For the Love of Five Feral Cats

All summer, I kept catching glimpses of this little black cat around our house.  I didn’t think anything of it at first but I started to realize it was a stray.  Having lived so many years in NYC, I didn’t come across feral cats often.  I’m sure the city has their share of them, but living in the heart of Manhattan on the 17th floor, it wasn’t likely that one would cross my front door or hang out on my balcony.

feral cats

When the weather started getting cold, I became worried about this little cat.  Becca, from our vet, Lincolndale Veterinary Center pointed me in the right direction on how to build an outside shelter for feral cats.  So armed with directions, I told Jim we were making a cat shelter when he came home from work.

He looked at me and said, “Have you named the cat?”

He knows me so well.  He knows once I name it, I’ve adopted it in my heart.  And no, I have not named her.  I didn’t want to get attached without knowing the situation.

The shelter is basically two plastic storage bins, the smaller one inside the bigger one, with styrofoam insulating the bottom, sides and top, and a hole cut out for the cat.  If you’ve ever cut styrofoam, you know it makes a mess.  It started off fine.

But by the time we cut the 4th panel, there was styrofoam everywhere.

I’m still finding styrofoam in the strangest places.  Like in my coffee.  But the end result is an insulated outside shelter lined in straw for feral cats (with bits of styrofoam clinging to it).

I started putting food out for the black cat, with the shelter near by.  And the cat did come and eat the food.

And I eventually moved the food inside the shelter and the cat went in.  She was using the shelter, but I noticed that she never stayed long, and always ran to my neighbor’s back yard.

I finally called my neighbor Suzy and asked if she’d seen the black cat.  And she told me, yes, she has been feeding her, as well as her 4 kittens.  They even come inside her foyer to eat.

Wait.  What?!  I thought I was feeding and sheltering just one little black cat.  I had no idea she had a whole family living in Suzy’s back yard!

There are 2 black and white ones, a white one, and a gray.

feral cats

I took the shelter we made over to Suzy’s since the cats have been living there since they were born in the summer.  The kittens checked it out.

And then went in, led by the white one.

Suzy had said the white and gray ones are the shyest, but the white kitten seems curious by me and always comes close to check me out (that’s mama cat in the background).

feral cats

What beautiful kittens.

feral cats

I was originally going to try to capture the black cat myself once I had gained her trust and get her spayed, but when I found out there were actually 5 feral cats, I knew I needed help.  Someone told me about Community Cats, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to cat rescue and specializes in trap-neuter-return of feral cats.

I met with the founder Penny, and she showed me how to use the Have a Heart cat trap with the goal of trying to trap the mama cat first and getting her spayed. Suzy and her family have fallen in love with this cat family of 5 and will keep taking care of them so once we have trapped and neutered all 5, they will be returned there.

And yours truly, who is highly allergic to cats and has always been a dog person (only because I don’t know much about cats and have never been around them much) has found herself thinking way too much about these 5 and visiting them daily.

I’m nervous about the trapping of the mama cat (and eventually all 4 kittens) but know it is for the best to get them all neutered and spayed and vaccinated, not only to control the feral cat population, but also for these cats to live healthier and happier lives.

The plan is to try to catch mama cat on Monday night and bring her to the clinic first thing Tuesday morning.  Wish us luck!

I have to say, I never thought I would be on a mission to trap-neuter-return and care for 5 feral cats but somehow, they have grabbed a hold of my heart.  If Pinot and Lokie didn’t go crazy every time they saw a cat and chase the poor thing, we might have had 5 additions to our family.  Jim, you can thank Pinot and Lokie that we won’t.

feral cats

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 Comments

  1. Katherine on November 21, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    I think if you offer a big plate of tuna fish mama cat will come running. Stinky AND delicious.

    • pinotbylyn on November 21, 2014 at 7:08 pm

      Yes, stinky tuna! Our biggest problem is trying to catch only the mama cat. We only have 1 trap and they had told us to try to catch the mom first because she’s the one most likely to get pregnant again. But all 5 come to eat at the same time so we’re trying to figure out how to separate the kittens from the mom.

  2. Lauren on November 21, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    Lyn, you have the BIGGEST heart!!!!

    • pinotbylyn on November 21, 2014 at 7:09 pm

      I think my heart is too soft. Road kill makes me sad – lol.

  3. Jackie brooks on November 21, 2014 at 6:10 pm

    Lovely cat/kittens ..gud smaritans..happy ending .. Nice

    • pinotbylyn on November 23, 2014 at 3:09 pm

      Thanks Jackie!

  4. Nancy on November 22, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    Mama cat definitely wandered into the right neighborhood! Best of luck catching her – it’s wonderful that you are taking care of her & her family.

    • pinotbylyn on November 23, 2014 at 3:10 pm

      Just went over the plan again with my neighbor – tomorrow is the day we hope to catch her. Hope we do since my neigbhor said she’s seen the dad cat hanging around so the mama might be in heat again 🙁

  5. Elizabeth on November 25, 2014 at 12:02 am

    I made a donation to community cats!

  6. Lisa on November 25, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    I just made a PayPal donation to Community Cats and will make up a bag of towels and unused cat beds to drop off. Since I am so close by Bedford, I may even try to volunteer some time. (Time? What’s that?)

    Anyway, if others want to help and don’t have time, you can easily donate right on the Community Cats website: http://www.communitycats.com/donate.html It’s quick, easy, and secure. Please do what you can to help. They need your donations to help these beautiful creatures.

  7. pinotbylyn on November 27, 2014 at 10:28 pm

    Thank you so much for donating to Community Cats!

  8. Paula Sillars on December 12, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    What a wonderful thing to do. 🙂

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