Neutering a cat that isn’t technically yours

[DawnJL]

@Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom,

Humans have caused the extinction of at least 680 species since the 1600s. Another 15,000 are critically endangered and will likely become extinct in the wild within the next century.

Tall buildings kill between 365 million and 1 billion birds annually in the United States.

You asked a question about why cats’ predation on birds was often highlighted. I was attempting to be helpful by providing some of the background information that I was aware of relevant to your question.

FWIW, free-roaming cats’ impacts on wildlife is considered a human based impact since humans are responsible for the presence of the cats in the various ecosystems. Feral cats are considered the primary impact versus pet cats. If you compare the numbers you can see that cats are estimated to kill 4 times more birds than tall buildings do so I am not sure why you tossed out that particular data point.

The last link I embedded included a more nuanced consideration at how the impact differs by ecosystem (urban vs suburban vs rural vs island etc.) rather than just the raw numbers which do not illuminate where the significant versus less significant impacts occur.

You’ll note I did not advocate for any particular position or solution --just provided some information in response to your question. The situation IS complicated, but I think it’s worthwhile to examine. YMMV.

[DawnJL]

@BatCoach

Fellow foster-mom also gave me 2 products for Buzz. One is Rebound Recuperation for Cats, the other is Miracle vet weight gainer. I gave him a dose of each and saw a huge difference. This morning he was eating his soft kitten food out of a bowl and pinging around with his siblings! YAY!!! lets hope this trend continues.

Fingers crossed for Buzz!!!

Sailor Jerry looks like a real charmer!

Thank you for caring for all these kitties!

[BoyleHeightsKid]

No stubby tail… he’s kind of a mini might too so it makes it easy to carry him around… he’s a lover boy.

[shiloh]

Little Sailor Jerry looks so much better and I am happy to hear he is already playing with his new little room-mates.

Go Buzz GO!

@BoyleHeightsKid - your boy looks so plush like a stuffed toy.

[BatCoach]

Buzz gained 18g last night YAY!

We got a letter from the Community Management Company saying that I have to stop feeding the stray cat (hahaha they think its 1 cat?!) and that there is a 2 pet maximum per house. The whole thing was poorly written and pretty darn laughable. They even included a pic of a stray cat on a doorstep (not my doorstep). Full text below:

*Community Associations, like the one in which you live, have the responsibility of maintaining harmony within the community, protecting property values and ensuring your community is a pleasant place to live. We are writing to request your assistance with one or more item(s) that recently came to our attention, which may not meet the standards set forth in the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions and/or Rules and Regulations for your Association. Specifically, the following appear to be out of compliance: Other - It has been brought to our attention that you or your neighboring units have been *
feeding a stray cat. We ask all to please not feed the stray, as we are getting fleas In common area from these cats.
Per Rules and Regulations owners shall have no more than two (2) dogs and/or cats within the Residential Lot or Property. (6.6)

So now begins my education of this off-site property management company and our HOA that if they were doing their jobs, we wouldn’t have a BOOMING cat colony and that simply not feeding them doesn’t make the cats magically go away. I’ll need to explain how the local animal control and shelter will do NOTHING about feral cats, and that TnR, which I have been doing or free is the only way to humanely reduce and control feral cat populations. I’ve already prevented 9 kittens from living in the colony, and countless others from being born by spaying/neutering adults. Wish me luck.

[Gesaffelstein]

Wow- I really hate HOA’s especially since I pay $420 a month. They are always useless.

[BatCoach]

right? ours is pretty cheap at $150 a month but incredibly useless.

[shiloh]

LUCK! My brother calls them the HOA Nazis. Morons. But be careful - sometimes their idea is to trap them and kill them or just kill them.

Go Buzz Go!

[skydy]

Jerks.

[dressagetraks]

Good news about Buzz!

I have a friend who is on the board of her HOA. From her tales, I have concluded that I would never live under one. They sound nuts.

