Feral Cats

Everybody's seen them. Some think they're cute and cuddly while others think they are a major nuisance and disease carriers. Just about everyone agrees that something should be done to stop them; But not everyone agrees on how to do it. What are they? Feral Cats!

When I worked in Norcross, Ga. I would take little walks through a small patch of woods next to our parking lot. One day I spotted a wooden, camouflaged box up in the woods. I wondered what it could be. Could it be the hideout of a notorious criminal? The home of a war veteran? A secret stash of drugs? It was painted camouflage so maybe it was a cache of weapons. Or possibly just a box covering up some one's plumbing. As I explored closer I found a bunch of cat food bowls scattered around and bags of cat food in the box. It was a feeding station for a feral cat colony, something I'd never heard of before. A 'caretaker' would drop by periodically and make sure there was plenty of water and food out for the cats.

There is a beach in Lantana, Fl that we used to go to when I was a kid. I used to wonder who owned all these cats that kept hanging around. I mean, who would own hundreds of cats? No one of course, they were feral cats. Hundreds of cats, living on the beach, foraging for food and shelter ...and having babies. There are over 50 million feral cats in the united states. These cats roam free, which sounds kind of neat at first. Then you think about the obstacles to a happy life these cats face; disease, infections, starvation, predatory animals (including other cats), foul weather, kids with BB guns, fleas, worms... we could go on and on. And besides the harm to the cats themselves, they cause damage to local wildlife. In short, feral cats are a nuisance.

So what to do about feral cats. No we don't exterminate them. In fact we take care of them! We can do this without taking away their freedoms or domesticating them. We trap them, neuter them and then release them. "The ASPCA endorses Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as the only proven humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies." Eventually the colony simply decreases in size. TNR also reduces some of the nuisance feral cat behaviors, such as spraying your front porch or the yowling of a Tom under your window in the middle of the night. Is TNR costly? Well it can be, but there are organizations and individuals out there who can help. The Humane Society of the United States has a list of feral cat organizations.

So what, you may ask, got me thinking about feral cats? I have a client who, in addition to her own cat, takes care of a small colony of feral cats. A while back they had kittens which I advised she spay/neuter before her little band turned into a major crowd. (The kittens are called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and TGIF.) Recently my client requested information on building a shelter of some sort for these cats. Well, I never thought about a shelter for feral cats. I just figured that they managed on their own. So I did a bit of research. There is a lot of information out there of feral cats, feral cat shelters and feral cat feeding stations. You can build your own or buy them. They range from simple to fancy. The important thing is that they be weather proof and insulated with straw. The site I found specified straw and not hay (I don't know why.) The entry hole should be large enough for a cat to slip through but not racoons or other varmints. And it's important that you be able to open the top so the shelter can be cleaned out periodically. The one I liked the best was made from simple materials, a couple of storage boxes, some duct tape and insulating material. Actually, the whole project looked like fun. I almost wish I had a colony of feral cats nearby so I could build my own box.

(Click on boxes for instructions or enter feral cat shelters in your search engine.)