our colony spayed and neutered. How lucky I am to be with this great group, all wanting to make the lives of cats better.

As well, on the weekend, I fed a friend's colony while she was away. Tess didn't care who was feeding, just as long as someone showed up. So there were a couple of days where I fed more than 30 cats. I guess that qualifies me for crazy cat lady status for sure.

A couple of days of rest and recuperation and then it's time to trap again. Watch out kittens, I'm coming for you!

Tortie Take Two

After last week's trapping I was left wondering whether the first tortie really was nursing. Aaffien and I set out Monday evening KFC in hand to see who we might get.

Well, within 15 minutes, guess who was in the trap, that same tortie. I just couldn't ignore fate, who knew if I would be able to trap her a third time, so off she went. She was spayed yesterday and had a tooth pulled. Seems she wasn't nursing after all.

I was so happy to get one of the females done, no more kittens for you, little Sophie.

Mo and Jo, you two are next on the list.
Jackson and Tina doing their dinner inspection. Friskies again?

Here's our beautiful Tina. I went to see Cat City last week at the Revue. Our cats are featured in it and I couldn't stop myself from shouting out proudly "Tina" when I saw her up on the big screen.

I've been feeling heartened lately by the generosity and helpfulness of all the cat lovers out there. We seem to have an arrangement with TCR that will allow us to pay less for spay/neuter thereby freeing up money to feed the cats and ensure that they are all fixed. There is a huge committment in taking care of these cats, both time and money. And we've secured a spot to trap cats in another area where we suspect there may be more cats but we've haven't been able to access that area up until now. My goal, perhaps ambitious, is to have 100% spay/neuter by the winter. You gotta have a goal, right?

Who doesn't love watching animals eat

My husband said the last two posts were kind of downers but I want this blog to reflect the reality of caring for a feral colony. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's frustrating, but ultimately satisfying knowing that I'm improving the lives of these cats.

Here's Hank being released after being neutered. After release, they may stay away for a day or two, but always come back to the food source.
Here's a shot of Queenie we took as we drove up.

I always feel happy when the cats eagerly eat their Friskies. I wonder what it is about people that makes us enjoy watching animals eat. Feeding time is the most popular time at the zoo. Maybe it makes us feel needed. Lily and Biff share a bowl. It's amazing how a large group of cats all co-exist.

This is Mo on the left, a new resident. The cats have accepted him and his sister Jo even though they came from another colony on the property.

And everyone loves kittens! This is Jo, I think she's about 3 1/2 to 4 months old now, got to get her spayed soon. A female can get pregnant as early as 6 months old.

Biff just staring at us.

Sometimes this is a lousy job

When I started taking care of these feral cats, I had no idea how many difficult moral/philisophical decisions I would have to make. I was awake at 5 a.m. this morning second guessing the choices I made last night.

I switched up my trapping strategy and went out after work instead of the morning and there were way more cats around. I set the trap with sardines and KFC and within minutes a very skinny tortieshell was trapped. A couple of weeks ago I saw one of the tortis very pregnant so I was concerned about catching a nursing mother. Joanne and I looked at the torti we trapped and her nipples were prominent. This was the first time I've had to deal with this scenario. If she's had kittens recently and we take her to be spayed, by the time she's back the kittens will have died. If we don't take her, we may not catch her again and she'll continue to reproduce. Joanne said take her in, a friend Connie who takes care of ferals said release her. I agonized as to the right thing to do.

Ultimately I decided to let her go. I reset the trap, Joanne went off to her appointment, and I waited on my own. The two tortis circled the trap and one really wily one managed to pull pieces of KFC out. Sweaty, stinking of sardines and greasy chicken, I refilled the trap. In she went and finally the trap closed behind her. This was a different torti but also looked like she was nursing so I released her too. Earlier this year, we did a late stage abortion. Some people find that controversial but I was OK with that, the kittens weren't born yet and they died humanely. I couldn't stand the thought of tiny kittens dying slowly of dehydration and starvation.

One more time, I set the trap and went off to feed at the other area. By the time I came back, there was an orange cat in the trap. Hank was obviously male but after all that effort I wasn't going home empty handed so I loaded him in the car and took him to Connie's garage for an overnight stay.

This morning he went in to be neutered and Maggie was returned. The vet thought she might be adoptable but I had nowhere for her to go. Not an easy thing to find a home for a semi-feral 7 year old toothless black cat during kitten season. The vet called to say that Hank's teeth weren't great but I had to say that I only had money for his neutering, no cadillac service.

So I still don't know if I did the right thing - there's no manual that came with this job. I'll wait a month and hope I can catch them again before they have yet another litter.

All I can do is persevere.

An unsatisfying trapping

This is poor little scared Maggie in the trap on her way to the vet. I was out early Tuesday morning again, traps baited with sardines and KFC. I quickly caught Socks, a black and white cat, who we are pretty sure was fixed last year, so I let Socks out and reset. After almost 2 hours I was about to give up, when I caught Maggie, one of the friendlier black cats.

My excitement quickly diminished when the vet called to tell me that she had already been spayed but had terrible dental problems and needed some teeth pulled. I couldn't say no, not wanting her to be in pain, so there goes a couple of hundred dollars. At least they will ear tip her so we'll know she's been spayed. I have to wonder about her story, the vet says she's around 7 years old, and she's pretty friendly, rubbing around our legs. She must have had a home at some point - who knows how she ended up at our outpost of civilization.

Saturday was rainy but that didn't stop Jackson from greeting me at the car.

Jackson loves to eat and doesn't hesitate to hide his impatience while I set up.

