Feral Cats - Success Story!

This is an example of the wonderful work that can be done when you trap, neuter and release ferals. We always love to hear stories like this. Town Cats helped this woman and give her advice so she could properly deal with the ferals she knew.

The director sent one of many emails she often sends, upon request, giving somebody suggestions (see our Feral Cats section!) as to how to deal with feral cats.

The response:

Thank you so very much for the wonderful e-mail. The information you gave me was very helpful. I thought I'd update you on the cats situation. Well, I picked up 2 humane traps from the human society on Saturday. Sunday, my husband and I drove out to my place of work and set them both up. Within minutes we had caught the little black cat. I felt horrible, because that's the one who really trusted me, but in my heart I knew he'd be better in the long run. I had arranged an appointment at one of the vets in Santa Clara offering the $10 spaying and neutering for feral cats, in the event I caught them. We brought the Black one in and kept the other trap set up. When we picked up the Black one later that day, we came back to check the trap, and sure enough we had caught one more. We took it home with us and kept the 2 of them together.

We left a trap set up that evening and on Monday morning we had caught kitty #3. I was fortunate enough to get both of them in to be spayed at a vet in Milpitas also offering the program. Monday evening we set another trap out in hopes of catching the mother, who abandoned the kittens at a very young age, and again we were successful. I took her in yesterday morning and she's now at our home recovering. I brought 2 of the kittens back yesterday after giving them a few days to recover at our home and I'll probably bring the mom back on Saturday. Those 3 are very wild and don't care for human touch, where as the Black one is a love! I have never had anything to do with cats, I'm a dog person, and a large breed dog person at that. This little cat seemed to pick me for some reason or another. He's now become part of our family and he's as happy as can be. I have 2 puppies (Mastiffs) at home, and already they're all walking around the house together. Just amazing! Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you again for your help and I think what you're doing is wonderful.

Oh, I forgot to mention: The mother cat was in heat! Now they can live out there lives without the worry of reproducing. They're well feed here with a nice cat house. I'll continue to try to get the others to become friendlier towards humans.

And, several days later:

I've named the little Black cat, "Kitty Boo-Boo's", well actually that's what they all come running too. The little Black cat actually turned out to be the only male of the bunch. This opens up a whole new world for me too, the Cat world! I think it's also going to be great for my dogs. We spend a lot of time socializing our dogs since they're going to be bigger then most, and this is just another plus in their lives. It's pretty cool that they're so trusting of each other, but I suppose they've never been threatened by another cat or dog, so they have no reason to be afraid. Having all of them under 1year of age also helps. I have all the cat lovers here at work helping to educate me about cats, and they're even bringing in things that their cats no longer use, so this little guy is already spoiled.

Thanks again,
Lisa