No good deed goes unpunished!

My grandma got a staph infection from her fully vacinated indoor cat. She ignored it and ended up going to the er EVERY 4 hours for iv antibotics.
 
Update: I spoke to the animal rescue again, the one with the broken paw hasn't been around but they told me to call if I see him and they will come trap him. Very happy they are willing to do it themselves as they have lots of experience.
 
I've never heard of a group that only neuters the males. We neuter (and spay) both. If someone comes to us with thirty or so cats, we ask for the females first, but will eventually do them all. Cats from other colonies do wander in, and it's the females getting pregnant that are the problem. They end up with kittens. Why would anyone fix just the males?

We will take in the youngest feral kittens as we can usually turn around any under 8 weeks) and do have a few people who will work with ferals but usually it's trap/neuter (we often use that word as do feral groups for both male and female) and release. Removing them doesn't help, as a new bunch will move in. We want them to eventually die off.

As of last year, 3 people have lived after getting rabies. One was a worker for NY State wildlife, in the lab where I worked. It wasn't pretty..he lived, but had a sad life. That said, it's pretty unusual to contract rabies, at least in our area, which I'm happy about as being in the cat rescue business, I've had my fair share of scratches. Bites I would be more worried about, but I don't mess (we use traps) with the feral guys!

Also, I'd be much more afraid of a cat having Bartonella (cat scratch fever) than rabies. My nephew had it and it wasn't pleasant. We are seeing more and more of that in our area.


The best, and most humane, way to cull a colony of TRULY feral cats is trap-neuter-return. You trap only the males (females are released immediately, without handling), have them neutered and then release them back WHERE YOU FOUND THEM, again, without undue handling. You take them in the morning, or the night before, and they're ready to be released that evening, with zero recovery time. Many rescues and clinics will do it for as little as $10-$20/cat. The colony will then die out very quickly. You can get rid of a 50-cat colony in less than six months, simply by neutering the males. The life expectancy of these cats is extremely short.

Trapping these cats and taking them to animal control will ultimately just lead to them being immediately put down, as no organization will even attempt to re-home a feral cat, when there are millions of non-feral cats needing homes.


For real information, check out reputable local rescues or start with this ASPCA FAQ on feral cats: http://www.aspca.org/adoption/feral-cats-faq.aspx, or this step-by-step guide to helping feral cats from the respected Alley Cat Allies: http://www.alleycat.org/document.doc?id=461.
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:thumbsup2 All great info.

We also sponsor several feeders with food each month. Most of them are also pretty good hunters.

I loved seeing the cats lying on the shore sunning themselves and on top of their home made feral houses along the water just past where the Queen Mary is anchored in Long Beach. All well taken care of.

Depends on the colony -- we've had a 10-cat feral colony living in our neighborhood for going on seven years. All cats (male & female) have been spayed & neutered and have a food source that is actually sponsored by the HOA. Same cats have been around for over 6 years. Everyone knows them, and the cats are so smart I've seen them look both ways before they cross the street. One possible outcome of TNR is that you can "get rid of a 50-cat colony in less than six months", but it's also possible for the cats to live on happily for quite some time. On the plus side, our neighborhood has no snakes, mice, possums or other "wildlife", and no other ferals dare enter!


Not true. While it is rare to find a shelter or rescue that will put time into trying to socialize ferals, those groups are out there. The shelter I work with will rehabilitate and try to socialize feral cats if they think the cat is "feral" only because it was abandonded. They do personality checks on every cat and kitten that comes in, and a large number go out to foster for socialization. Two of my rescue cats started off as "ferals". I raised one from a kitten (foster-to-own kind of thing) and adopted the other one as a 2YO cat. How do I know it used to be feral? It had a tipped ear, indicating that it had been trapped, spayed and released at some point before it ended up in the shelter. It's not an automatic that ferals will be put down, but you do have to do your research if you want them to have a chance.


Again ... careful how you generalize. You'd be surprised at the number of TNR people who also plan vacations (or work) at Disney. WDW property itself has a huge managed feral cat community. :goodvibes

:earsboy:
 


I haven't read any of the other posts, but I thought you posted on someone else's thread that you were going to find a rescue group for these kittens. Rescue groups will have humane traps and be able to give them the medical attention they need before they get adopted.
 

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