Secret Miaows

This is a quick clip of one of the girlies recently extracted from the colony case. It illustrates fairly well part of the problem.  You will notice that she is quite friendly. The clip is too short to actually show just how friendly she is. She is a very cuddly girl, she wanted fuss so much that she kept trying to climb out of her temporary pen. While she was here it was difficult to actually give her the attention she wanted, as we needed to be using PPE, and avoiding contact with our clothes or skin, as we didn't know what contaminants the colony cats may be carrying. Why is friendly a problem? There are two reasons.  Firstly, the reason that there are a lot of friendly cats is because the family who lived there genuinely loved cats. Some people don't see it as a kindness to neuter animals. These people did not neuter the cats, so they reproduced and reproduced (are still reproducing), and the family enjoyed each new litter and each new generation... those that stuck around...

For obvious reasons I can't post many pictures of the actual location. I have picked a few, though, to illustrate the general state that the cats there are in. They are fairly representative; cats there are underweight, unkempt, and many are unwell.

I read an interesting article yesterday, about sleep deprivation. The long and short of it being that you don't recover from it. Humans, that is. I couldn't say about cats. Either way, it's a serious design flaw given that babies need feeding every few hours. Maybe that explains "mum brain". So, I'm going to get mum brain! Kitten mum brain. People won't notice the difference. The plan was that Mr Jones would catch mum cat, so that she and her kittens could come here for a couple of nights before being moved on to another rescue. Snag! Usually, the best way to catch a feral mum is to put the kittens in the end of the trap. She goes in to get them and sets the trap off. Voila, mum and babies. A problem occurs however, when you don't set the trap yourself, and forget to explain to the client that:- a) the kittens need to be in a receptacle of some kind, and b) the trap needs to be on flat solid ground. Mr Jones set the trap on an uneven pile of straw, so ...

I've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to realise the distinction between a "feral" cat, and a "stray" cat. This most likely results from a lot of people using the word "feral" to refer to wild behaviour; and even then, a lot of people misunderstand normal cat behaviour as being extraordinary. Quite simply, the distinction between feral and stray usually lies with where a cat was born; - Feral = born outside with no human influence during their early development. - Stray = born in a domestic setting, but has lost their human connection. Feral cats are usually born to feral or stray mothers. However, sometimes a domesticated cat will choose to have their babies away from their domestic setting, in which case, with no human interaction when young, the kittens grow up as feral cats. Cats may become stray for many reasons. "Stray" literally means that they have strayed from their home, though that may not always be the case. Sometimes h...

I volunteer for an organisation that helps animals find homes. We have kennels. We have a cattery. Rabbitry, ferretry, kittenry, and isolation units. Up until now I haven't done much other than help the Animal Care Assistants with cat and kitten care.  So, to be asked to work on a very large feral colony, two weeks ago, came as quite a shock. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love feral cats. To me, they bring the best of two worlds; observation of the great outdoors, and cats cats cats! I love to spend a crisp quiet dawn, hidden in a bush, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, just watching feral cats going about their business. Feral cats have really hard lives though. Born into a world of fluctuating weather, where there may be people who poison them, cars that may injure them, an unhealthy diet, and the risk of disease and parasites. When one cat in a colony picks up cat flu, most likely the whole colony will suffer. With no one to help them, feral cats will often live only 3 ...