We've named the two kittens Mo and Jo. Mo is the black one and Jo is the tortishell. I think they are about 12 or so weeks old and must have come from the pontoon. They are still pretty shy but seem to be sorting out that we are the food people.

It's amazing that the other cats have accepted them. Here is Tina with Jo.

And here is the newest member of our colony.

I guess groundhogs need to eat too.

An early morning and an empty trap

I got up early this morning, well my version of early, to try to trap more of our ferals that remain unfixed. There are a couple of black cats, and two tortishells, one of whom is very pregnant currently - sigh. The trap baited with tuna and Fancy Feast, I stood back and waited, but to no avail. A couple of cats came to the end of the trap, including this little black one, but none would go all the way in, and I had to give up after an hour and get to work. I'll try again next week.

Just when we thought we had the boat location all taken care of, and no cats left to trap, two kittens have shown up, a black one and a tortishell, probably about 12 weeks old. I can't get close to them, and realistically, it's probably too late for them to be adoptable. You really need to catch them between 6 - 8 weeks in order to be able to socialize them properly. These two could probably be socialized but it would require a lot of work. They will live at the yard with the others - two more to fix, another sigh.

Jackson and Tina wanted me to hurry up and feed them. Raccoons are eating the cats' food so the cats are always hungry now.

Here's a great picture of Teddy, the patriarch or bully, whichever you prefer.

Bit of a downer day, I long to get to the point where we have them all fixed, and it's just maintenance, but I will persevere and console myself knowing that their lives are better than they would be since they have us caring for them.

Answered prayers

In my last post I told you about the mission cats that we rescued and my own mission to find them homes and raise money for Miracle's surgery. Well, with the help of so many people, I can happily report that all my prayers have been answered. All four kittens went to wonderful homes. This is Francis, who went home with one of my co-workers, Greg.

We had a book sale to raise money for Miracle's surgery, and even with the rain, we made over $200. With other donations, we raised enough money to fix her leg so it won't be infected anymore and she will find it easier to get around. Miracle and Miso will be picked up from the vet today after a successful amputation for Miracle and spaying for Miso. The best news of all is that they are going straight to a home. My crazy cat friend Joanne is taking them. She already has a blind cat so why not a three legged cat. Thank you to everyone who helped, who donated money, who adopted, who cared. God bless you all.

Even with all that going on, our ferals still need food and water every day.

Lily and Biff hang out, just being cats.

I haven't seen this orange guy for a long time, he looks like a real feral, skinny and limping, poor thing.

That's enough adoptions for a while. Extremely satisfying, but also tough emotionally. I got very attached to them all after caring for them for the two weeks they were at my office. I'd be a very bad foster parent!

Not feral but still in need of help

A few weeks ago Sandi parked at a mission for sailors that is near our colony and discovered a litter of four kittens with the mother and another cat who was missing a foot. Well of course Cherry Street Cats sprung into action. We discovered these cats were very friendly and being cared for by the priests at the mission. We offered to help and the priests finally agreeed that their location in an isolated industrial location was no place for cats. These cats were destined to be hit by a truck or killed by coyotes or foxes.

Now these cats are safely at my office temporarily and in need of wonderful homes. They are not the slightest bit feral. There are three orange and white kittens and one gray and white. We don't usually get involved in adoptions (that's one upside of ferals, they don't need homes) but we are determined to find these guys home.

This is Miracle, who apparently lost her foot at birth when the umbilical cord got wrapped around it. When we recently had her spayed the vet advised us that her stump was infected and should be amputated so it can heal properly. That was more money than we had so we are having a book sale next week to raise money for her surgery. She also needs a home - she is probably only about six months old and is so sweet. I had a three legged cat for 12 years and he had no problem. Cats don't feel sorry for themselves.

This is Miracle with Miso, the mother of the kittens. We also think Miso may be Miracle's mother. They seem very bonded so we are hoping we can adopt them together. Miso is a lovely cat, very friendly and such a good mother.

This is my mission right now - find good homes for the kittens, for Miracle and Miso, and raise enough money for Miracle's surgery. I'm not usually religious, but I may ask God for a bit of help on this one.

The feral life

It's so frustrating when you hear of people dumping cats, thinking they can care for themselves. The life of a feral cat is hard, scrabbling for food, trying to find shelter, avoiding predators. It's very gratifying to be able to help these cats a bit, at least ensuring they have food, water and shelter and hopefully preventing more from being born and having the cycle continue.

Queenie has learned to forage in dumpsters for food, hence her perpetual dirty state.

I think these guys have learned the sound of the car.

This is one of the black cats that still needs to be trapped and fixed. Aaffien and I did a trapping yesterday but only caught a very annoyed Queenie. Queenie was spayed last year so we just let her out but boy, did she glare at us.

I can't thank Global Pet Foods on the Danforth enough for their generous donations over the last couple of months.

Summer in Cat City

Summer has come early this year, and with it, the flies. The flies are the worst part of feeding ferals in the summer. No sooner do you put down the canned food than the flies are swarming in the bowls. Another month or so and it will be wasps. On the upside, their water doesn't freeze and we don't have to worry about the cats as much. I hate to even say it for fear of jinxing us, but we haven't had any kittens at the colony yet this year. There are still a few more to trap, though, so I will be trying again next week and also getting a lovely little cat at a nearby seamen's mission taken care of.

Here's Teddy, the big boy of the colony, both in size and dominance.

Teddy and Tina heading to the food.

A couple of our unnamed pontoon cats eating. It's sad that they don't have names but I can't tell the black cats or the tortis apart!