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LIFE AS A FERAL What is a Feral cat? Feral cats in general are cats who live on the streets. These cats m Stray and lost cats will congregate near food sources. This may be near dumpsters, garbage cans and homes that have other animals where food is left out. These unaltered cats WILL breed and form colonies. There is an estimated 60 million feral cats in the United States alone. Just imagine what the number is worldwide. THREE CLASSES OF FERAL CATS Class One: This is a true feral cat. This is a second generation cat that was born of a feral cat. These cats are very frightened of humans. If you are able to get near them, they will, growl, hiss, scratch and possible bite you. It is very difficult to socialize these cats, but with a lot of dedication and work, some of these cats can be socialized. Class Two: These cats have recently been abandoned by their human owners. They will run from you, but not to far. They will be jumpy and scare easily. If you will feed them regularly, they will easily get close to you. After a while they may allow you to pet them, pick them up and become a part of your family. These cats are the easiest to socialize. Class Three: These cats are perhaps the saddest of all. They have been abused. They are terrified of humans but don’t have the knowledge of what it takes to survive on their own. These poor cats are rejected by established colonies. Some of these cats may be able to be re-socialized and some not. According to the level of abuse they sustained at the hands of their owners. A feral cats life span is very short. If lucky, they may live 5 years, but normally, they only live 2 years (if that). My Life On The Street I guess that I would fall into the second class of feral cats. I am I have now had another litter of kittens. Only 3 this time. I brought them to the lady when they were about 8 weeks old and she did her best to gain th There are about five other homeless cats that come to Even though I am lucky to have a place to sleep and plenty of food, I should have never been thrown outside to fend for myself. We feral cats know that a lot of you humans don’t like us. You stomp your feet at us, throw things, yell, shoot guns, sick your dogs on us and even kill us. You don’t want us in your yards, on your cars, in your garbage or gardens. We really don’t mean to upset you by these activities but we are trying to survive. Unlike your human homeless, we have no choice in where we live or get food. We can not get a job to buy food or shelter. We are dependent on the human race for our survival. Remember, a human put the first cat on the street unaltered and from that 1 cat the feral cat population has grown to over 60 million in the U.S. Big Boy-Big Boy had been coming around for 2 years. When we first saw Big Boy we were amazed at the size of this cat. He had the biggest jowls I had ever seen, long, long legs and very muscular. He would come around to eat and see the other ferals and if one was in heat, well.....He eluded our traps and would run if we approached him. We just kept on feeding him and talking to him. About 2 months ago he started trusting us a little more and no longer ran when we got close to him. One morning I went to feed and I noticed that he had a bloody foot. He allowed me to put him in a cage and I took him to the vet. They examined him and felt that he had an abscess on his foot. They treated his foot, neutered him and gave him all of his vaccinations. I brought him home and placed him in a cage with food, water and a litter box. He seemed to be doing good even though he didn’t feel well. The day after surgery, in the afternoon, his foot swelled up and was bleeding profusely. I took him immediately to the vet. They cleaned up his foot but had no idea what was wrong with it. We decided to put a pressure bandage on and give him a steroid for the swelling and re-evatuate the foot the next morning. When we took the bandage off, the swelling was down but his foot was black. Due to Big Boys general health being poor, the fact that we were looking at a possible amputation of his foot and him being a feral cat, we had to make the decision to euthanize him. How very, very sad and heartbreaking this was. Big Boy’s life will now be much happier at Rainbow Bridge. I would have loved to have given him a better life but he was just to ill. Feral cats lead a very stressful life. They are forced to live outside in a dangerous, unhealthy world. There are an estimated 100 million ferals in the US alone. Many good hearted people had taken the task on the trap, spay/neuter/vaccinate and return the cats to their colony. They also have taken on the responsibility to feed these colonies and provide them with shelter and water. Please go to the Feral Cat Coalitions web site http://www.feralcat.com/ for more information on feral cats. You will find detailed information on the TNR programs, how to tame feral kittens, etc. We here at Bless Their Hearts Kitty Haven have been assisting in trapping ferals and providing vet care. Here are some pictures os 4 ferals after they were spayed/neutered. A very nice, concerned lady allowed them to recover in her spare bedroom.
PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD TO ALL PET OWNERS. PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER ALL PETS.
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ay live in parks, alleys, woods, abandoned lots and even in your back yard. They came about because of human neglect of their unaltered domestic cats. Humans allow their domestic cats to roam and reproduce. Humans also abandon, dump or throw away unwanted cats, and these cats end up in feral cat colonies.
more fortunate than some but my life is still hard. I was unwanted and left outside to fend for myself. Food and shelter are hard to find. I got pregnant and had a litter of kittens. Only 1 kitten survived. When she got old enough to travel, we set out to find a different location. We found a lady and man who keep food and water out for cats. I wasn’t sure at first if we would be accepted by the humans or the other stray cats, but we were. Unfortunately, not long after we arrived, I got pregnant again. At least this 
time I had plenty of food to eat. I gave birth to 4 kittens. My daughter from my first litter helped me care for my new kittens. My kittens reached 6 weeks old when one ventured into the street and was killed. The lady that feeds us picked my baby up and the man buried her in the back of where they live. The lady was crying. This lady and man talk to us all of the time and try their best to get us to come to them. They call me Mama and my first daughter, Big Sister. My kittens are so wild that they flee at any sound. The remaining three kittens disappeared two weeks after my kitten was hit by a car. I don’t know where they went. I fear that they are dead. It is now getting cold. The lady and man have given us a house to keep warm in. Big Sister and I sleep in it at night. The lady spends a lot of time outside with us. She talks to us, tries to play with us and will just sit on the ground by us. We like her but are still to afraid to let her pet us. We greet her every morning and afternoon and every time she comes outside. She has cats that live inside with her. She explained to us that she couldn’t bring us inside her house until we went to the vet (whatever that is) and were given a clean bill of health. Last week was a very, very awful week. My daughter, Big Sister, drowned in some water. She was only 6 months old. I am so very sad. The lady and man are very upset. The man found her. They have been very nice and understanding to me. Big Sister was buried by my other baby.
eir co
nfidence. My two boys are very interested in her but not my little girl. When my babies were 5 months old, the lady and her husband trapped us and took us to the vet and we were all tested, spayed/neutered and vaccinated. The lady placed us in really nice cages so we could recover from the surgery. While we recovered, the lady and man built us a VERY nice pen to live in. We have food, water, climbing trees and scratching post, litter boxes, plenty of toys and a whole lot of love. Most important, we are finally safe. My two sons, Prince and Big Boy Junior, allwo the lady to pic
k them up and love on them but my daughter, Princess and I are not that trusting. I have allowed the lady to pet me on my back but that is it.
eat with me. We all get along and respect each other. We spend a lot of time hiding from strange animals, humans and cars. Most of our days are spent in fear.
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Bless Their Hearts Kitty Haven, Inc. P.O. Box 26207, Jacksonville, Florida 32226 |
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