Farms and Ferals
by Mary H
(Snohomish WA)
We own a horse farm in the Snohomish Valley in WA State. We have been here for 7 years and have handled close to a hundred ferals, strays and drop offs. We’ve actually watched people drive by in a van and fling the cats out of the back door!
Of course, the cats wound up at the right place ;). We catch all that we can, make sure the others have good food & clean water, get wormed, at least.
The ones we can catch we take up to our (WONDERFUL) no kill shelter NOAH in Arlington. The’ll fix them for us and we take them home to heal.
Any who leave litters for us, we make sure the kittens are handled regularly and have no trouble placing them in wonderful homes with all the kids that come regularly for riding lessons!
A few we have kept, some just get under your skin and it’s too hard to say goodbye. Two have made it all the way to our house! What started as crazy wild feral kittens with terrible colds turned into fixed, mostly gentle, couch potatoes!
I don’t know if they could move quickly enough to catch a mouse any longer, but they don’t have to 😉 Our biggest struggle with them, now, is in keeping them down in weight.
Recently, we answered an ad in Craigslist, a vet looking for a barn home for a huge ‘feral’ cat found terribly injured. I answered, of course.
We brought him home after he spent three months healing from his wounds at the vet. We had one last, very large, gash to heal on his side but we managed ok. He is the MOST loving, vocal sweetheart of a cat… we just love him!
The ad said he would not make a suitable house cat but I have my doubts 😉 Time will tell. For now, we’ll keep him UTD on shots, worming… fed well and brushed (he looks to be part Maine Coon, maybe a JC cross as he has many traits and is HUGE).
Anyway, as usually is the case, a couple months after neuter he’s become a gentle pussycat and very well may make it in our house and onto the couch before too long 🙂
Mary
Hi Mary… Well, I am terribly impressed with your work with feral cats.
If you can get a picture please send it to me:
mjbmeister at gmail.com –substitute the at with @ please….Michael
This is Washington – the Snohomish area, I hope…Michael
