Feral Cat Colony
by Alex
(Overland Park, Kansas, United States)
It all started with the ignorance of a neighbor. I’m sure he had good ‘reasons’ not to spay and neuter the cats he has. Well, this one particular female got pregnant, as is obvious. Her litter of kittens spread throughout the neighborhood, the girls forming a posse while the boys got very territorial. They, however, seem ok with ‘sharing’ territory as they cycle through males and areas.
Recently, as all this was quite a while ago, the cats have gotten out of hand. They’ve kept down the rodent population which is the great thing. But we worry that when we move they’ll just be rounded up and killed. Some are even getting so sick from lack of proper care that their growth is stunted.
Given, I don’t mind feral and wild cats being about. But this is the suburbs and people don’t think twice about accidentally or purposely running over cats or other animals that are in the road. We’ve had a few dead cats on our street and as we feed them, it’s unnerving to find them squished and bloody.
We care greatly for these cats and have even started naming them. But lately I’ve been seeing more and more. If we had some land, I’d be fine with a few colonies of cats wandering around on it. Even the raccoons we, at first only accidentally, started feeding too get along with the stunted sickly kitten group that stays fairly near or under our front porch. They’re really not bad cats; the one we call Baby (she’s from the original cat’s first litter) looks like a calico from the distance, but her spots are tabby patterned. She’s really quite fetching and has started trusting us more and more. As the months get colder, they sit by the screen door as we have an older house and the heat leaks.
We’ve been searching for a non-profit or extremely cheap TNR group, or even some place that will cheaply rent out or sell live traps. But it’s like pulling teeth. No one seems to care, even the Humane Society for this area. We’d do it ourselves, but we’re looking for a house to move out of this certain area as we’ve grown tired of the racism and ignorance that makes it up.
I realize y’all are breeders and thus are wealthy, but I figure that y’all have more of a heart than the ignorant uncaring people that make up our impoverished area.
Alex
