Feral cats need friends, too

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By Liz, trying with all my might to hang onto summer. 

TuffyIt’s August, which is Tuffy’s month to promote his story in Rescued: The Story of 12 Cats Through Their Eyes, in order to benefit his rescue of choice, the Friends of Feral Cheshire Cats (FFCC). So he wanted me to do a PSA of sorts about feral cats, in honor of his friend Lion, the feral he used to hang out with in his prior, outdoor life.

Lion the feral cat
Lion hangs out on the roof of the shed back in the day.

Feral cats are often vilified by people who don’t understand their plight. While these cats are not socialized, they can still live happy, healthy lives outside. Many of them will even show their thanks to their feeders by coming close enough to pet every now and then.

Shaggy rocking her feral cat ears - note the ear tip!
Shaggy rocking her feral cat ears – note the ear tip!

Organizations like FFCC help by working with the community to humanely trap ferals, get them spayed or neutered and properly vaccinated, and arrange for an ongoing management plan to make sure they have food. Many of these groups also help by taking any feral kittens born outside and placing them in foster homes, where they can be socialized and placed in a home.

These groups are working with limited volunteers and resources, so they depend on the community to take ownership of colonies as they are able. If people pitch in, help trap and transport the cats to the vet and provide food, these colonies are managed well and the population doesn’t continue to expand.

Lori Ratchelous and Kerry Bartoletti of FFCC with me and Shaggy.
Lori Ratchelous and Kerry Bartoletti of FFCC with me and Shaggy.

National Feral Cat Day, an annual awareness day sponsored by Alley Cat Allies, is happening Oct. 16 this year. People are encouraged to do something special for the ferals and register as an event. By doing so, they help the cats, help educate their communities and get some cool gear in the process.

Kim as a feral cat, MCing the event
Kim as a feral cat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did an event with FFCC earlier this month in support of Rescued that was registered with National Feral Cat Day. We had a lot of fun talking to the community about what they can do to help, connecting with other feral cat supporters, and celebrating felines everywhere.

To find out more about feral cats, check out Alley Cat Allies. If you have a colony in your area that you’d like to help support, check out their page to find local resources that can help. And if you just want to help a local rescue, do that too. Tuffy and the ferals say thanks!

Readers, do any of you help with feral colonies?

Published by Cate Conte / Liz Mugavero

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in the Boston area with her rescue pals.

14 Thoughts

  2. I’m glad to see all this support for ferals. I manage donation cans around my downtown for the Merrimac River Feline Rescue Society, which does all kinds of things for kitties, including work with ferals. It’s a great organization, so my little part is making sure an empty can is swapped out for a full one, and changing up the pictures of cats that I tape to the tops. All three of our cats are rescues, too.

  5. Thank you for all you do!! We do so little, simply feeding one, now three ferals again. One is the papa of many of the kittens in our mobile home park. When the papa came followed by two younger cats that looked half-starved, well, he knew we would take care of them as long as they didn’t get HIS food. We still can’t get close enough to pet him, much less capture to get spayed. A sweet female. who I miss so much now, called our carport home for several years, didn’t want to live indoors even though she had once been a pet. We caught her whenever the weather was too hot, or too cold, and brought her in but she hated it. She loved us as we did her. I guess if every pet lover can feed one or two extras, there would be so many less feral cats. Thank you for the excellent article!

  6. Pingback: Feral cats need friends, too | gtom1516

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