All the kittens have homes and my days in the rescue games are over, for the time being. I simply don’t have the time or the money to continue. I will help out by contributing when I can by donating to local foster groups and to spay and neuter programs.
The rescue of the kittens is bittersweet since two more litters have born since then. Still, I cannot thank the folks that helped find homes or took in a kitten themselves enough for what they have done. We couldn’t save them all, but now six kittens will have a chance to grow up.
While the colony is growing, two more cats have been run over since my last post. And as I have said before, they didn’t have to die. This is not a problem caused by cats. Sadly, one of the cats who perished was an un-neutered male who father many of the streets’ kittens. He was a house-cat whose caretaker thought that it was cute that he was out making babies. Cute, but destructive.
The cat colony in my neighborhood loves to use the sandy soil in some folk’s yards as their litter box, which prevents anything from growing in those spots. Worse, those places are right along the sidewalk and dogs love to eat the kitty droppings which can transmit diseases. In addition, the colony in my neighborhood is not healthy. The kittens in my care were found to have coccidia and roundworms both of which are highly transmittable to both humans and cats. The cats also hide underneath cars, crawl in engines and have taken to peeing on one man’s convertible top. They have taken over the driveway of one duplex to the point where the residents pulling in have to stop and get out of their cars to move them out of the way. The neighbors who once were determined to help the colony now are calling animal control desperate for them to take care of the problem. The city has yet to respond. In a busy working neighborhood like mine it could be months or years until the problem is taken care of, if it is solved at all.
My two kitty boys are spending more and more time indoors, much to their dismay. Jack still accompanies Luke and me on walks, but is carried inside afterwards. They don’t like it, but it is best for them and for the neighborhood. Contact with the strays can lead to them becoming ill and the birds of the neighborhood don’t need my boys shortening their life expectancy. Come to think of it, there aren’t many birds or squirrels around.
Sadly, the cat colony on my street is a part of a growing problem worldwide. Stray and Feral cats are now considered to be an invasive species. Yes, you heard me. They are considered to be an invasive species, which has been linked by some to 33 different bird species going extinct. Many feel that the problem is not a domestic animal issue but a wildlife management issue. They may have a point. In Australia, they are experimenting by allowing the native dingo population to increase in order to combat their feral cat issue. Residents here in the U.S. would not take kindly to the wildlife officials allowing coyotes to increase their numbers to decrease feral cat numbers. Sterilization or euthanizing the cats are two other solutions. Many people, including myself, do not want to see the cats killed, but after seeing so many die on my small street I cannot help but consider that a peaceful death preferable to that horrifying ending.
My pets or furry companions contribute so much to my life and while taking care of them can at times be a sacrifice it is well worth it. SpayNSave is a non-profit group located in Central Florida whose mission is to reduce pet overpopulation by offering high-volume, low-cost spay & neuter surgeries. They also educate the community about responsible pet ownership. No animal is disposable. Trap and Release programs are wonderful when funded and when they can successfully catch, fix and release at least 71% of a colony. And while some feral cats can be successfully integrated into homes, not all can make the transition. Even worse many cats that make their way to shelters die before finding homes because the shelters cannot afford to keep them. No-kill shelters are wonderful but they cannot keep up with the demand. They need our help.
If you can, please consider donating to your local rescue group or shelter. Every penny can help. And in the immortal words of Bob Barker, please spay or neuter your pets.
Lucinda Rose 
I hear you. There is a colony in my neighborhood, and my current resident kitty was part of that colony. I could not have a more delightful little fellow, but when he came in, he had a trip to the vet and was neutered and vaccinated within an inch of his life. In March, he had some serious health issues due to the vaccinations and he had FHO surgery last month. He more than compensates for the cost, but we simply can’t afford any more.
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It is amazing how expensive they can become and how quickly they can do it. My heart twinges every time I take Luke for a walk. It is amazing how animals can work their way into your heart.
How is your kitty doing now?
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He is doing amazingly well, thank you. Not exactly running, and I’m not encouraging that, but he’s coming along nicely. We bonded before I ever brought him indoors. He’s a beautiful marmalade tabby with the sweetest disposition. The only time he scratched anyone was when they were examining him the first time and didn’t realize how very much pain he was in. He will sit on my lap as long as I let him and purrrrrr. Pure love, that.
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And now, for the REAL WORLD …
Licensing and laws do nothing to curb the problem. If cats are required to be licensed then cat-lickers just stop putting collars on their cats, as they did by me. And they won’t even bother getting them micro-chipped, especially not that They want absolutely nothing that can hold them legally accountable for the actions of their cats. We’re not talking about the topmost responsible citizens of the world. They don’t want that responsibility of what their cat has done coming back on them. If they had even one iota of a sense of responsibility and respect for all other lives on this planet we wouldn’t even be having these discussions.
I found something that DOES work, works well, and works fast (relative to the years it takes trying to educate deceitful and lying cat-lickers that accomplishes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING). Where I live cat-lickers have learned that _ALL_ cats, stray and feral, collared or not, ear-tipped or not (because TNR con-artists now just clip cats’ ears only, WITHOUT sterilizing or vaccinating them, to protect their hoarded cats from being trapped and euthanized), _ALL_ their cats are shot on sight and buried whenever found away from supervised confinement.
