Stray Cats

[so lucky]

There is a no-kill shelter in our area, and they are certainly a good choice. Unfortunately, they are very short on funding, as I imagine most altruistic organizations are in these difficult times. I would certainly make a generous (within my limits) donation if I could get the kittens to that shelter. I do wonder what any shelter would do with totally wild kittens, tho.
I guess first step is to get them accustomed to coming to my porch for food, then I can let a trap sit there for a few days, then......

 

[ducks4you]

I despise people who dump animals! I knew that our 2 cats were aging bc they were both 11yo, so I jumped at 2 just weaned kittens (brothers), and I took the mom, too. We kept them on the porch until the "boys" were old enough to play outside. Then, we noticed that mom was gonna have another litter. The girl who took her "pregnant-ness" in to have her first litter of 3, let her come and go, and she made a 2nd batch of 7! On the good side, she is friendly, and she litter-trained the first litter (of 3), and boys are very sweet and friendly, and we play with the 7 tiny ones. We're going to keep her trapped through her next heat. If one of our friends who want the kittens do not take her, we will spay her. Otherwise, they can have her after Labor Day and THEY can spay her. My two female dogs and my other female cat were spayed before they had a litter. My mare and my hens and roosters aren't fixed. At THIS rate, this cat would probably reproduce about 5 more times JUST THIS YEAR! She's already made 10 kittens and she isn't even a year old, yet.
Anyway, here is a link to my Photobucket Album, "Day of the Kittens", if you wanta see them.
http://s611.photobucket.com/albums/...g and Cat photos/July Day of the Kittens2012/

 

[897tgigvib]

Experienced cat caregivers and fosters would attempt to socialize the kittens or young cats, and if older, attempt to at least gain the cats trust with a few people. Even that is not necessary to save a life though. Some of their cats are advertised as barn cats, orchard cats, vineyard cats, or gophergitters. Some are semiindoors cats, not quite perfect with a litter box, and many are well trained indoor kitties, each with different temperments.

I suspect your wild kittens may never be perfect indoor kitties, but will likely make decent barn cats, but they will best be trained to at least trust one human.

Contact that no kill shelter, and if you can, donate to their cause not just money, but spread the good word about them on things like facebook, talking up some of their successes. Getting a friend to go get a cat or kitten from them for a pet, well, that's a big donation of another kind.

 

[bobm]

From my experience. Several years ago, I used to get for free 10-12 barn cats, gopher gitters, groundsquirrel mollesters, rat zappers, mouse mutilators, or what else one may call them 2 times a year for pest critter control for my horse breeding ranch. I had to do this due to the VERY LARGE coyote population that just loved to snack on any feline they came accross. I haven't seen a ferrel cat in our area in 20 years where we live on our ranch. Then after several years, several bleeding hears started to work at the shelter, instituted a strict spay and neuter policy, and charge $35 adoption fee. 6 months later , when I whent to get another batch of pest controllers, there were over twice as many cats there and the fee was raised to $75. About 6 months later, the cat numbers more than doubled at the shelter ( so many cats that they were roaming all over the building and the steanch was unbearable) and the fee was now $125. Now, I like animals and will pay a fair price for one. But when the lifespan of a cat in my neck of the woods is about 6 months due to the coyotes and the mouse, rat, and ground squirrel populations at least doubled and trippled ( each in the hundreds) in that length of time , hay and grain prices have at least doubled ( I buy over 30 tons of grain and over 110 tons of alfalfa hay per year so my costs have gone through the roof). So ... 20 -24 cats per year . My cost for pest control whent from $ 0 to $ $2500- $3,000 per year. Why ? I now go to the County Ag. Extention to buy treated grain for pest control and it costs me a whopping $35 per year.

 

[ducks4you]

These same bleeding hearts pushed horse slaughter out of IL, too. Now, NOBODY bids on horses at auction, and those that are slaughtered are transported 3-4 days to Mexico or Canada. I say, throw them all in a pit!! pfft!!!

 

[baymule]

If you come to my town, I will gift you with your year's quota of barn cats, the lady next to us feeds all the feral cats in the neighborhood and they breed like rats. There are fleas in our front yard from the darn (&^$$%^&& cats, cat poop and they get into the garbage. I hate them. I will gladly trap them ALL for you!!!!!

