I have six cats due to the irresponsibility of a neighbor. They had a female cat which they failed to have spayed, as well as failing to feed it regularly. She became more or less feral and my wife and I fed her scraps and things when she came around. (I live in a rural area) She would never come within a couple of meters of us. Late winter before last she brought a litter of kitties into our yard and proceeded to feed them directly in front of my wife as if to show that she wanted us to take care of them.
She left the kitties under a lumber pile near my shed and disappeared, permanently.
Then, realizing we had six wild kitties to care for, we started feeding them immediately as they were not weaned, and the weather was still cold.
They would not let us near them at first. At my wife’s suggestion we coaxed and coerced them with food, into letting us touch them at first and eventually pet them. As they grew and became much tamer, at least with us, we realized the need to get them adopted,etc… Since it was in the middle of Covid shutdowns and such, we found it impossible to locate any shelters, refuges, or the like, to take them, as there were just no vacancies to be had.
So we decided to go ahead and have them all taken care of by having the five females spayed and the male neutered as soon as they were old enough. It was a problematic expense to say the least. Six months later, the male shattered his femur and had to have a surgery.
I do not for a minute regret taking care of these little rascals. The male was temporarily inside recuperating from the hip surgery while I was recovering from prostate surgery and we are friends for life now. They are all outdoor cats. I built them a well insulated apartment complex and they have a small barn as well.
The people that created my situation were irresponsible and cruel, in that they had the wherewithal to take care of mother cat from the beginning and failed to do so. They only got the cat to control mice, and had had no real concern for the cat. At present there is no significant feral cat impact on wildlife in my area, including birds. I feed my cats well and they are death on mice and occasionally a bird, but in general they seem less aggressive towards birds than inside cats are when let out. Clearly, large feral male cats have a much greater impact on wildlife. We already have problems due to the coyote population and their impact.
I am not at all opposed to doing what is necessary to minimize the problems that pets can introduce.
I also think people should be held responsible for the way their behavior affects others, when shown to be optional.
4 Likes