The ONLY thing that works is destroying any of their cats found outdoors off their property. They either learn to stop getting more cats that die under the wheels of cars or from animal attacks, or they finally learn how to be a responsible pet owner, respectful neighbor, and learn to keep their invasive species animal under confined supervision, as it should be. Win win win all around.
You can’t train a cat to stay home but I found that, in time, you CAN train a cat-owner into being a responsible pet-owner and a respectable neighbor. Most of them are so phenomenally stupid, disrespectful, and criminally irresponsible though that you have to make at least 12-15 of their cats permanently disappear before they even start to figure out what they’ve been doing wrong all during their sorry, useless, and pathetic lives. (Though the ones by me who were adopting “barn cats” from “barn-cat programs” were uniquely cretinized and lobotomized. I had to shoot and bury many hundreds of their cats, to stop their cats from annihilating the very last of my native wildlife, before they started to learn.)
If you live where its not legal to use firearms then check into 700-1200fps air-rifles and pointed vermin-pellets. Many of the new ones come with their own sound-suppressor designs built-in, specifically designed for shooting vermin cats in urban areas, the demand is that great. Failing that, then there’s always the SSS and TDSS Cat Management Programs that are exploding in popularity worldwide. Shoot, Shovel, & Shut-Up; or Trap, Drown, Shovel, & Shut-Up. Both methods are legal on every square foot of this earth. No local laws were violated if it never happened. (Where cats have already learned to evade all trapping methods, then inexpensive generic acetaminophen (overseas paracetamol) pain-relievers are a more species-specific vermin poison. But you really need to dispose of that cat safely so that wildlife won’t die from the many deadly diseases cats spread even after their death.)
I don’t see anyone dumping cats where I live anymore. They don’t even adopt more than can be kept under lock & key 24/7. When driving through the area I don’t see even one cat on anyone’s doorsteps anymore. I always keep an eye out to see if there are more free-roaming cats that will have to be shot. And if I’ll have to leave fish-oil trails on all the roadsides again, leading right to my IR surveillance system and laser-sighted rifle. (You can read some of the most effective methods I invented to rid my lands of hundreds of these vermin in only two seasons, posted here: americanhunter.org/blogs/arkansas-will-trap-feral-cats The eradication so complete and effective that cats are non-existent from my area for nearly 4 years now. Not seen a one.)
Leaving ANY of their invasive species cats outside in my area means certain death for that cat, their further existence can be counted in hours. You’d think everyone else could learn from this simple lesson. The quickest way to solve an unwanted animal and irresponsible pet-owner problem is to let everyone know that you will quickly and humanely destroy every last one of their unwanted, uncared-for, or unsupervised animals for them. They either grow up fast or, far more plausible, dump their animals elsewhere to become someone else’s problem.
You just can’t be an enabler of criminally irresponsible spineless and heartless idiots — or they remain that way. (At least where you live, anyway.)
IF THERE ARE NOT DIRECT AND IMMEDIATE IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES TO THEIR CRIMINALLY-NEGLIGENT AND CRIMINALLY-IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIORS AND VALUES THEN THEY LEARN ABSOLUTELY *NOTHING*.
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Sir,
I, too, live in the real world, and where I live if you are caught shooting an animal in the manner which you describe you would be charged with animal cruelty at the very least. The police department frowns on people shooting even strays within city limits.
While you have many facts in your rant and I don’t disagree with many of them, you have no compassion for the cats. Maybe at one point you did and the explosion of cats and weird folks who lick them drained it from you. I think we both can agree that people need to be far more responsible with their pets. After doing some research for the post above I decided to keep my cats inside.They are for the record both fix and have not contributed to the colony in my neighborhood. I am also talking to my neighbors about not feeding the cats and supplementing the colony.
You are free to do what you want on your land. I live in a community and have benefited from the generosity of my neighbors. So, I choose to live a different way. Both of us live in the real world.
Sincerely,
Lu
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In case you are curious — the term that I use of “cat licker” is justifiably and accurately gleaned from the growing fad of people who are obsessed with cats and want to do everything possible to make their cats feel good, as naturally as possible, at the expense of all that is reasonable and sane.
They are now licking their cats clean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9xmiOxsTWg
Since they see a cat fighting back from being washed in water as animal abuse, but the cat not fighting if they use their tongues, they use their tongues instead to wash their cats.
It’s just another one of the many aberrant and mentally-ill behaviors of “cat lickers”.
I cannot, in all honesty, EVER use the term “cat lover” again to describe these heartless and spineless cretins. People who love cats do not throw them under the wheels of moving cars, let them lap-up antifreeze in a gutter, force them to attack one another to fight for territory (no different than people who run dog-fight rings and are just as criminal of animal abuse), or let them be attacked by other animals by letting them roam free. “Cat Lover” is an extremely oxymoronic label. “Cat Licker” is the only one that accurately works today.
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Susan, I am glad that your sweetie is doing good.
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