Posts Tagged ‘Feral Cats’

You may remember the story about my husband and me taking in the meanest little feral that we’ve ever met. She was rescued from an alley in Lawrenceville by Penny from Huff’s Flowers, along with the mama cat and also a little boy cat. The mama and brother came out of their feral state fairly quickly, but Nancy held strong to her hissing, spitting and claw swinging ways.

It was quite a journey with Nancy (who was named after the girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist, Sid Vicious). On the advice of many folks that are experienced with feral cats, we kept Nancy in a bathroom to get her used to living indoors. That should have been only for a couple of weeks, but as I said, she held strong to being fearful and literally aggressive. Every day, 4 to 10 times per day, Denny and I would try to interact with her, going in the large bathroom, playing with her toys, luring her with treats, etc. Not much progress was made.

I was at my wit’s end, not knowing what else to do. It had been 3 1/2 months, and we were afraid to let Nancy out of the bathroom to interact with our 3 dogs and other 3 cats. We didn’t want her to get hurt or get lost in the house, basically being an indoor feral. One of my best friends convinced me that the only way Nancy will ever “come out of it” was to let her out of the bathroom, and see how domesticated cats act. Well, Denny and I discussed it and neither one of us was crazy about the idea, but we didn’t know anything else to do. We opened the bathroom door and went out into the living room to see what was going to happen.

Nancy slowly but surely came out of the bathroom, growling and hissing as loudly as possible. Then, she made her way upstairs, which is where our “cats’ room” is, where fresh food, water and litter boxes are (she also had those things in her bathroom, of course) and we didn’t see her again for 2 days. I was so scared that she was going to find a way to get into the attic or into the ventilation (there’s no way, I was just concerned about her to no end).

Of course, our two small dogs were really curious about what this little gray, growling and hissing animal was up to. We keep a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so that the dogs don’t get into the cats’ room and eat their food or “kitty crunchies,” so they just stared up at the loft for days. Finally, Nancy showed her little face, peeking over our living room from the loft, and then jumped down onto a large wooden decorative shelving piece that we have in our living room to observe us.

Now, months later, this little kitty is another member of our family. My friend Allison was right, she just needed to interact with the other cats to see what it’s all about. There was a lot of growling and hissing from our other 3 cats at first, but now they are all buddies. Nancy follows me around in the morning at feeding time, big fluffy tail up in the air, just meowing away with our other morning beggar, Comet. She and Chili play non-stop, getting pretty rough, but still just play. They run up and down the stairs, just going completely crazy. Nancy even gets up on the couch and asks for attention from Denny and me now. She is very skittish and probably always will be, but she is as normal as a cat can ever be at this point. Nancy has come a long way and we are very proud of her! Now, if I can just find a way to teach her that she is not allowed on the kitchen counter!!!

“The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron.” – George Will

Feral cats are descended from domestic cats but are born and live without human contact. The difference between a stray cat and a feral cat is that strays are homeless descendants of domestic cats, but unlike feral cats, have had prior contact with humans, therefore exhibit temperament similar to that of a domesticated cat.

The average lifespan of a feral cat that survives beyond kittenhood is about 2 years for individual cats and about 5 years for those who live in a managed colony. Indoor domesticated cats live on average from 12 to 18 years, but it isn’t unheard of for them to live to their early 20′s.

There are programs called “Trap-Neuter-Release” or “TNR” that can help reduce the feral cat population. They help improve the health and quality of life for the feral cats by vaccinating and sterilizing them. This helps prevent the spread of disease and also prevents more litters being born into this harsh way of living.

Listed below are some TNR programs, rescue groups and other resources that can help you learn more about ferals and what you can do to help.

Altered Feral State: Walton, Newton & Rockdale Counties

Athens Area Humane Society: Athens

Atlanta Cat Rescue: Atlanta

CampusCats: University of West Georgia, Carrollton

Carroll County Humane Society: Villa Rica

Cat Zip Alliance: Athens

CatLanta: Atlanta

Cat Nappers: Albany

Daffy’s Pet Soup Kitchen: Lawrenceville

For Paws Sake: Conyers

Furkids: Atlanta

Georgia Humane Society: Sharpsburg

Humane Society of Forsyth County: Cumming

Island Feral Cat Project: Savannah

Lifeline Animal Project: Avondale Estates

Project Catsnip: Atlanta

Spay Georgia

The Milton Project: Savannah

The Sterile Feral: Northwest Georgia

University of Georgia: Athens

Whiskers Project: Blairsville

This information was gathered from The Humane Society and Wikipedia

Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds. – Jean Burden