Why are there so many black feral cats?

It seems that there are a lot of black feral cats, at least in our colony. Almost 10 years ago, not far from where I feed now, I took care of a couple of ferals and they were black. Maybe some of ours are descendents. I always read that black cats are the last to be adopted so I wonder if they are the first to be abandoned, or once they're lost they're hard to find.

Well, little Turtle has had the opposite experience. He's lucky enough to have been plucked from a miserable future. Turtle is being lovingly cared for by Connie and is about six weeks old now, just about recovered from his URI, eating well and gaining weight every day. He'll be ready to go to a forever home in a few weeks. Do you know anyone who deserves such a wonderful kitten in their lives?

That's Maggie passing by in a blur, another black cat. We think Maggie had a home at some point since she was already spayed and is very friendly.

And then there's Jackson, such a character, and as you can tell, he gets his fair share of food.

OK, Jo is a tortieshell and only partially black, but I love the tongue out photo trying to sneak some food.

Another busy week at the plant

Aaffien and I were trapping yesterday. Ultimately, we were unsuccessful even though we tried at three different locations. It's kind of like fishing, some days you catch one, some days you don't. We're down to only a few to catch - selective trapping can be a bit tricky. For the first time we were allowed to put a trap on the recycling company's premises and as you can see we wore the appropriate safety attire and had our trusty KFC bait in hand.

Meanwhile, Connie has been taking care of little Turtle for a week now. He's got some meds to take care of his URI and is starting to feel better. He's eating on his own and is gaining weight every day. Go Turtle!

MC, Hank and Sophie were lined up on the weekend waiting for the catering truck to arrive. I think they know the sound of our car.

Jackson, a typical cat, will find any sunny spot to hang out.

Yes, feral cats clean themselves too.

Just another mealtime.

Just another busy week with the ferals. Although the weather is still lovely, soon we have to think about winter preparations. No punching out from this job.

One cat gets a new home, one cat returns home

It's been quite the busy week at the colonly. On Tuesday I got a call from the recycling company near our colony saying they had found very small kitten and didn't know what to do with it. I called Connie, who has a colony near us, and amazingly, just like that, she said she would foster it. Here's little Turtle at Connie's house.
Isn't he the cutest thing? The vet thinks he's about four weeks old and unfortunately has a URI but Connie will do her best to get him fixed up. He'll need bottle feeding and is really too young to be away from his mom but the good news is that he'll be easy to socialize and will be ready for a home in about a month. Connie is an angel for taking care of this little guy.

Meanwhile, last weekend, we picked up Jo, the six month old, after being spayed, and returned her to the colony. Teddy, the boss of the bunch, approves her release.


It was so sweet to see who we presume is her brother greet her. They played together and Jo seemed overjoyed to see him and be back.

I did a quick count the other day of all the cats we see regularly and it came out to 23 cats that we are taking care of! That's a lot of cats (and a lot of cat food).

Jackson is such a funny guy, always first in to the food.

Mission accomplished

The heat and humidity did not deter us from trying another trapping this week. Luck was with us and within minutes of setting up the trap we caught the cat we wanted. This is Jo, a young female who showed up at the boats about six weeks ago with another kitten, who we presume to be her brother. They are skittish but quickly figured out the food drill and seem to have been accepted by the other cats.


Here is Aaffien with Jo, the best dressed cat trapper you have ever seen.

The vet thinks Jo is about six months old. We got her just in the nick of time, a female can become pregnant as early as five or six months. There has been some debate amongst our group as to whether she could be socialized and adopted. My personal feeling is that it's probably too late, her mother was feral and it would be a tough go. The sad fact, as all cat rescuers know, is that there are not enough homes for all the cats out there, and every day adoptable cats are euthanized. Jo has never know another life and I can take satisfaction in knowing that our actions have prevented more kittens from being born.

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.