Feral Cat PSA

Time for a little public service announcement about feral cats. Yes, Tarquin was a Mensa kitty and quickly learned to adapt to living with humans. But it's not always that easy. His sister Mimsy (not a littermate) and her son, Rory, were also cats from our feral colony on Wright Street. In their own ways, they are friendly and have come to accept humans. But they’ve never gained the confidence of Tarquin. It took me 10 years for Rory to let me pet him; I think I’ve maybe picked him up twice. Mimsy is much friendlier and lets me pet her and pick her up. But it’s on her terms. Sometimes she’s just not in the mood. And if I reach my hand out a little too fast toward her head, she cringes. 

My TNR magnet

That’s why socializing kittens at a very early age is important. Technically, Tarquin and his bunch were too old for effective socialization (getting them used to be around and handled by humans)—they were at least four months old when we trapped them. According to Alley Cat Allies, a feral cat advocacy group, kittens eight weeks of age or younger tend to be easy to socialize. Kittens between two and four months of age often take more time and skill to socialize. Basically, no Humane Society or animal adoption group will take feral cats. They just aren’t “adoptable”—people want friendly and cuddly, not surly, aloof, and antisocial. 

I googled how many litters of kittens can a cat have in one year, and I found this fun fact from the Fayette (Georgia) Humane Society:

An average cat has 1-8 kittens per litter and 2-3 litters per year. During her productive life, one female cat could have more than 100 kittens. A single pair of cats and their kittens can produce as many as 420,000 kittens in just 7 years.

That explains the large numbers of kittens we saw running about our neighborhood. After Paws Chicago neutered the five we took in, I tried to talk up at Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) scheme with the other neighbor who fed the cats. In TNR, feral cats are trapped, neutered (they will be healthier and live longer if they are neutered), vaccinated, and eartipped before being released back into their stomping ground. Eartipping involves removing a small portion of the tip of a tip of a feral cat’s left ear. This signifies that the cat has been neutered and vaccinated; this ensures that a cat who has already been neutered won’t get trapped or have to undergo another surgery. It also says: I’m a feral cat. 

Unfortunately, our neighbor wasn’t onboard with the TNR idea. She explained that she felt they were God’s creatures and that we shouldn’t interfere. Frankly, I didn’t agree, but couldn’t do much. So many cats in such close quarters meant there was a greater risk of illnesses spreading and injuries happening. And unneutered cats fight more, resulting in more injuries. Case in point: Tarquin’s mama, Greta, showed up one day missing a couple of toes and part of her tail. We figure she had crawled up into a car engine to keep warm and someone started the car, which injured her. Another good thing to keep in mind—and we did this all the time on Wright Street—is to pound on the car hood before starting it up. It’s easy and prevents mishaps. 

Finally, Alley Cat Allies and other feral cat organizations recommend that people build shelters for the feral cats. We never got that far, since we had to move when our landlord announced his plans to demolish our rental house. Shelters protect cats from the elements, helps you control their location, and possibly prevents them from hanging out on neighbors’ properties (not everyone on the block was all that fond of the incessant cat parades going through their yards). Shelters should be about 2 foot by 3 foot and at least 18 inches high. Basically you’re looking for a shelter that will allow three to five cats to huddle together. 

I must be psychic, writing about feral cats. While checking out some of the articles on Alley Cat Allies' web site, I discovered that October 16 will be National Feral Cat Day. I think I need to make a donation in Tarquin's honor.