From my experience. Several years ago, I used to get for free 10-12 barn cats, gopher gitters, groundsquirrel mollesters, rat zappers, mouse mutilators, or what else one may call them 2 times a year for pest critter control for my horse breeding ranch. I had to do this due to the VERY LARGE coyote population that just loved to snack on any feline they came accross. I haven't seen a ferrel cat in our area in 20 years where we live on our ranch. Then after several years, several bleeding hears started to work at the shelter, instituted a strict spay and neuter policy, and charge $35 adoption fee. 6 months later , when I whent to get another batch of pest controllers, there were over twice as many cats there and the fee was raised to $75. About 6 months later, the cat numbers more than doubled at the shelter ( so many cats that they were roaming all over the building and the steanch was unbearable) and the fee was now $125. Now, I like animals and will pay a fair price for one. But when the lifespan of a cat in my neck of the woods is about 6 months due to the coyotes and the mouse, rat, and ground squirrel populations at least doubled and trippled ( each in the hundreds) in that length of time , hay and grain prices have at least doubled ( I buy over 30 tons of grain and over 110 tons of alfalfa hay per year so my costs have gone through the roof). So ... 20 -24 cats per year . My cost for pest control whent from $ 0 to $ $2500- $3,000 per year. Why ? I now go to the County Ag. Extention to buy treated grain for pest control and it costs me a whopping $35 per year.

 

[AdamBorzy]

If you come to my town, I will gift you with your year's quota of barn cats, the lady next to us feeds all the feral cats in the neighborhood and they breed like rats. There are fleas in our front yard from the darn (&^$$%^&& cats, cat poop and they get into the garbage. I hate them. I will gladly trap them ALL for you!!!!!

will gladly help you trap those cats and put 'em all in the cage...

 

[schmije]

I see that you're in SE MO. I've been to a no-kill shelter near St. Louis, and they have a great facility for feral cats. It is outdoors and separate from the domesticated cats. It allowed them to freely roam in a large cage with lots of things to climb on. I was impressed by the setup, and the people were so nice and appreciative of the cat food that I donated after my cat passed away.

 

[so lucky]

Well, the no-kill shelter here in our area isn't taking any cats right now. The humane society will take them. My DH is rigging up a sort of trap for them this evening, to try to catch them tonight. If we are successful, I will take them to the HS tomorrow. They have gotten only slightly less skittish. They don't skedaddle quite as fast when they hear the door jiggle, or see me come around the corner. which I don't think is much progress in the 10 days or so that I have been feeding them. They have taken to sleeping the first part of the night on a cushioned wicker chair on the front porch. At least with them all in a snuggled up ball, it may be easier to box them up. We will see. It may be a big fiasco.

 

[so lucky]

Update on the stray cats: We managed to trap 3 of the 4, and took them to the humane society one at a time, with donations, of course. the fourth one would have rather starved than go in that live trap with the tuna. It took a long time for us to realize it just wasn't gonna let us catch it.so we began trying to socialize it, and tame it down. It sort of became my DH's project. By today, the kitty would come in the house if we invited it in, sit on our lap and purr like a motor. So, despite my and DH's heart messages, we were able to find the manager of the no-kill shelter at a weak moment, and she said she would take it. The shelter now has about 300 cats, and about 40 dogs. There were big cages and bigger cages, of all kinds of cats, sitting around waiting for someone to adopt them. Of course, most will never be adopted. I was thinking, as I left the kitten there, that it would be a lot better off at our house, but we were determined to not keep it, for several valid reasons. The lady who runs the shelter is very gruff. Well, cranky. I was having trepidations *big time* till I saw her take the kitten out of the box we had it in. She was loving and gentle with it, and the kitten was calm. I don't know what I can do to help the situation--this is a kind of backward area, and people don't spay and neuter their animals very willingly. My $20 I donated was not a small amount to my budget, but I'm sure it was a small drop in the bucket. I have resolved to utilize their thrift shop, donate stuff there, and donate to the shelter as I can. I'm feeling kind of sad about the whole thing. Guess I'll shut up now and go watch the debates. Talk about depressing.