Feral cats

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I figured since there was a thread started about getting a dog, I could post one about cats.

Five years ago we (wife and I) came across a mother cat and a litter of 5 kittens living under a vacant house next to us. We were unaware at first the mom cat had any kittens and just thought she was a lone stray who had taken residence under the house. My wife beng the softie she is decided to start feeding the stray, then low and behold it brought over its 5 kittens one at a time to get some food. This went on for a few days then we saw a large male cat had kept trying to get around the mother to the kittens. We knew the reason for this was to kill the kittens to get a chance to mate with the mother. We seen the mom first hand fight off the male but felt we had to do more to ensure the kittens survival. We managed to capture all the kittens some how and sectioned off our kitchen as a temporary holding area for the family of cats. The local pet shop in our area said they take in kittens born into the wild to find them homes, but we had to wait until they were 8 weeks for the pet store to take them. So enough time had passed and we decided to give 3 kittens to the pet store than we kept 2 kittens. At the time we were going to somehow try to find a home for the mom and even had someone who worked for the vet lined up to take her. But by then we were attached and decided to keep her.

Fast forward five years and living in a house we've had for less than a year. We currently have 4 cats, Three are the rescues and another we took to keep from the pound. We just came across another mom cat and litter of 3 kittens living outside borrowed under our bay window which extends out over the foundation of the house. We have a protected wetlands in our back yard and do see cats roaming back there sometimes and just figured they were neighborhood cats. The 3 kittens are very young and not even to the point of solid food. The mother cat was looking very skinny and my wife possibly against better judgment decided to feed the mom to ensure she could nurse the kittens. Point is I am somehow now committed to getting these kittens to the pet store for adoption (if the pet store will take them hopefully). Then there needs to be something done about the mom, possibly getting it fixed and releasing it. I don't have the room to put four more cats in my house and want to ensure the well being of this mom cat and her kittens, but also don't want to piss off my neighbors.

What would any of you do in my situation?

PS: sorry so long winded but felt background was necessary. If any of you want to post cat jokes, I'm not cat joke sensitive and have read the "100 ways to kill a cat" books and did think they were pretty dam funny, so jokes are welcomed as well.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Ann Arbor area. Washtenaw county.

 

[rusty.nells]

You might try craigslist.

My wife does this occasionally. She usually requires a re-homing fee. If the new owner takes the pet (dog or cat) to the vet for a check-up and/or sterilization and provides proof, she refunds the re-homing fee.

 

[frostbyte5014]

I would get rid of any extras as soon as possible. It's not healthy for the cats when you have too many around. I lost two cats about a two years ago to feline aids and lukemia. They picked it up from the strays in the neighborhood. My neighbor also lost one to feline aids.

Get rid of the strays any way you can, even if you can't find them a home you may have to resort to puting them down. Worst case I know, but you don't want your pets catching something from the strays and die.

 

[lward1]

Oh boy this is a hard one for me.

I have 3 indoor cats one about 7 years old Calico, we adopted from a pound, One about 2 years old solid black, no tail goldish/ green eyes that I found at my day job about 2 to 3 weeks old that had been abandoned that I brought home and we bottle fed and potty trained. And the 3rd one is a gray tiger stripe that is about a year old That I found when its eyes were just barely open and had to bottle feed and potty train,lol.

Now it is another story outside, about 2 years ago there were 2-3 that I could tell at the time, very malnutrition-ed cats that would come up to our porch and try and get in our trash but would run away as soon as you open the door. So I decide to feed them and keep them out of the trash, mistake #1 as after a few weeks they were constantly here and would not go back home.We now have 6 that stay around on a regular basis, 3 that come and go for days at a time and this year we are on our 4th litter of kittens3. Hopefully I can give these away as the others, as for the parents I wish I could decently catch them and have them fixed or find homes for them I would hate to have them put down as they are healthy from what I can tell they are only wild.

 

[MHCG]

If domestic cats were big enough to kill us, they would. It's us or them.

Jesse (thinks the only thing cats do is make noise and stink)

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I would get rid of any extras as soon as possible. It's not healthy for the cats when you have too many around. I lost two cats about a two years ago to feline aids and lukemia. They picked it up from the strays in the neighborhood. My neighbor also lost one to feline aids.

Get rid of the strays any way you can, even if you can't find them a home you may have to resort to puting them down. Worst case I know, but you don't want your pets catching something from the strays and die.

Yeah, I definitely don't want any of my cats to get feline leukemia! That's why I'm not even thinking about letting these things in the house or my other cats out of the house, except I have one that tries to sneak out when I come home, sometimes successfully. I already lost a cat to feline leukemia, probably from letting the initial family of cats into my house 5 years ago, because she became ill shortly after that. I was dumb then and didn't know. Thats a horrible way to die. She wouldn't eat or drink and constantly was vomiting. After getting the diagnosis I stayed with her at the vet and they put her down. Don't want to deal with that again!

 

[thebeardedone]

I believe that my cat is semi-feral, as the mother was domesticated and the father, well, he was just some cat that hanged around and definitely didnt belong to anyone. My cat has a bad temperment and rarely likes human interaction, so it could be that "feral" streak in her.

Anyway, do you know have something like the RSPCA out in the States? If you do, I'm sure you could give them a ring and they could deal with them (like they do in the UK) ...

 

[frostbyte5014]

OK, since we are on the subject and I know it's coming, I'll go first!
Here's my kids! Both were hand raised from day one with a dropper. The white one is female and is about 9 yrs old and the black is male and about 1 yr old. He is much younger in the photo. Sorry the photos are so big.

 

[lward1]

This is the one I found at day job, he is about 2 years old. I thought I had some of the other 2 but I cant find them.

 

[SOHO-NZ]

If domestic cats were big enough to kill us, they would. It's us or them.)

Too right they would. I was attacked by a customer's cat last week.

I was just working away sitting at the customer's desk, and the cat jumped up, sank it's claws into my side, pulled very hard then ran off. I yelled out with shock. Like most cat owners, the customer just laughed when I told her what had happened. She didn't see the five little spots of blood on my shirt, and the big red weal on my skin.

I am a little biased & I admit to being a dog owner, but hey if my dog were to do anything like that he'd regret it. The fact is, my dog has never bitten or hurt a human in his 7 years.

 

[Jake]

I Must say that, after seeing that picture of the cat with no tail.. i much prefer it.

I used to have a jack Russel terrier here in Australia with a "Docked" Tail from birth... and i much prefer it to my girlfriends dog of the same breed WITH a tail..

It is illegal here to "Dock" an animals tail at birth but i would rather it but its a personal preference i guess.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

UPDATE: Don't think I mentioned it in my 1st post, but the reason we did find them is we were doing some landscaping in that area. So last weekend we pulled out some bushes and dug the area up all around where the kittens were borrowed in. I checked to see if they were still there by moving a small amount of dirt out of the way that they were hiding behind, and they were. So I just put the dirt back and worked around them. I came home a day or two later and the dirt that was covering their hiding spot was all dug out and they were gone. I was hoping nothing killed them since we do have a wetlands behind us, but I didn't see any signs of struggle or fur so I assume mommy just moved them along somewhere else. I haven't seen her around since either but I've been getting home pretty late and not really looking for her. The mom is real skittish unlike the first mom and kittens I came across which i adopted, so I think these are truly wild cats that have maybe lived this way for a few generations as opposed to a housecat that got pregnant and discarded.

 

[thebeardedone]

Sorry to bump an old thread but I found a suitable image of my cat, Sherbert

She has a tortoise shell type colouring ...

Posing