Haha I love that they are playing together!
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It’s hard to say no when they basically show up on your doorstep! Our house is in a townhome style complex in a urban/sub urban area. No yards, and surrounded by apartments, used car lot, shopping plaza, and trailer park (not my ideal neighborhood, but there is something to be said for buying a new build in a transitional area). So our parking lot is about 35 yards away from my front door. Most of the ferals hang out in the bushes by the parking lot, except 2 who know I am a sucker and have adopted our entryway as their domain- which is fine by me.
At any rate, when we do eventually sell this place I’m going to require that the occupant be a cat lover since due to the city’s anti TNR stance there is a never/ending supply of feral and community cats.
There are only 2 kitties left in the colony who keep on evading my trap - both are males so fortunately no litters. I have no clue where mr. Big ears came from. Lord only knows what he was surviving on and how he got here so the best I can do is make him feel safe and loved and give him a full tummy.
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My morning doorstep crew. Mouse (shorthair blue) and Nicodemus (smoke tabby) with a cameo from mama Daisy who is the living embodiment of independent woman tortietude. All three were here before we bought our place, and I TNRd them.
The exchange seems to be gonads for a share of friskies canned pate morning and night. I also get treated to offering dead birds, dead mice and dead termites (thanks guys). These guys truly embody community living lol.
Nic has really, really bad flea dermatitis - it almost looked like mange. He let me pick him up and put him in a carrier and was an absolute saint at the vet. So some pricey RX topical treatments were in order. It’s clear this poor boy used to be someone’s pet 
They would be great barn kitties, but all the working cat programs here are beyond full. So I just give him as much care as they allow.
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OMG! 
Little one looks like he could fly away with those ears! He is totes adorbs.
Thank you for helping him.
Baler was the fartiest little kitten I ever met but eventually that went away with a change in diet to good food rather than crap.
That story about Nic makes me feel so bad - that he was once someone’s pet. People make me mad sometimes. Ah hell, most of the time.
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Some people suck.
Thank you for taking care of them. Its so sad that you have to and that they were tossed aside like garbage.
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Photos from today! During one of our many play sessions. You can see “Uncle” Ramsey in the background.
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Thank you for the wonderful pictures! They made my morning! 
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they are getting so big! 
Sadly, yes, they are! I wish they could stay kittens forever, lol!
Sassy sleeping in her favorite flymask!
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Awww!! The first one is so cute. Looks like she’s snuggled up in cat sized sleeping bag.
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I had no idea that a city would be anti-TNR. Unbelievable in this day and age when we’re supposed to be enlightened.
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I think it is more common than you realize. Kind of like this city, where the shelter does not take strays. Because some how leaving them on the streets as a rejected house pet makes more sense in a climate with serious winter and all that.
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My husband calls it her sleeping tent, lol!
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From what I’ve been told, a rescue sued the city over a “Return to Field” program which is different than TnR. But in an effort to save money, the city stopped BOTH programs and every kitten season has been insane, and every independent rescue is overflowing with cats. Its really awful.
There are petitions and protests to oust the current director over this any many other poor choices. When your own shelter volunteers are protesting against you, you know you are doing it wrong.
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@BatCoach, what is a return to field program? I googled but I am not really seeing the difference between TNR and this.
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From this site :
"The “Community Cats” program differs from a neuter/return program in adding the practice of return-to-field.
Return-to-field means that any tame cats picked up by animal control, or brought to shelters by individuals, who are not identified by microchip, and therefore cannot be taken directly home, are sterilized and vaccinated if necessary, then released where captured, to either find their own way back home or try to survive as ferals.
Return-to-field as a method of reducing animal shelter intakes and killing in some ways resembles the practice of dumping cats to “give them a chance,” as practiced by many people instead of taking cats to shelters during most of the 20th century, when shelter killing rates for cats often ran upward of 95%."
Essentially TnR is supposed to be for feral cats. But if a friendly stray / dumped pet is found, rather than going through intake & adoption protocols at a shelter, the cat is fixed and “returned” to where it was found, rather then remaining at the shelter.
They are somewhat closely related, but to me, the main difference is that “return to field” is putting human-friendly cats back on the streets rather than keeping them in the shelter to be adopted. TnR is for feral cats who would never do well in a home as they are unsocialized and undomesticated.
I get that it is complicated, since adult cats tend to do poorly in a shelter cage and even if they are friendly/domesticated. Fear makes them defensive and they can lash out or retreat into their shells, making them hard to adopt. But its the job of the shelter to set those animals up for success with fostering or cat enrichment rooms at the shelter rather than taking them in, fixing them, and putting them out on the street. I guess one positive is that the animal is now spayed or neutered, so that is solves one problem, but it seems like a half-measure since a potentially adoptable cat is now back on the street.
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Thank you!
That is absolutely heartbreaking. What exactly does the shelter do if they don’t take in strays? I thought that was the main mission for any shelter.
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I am not sure if they take cats at all, I would have to look it up.
There is also this large category called - owner surrenders.
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