The worst issue for her personally, way back before COVID, was the swimming pool. She suggested ONE HOUR each week be an adults only swim. One hour. Lots of support from many people, and it was very popular that hour, but you’d think some parents were attacked. Rants about the Constitution (which article talks about our rights to swimming pools???), obscene notes left on her door and car, threats of physical violence. Seriously, threats of physical violence. And one black parent going off on a racism fit saying my friend was just trying to oppress black kids. It was insane. Heaven forbid that for one hour a week, your little precious might have to do something else instead.

[ravenclaw]

I would never live under a HOA either. I would get fined and harassed all the time about not mowing my grass often enough.

I’m so glad that Buzz is doing better! See, you’re learning all the tricks for when you foster another batch of kittens.

[Sing_Mia_Song]

I spent about 2k this spring spaying/neutering/vaccinating feral cats because they were spraying on the hay and I don’t want no frickin kittens. The two females and one very handsome male wanted nothing to do with domesticity, one male seemed like maybe he’d be a house cat, but snuck out through the dog door in the middle of the night, and one gave up being wild during his post-surg/vac period and sleeps on my bed every night. One out of five ain’t bad??

[BatCoach]

not bad at al!! bless you for being pro-active and taking care of the ferals. I bet the one kitty who stayed thinks the others are bonkers for not taking the free meals and snuggly warm bed option.

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

And I think it’s bloody wonderful that you decided to try to hijack a thread about rescuing cats with this.

[DawnJL]

You asked a question. I thought you might have actually been interested in some information so offered it in response to your raising the issue. I’ve put it out there for anyone who was interested and intended to leave it at that.

FWIW, I’ve been rescuing cats cats since I was in elementary school and have continued to do so my entire life. For five decades now, I’ve tamed ferals, helped care for feral colonies, fostered many cats and kittens, hand-raised many litters, and worked as a vet tech taking care of all kinds of cats. I absolutely love cats.

I’m going to continue to follow the stories of the wonderful kitties in this thread. Peace to you.

[dressagetraks]

[BatCoach]

I packed up all 8 babies to get their vaccines and worming meds. The Panacur has been working wonders. Jessie and Buzz are gaining again. While they are still a good deal behind their littermates, I am really pleased that their appetites have returned. No more worms for these babies!

Daisy was hissing at some of her babies this morning - they are 7.5 weeks so she is starting to really enforce the weaning. Good for her. I’m trying to see when I can get her spayed.

The bummer is that she most likely will be released to the colony. All the fosters are full, and its hard for me to gauge how feral she is without putting her in a home environment. I don’t know if she will be a good house-pet unless someone can kind of give her a rehab trial period to see how she takes to being an indoor girl with no kitten responsibilities.
She still has moments of feral-ness, like when I put some advantage treatment on the back of her neck, she freaked out, spun around and got some in her mouth!!! I thought I had poisoned the poor girl (after some hurt looks, yeowling and foaming at the mouth, she ate/drank and looks back to normal) She’s been pretty warry of me since then. Not that I blame her.

I sent an email back to the HOA on Friday afternoon explaining why TnR is the only way to handle a colony like this and how not feeding feral cats does not make them magically go away. DH read it over and added some good stuff as well, so we await their response.

you can really see the size difference between Bo Peep and Jessie even though they are from the same litter.

mike committed vehicular penquin-cide with the taco truck
my friend brought over her little girls to play with the kittens, they also brought this dolly bed to pose the kittens in! so cute

IMG_5346

[SusanO]

If it makes you feel any better - all my cats sometimes act like I am killing them when I dose them with Revolution. Uggs ALWAYS has a fit, runs off and won’t get near me for a few days. He was a dumpee but he didn’t act feral.

[shiloh]

More cuteness! YAY!

I love the Taco Truck. I have a couple of sillies that would really enjoy something like that.

[shiloh]

You really need to send some of their pictures in to the 365 Cat Calendar people.