feral cat rescue | Savannah's Paw Tracks

Archive for the tag “feral cat rescue”

29 Apr 2019

When human homeless and community cat colony collide

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

I have a dilemma to present to my readers and hope that each and every one will give utmost consideration to their thoughts on this when leaving a comment.

You know that Mom L and Dad P have been helping care for and manage a once 35+ cat colony at a city park within walking distance from my castle. Mom L has been able to bring seven cats successfully through adoption paths, one senior kitty had to be sent to The Bridge and another needed a quiet back garden to live out his senior life as he was hyperthyroid.

This cat colony, all resulting in humans abandoning cats who they once adopted and cared for, has been in existence in this beautiful city park for about sixteen years. The colony grew to over forty cats in the housing recession in my county and our area where we and the cats live was hit extremely hard. People had to leave their homes and they simply stopped off at this park to drop off their now unwanted or impossible to move with kitty. Most were left as not spayed nor neutered.

Long story short the River View Park cat colony stabilized once Mom L worked with the primary caretakers and feeders to about twenty-seven adult cats.

That was true until early March of 2019.

Here is the dilemma upon which I ask my readers to leave a comment. These cats live in a lovely city park right on the banks of the mighty California Delta, the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers that flows into our gorgeous San Francisco Bay.

The dilemma: The colony cats, resulting from abandonment by humans, require a very similar environment, meaning natural foliage cover, trees, access to water, food etc. as many humans who are also currently feeling abandoned after our inability to offer affordable housing in this area. Same habitat needed by both in general. Places where they can hide, camp out, not be bothered by humans who do not approve of their existence and those in authority who must enforce public nuisance ordinances, etc.

The assumed solution: Remove any cover in which the homeless can hide their tent encampments and believe that community cats are resilient and adaptable and can fend for themselves.

If this “assumed solution” happens, what do you believe are the outcomes for both the homeless humans and the homeless community cats? What would you do. Remember this is a city park, very well maintained for families to use in a lovely location on our California Delta.

Let me hear from you my readers, in comments, what you believe is the most humane set of actions to care for both the human and feline homeless in this situation? One further detail to add to your deliberation on this dilemma—as a result of what occurred between this “human and community cat” conflict, this cat colony has diminished from a stable twenty seven cats to seventeen cats—and as of this past weekend is now at potentially ten cats.

We are all really looking forward to my pals comments. Please think about this from not only a “human” perspective, but let me hear from my feline pals perspective too. Savannah’s Paw Tracks holds compassion for both. But in this dilemma can both “win”? Tell me if you have had a similar dilemma and how it was resolved.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Community Concern For Cats

Contra Costa Humane Society

Petco Re-Homing

11 Feb 2019

16 Comments

SNIP, SNAP, Snippity Snappity

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

Well Mom L and Dad P spent another day at the quarterly SNIP clinic. I have posted so many times about this totally awesome community cat spay/neuter clinic that I fear my loyal readers are tiring of it. BUT—we do not tire of this 4 times a year PAW IT FORWARD opportunity.

Ummm…is this gonna hurt??

I want to make this post about the “special cats” we experience when Mom L and Dad P volunteer. First, and thankfully I have not photos, one kitty, a very “feral” kitty, was found to have a possible broken femur and tail. She had her tail amputated, and she was to be returned to her caretaker/feeder with the broken leg hoping for some recovery. The important learning is that the caretaker asked that she not be euthanized. The caretaker wanted this kitty back and is willing to keep her in “recovery” inside her home until the kitty can manage on her own outside where the kitty knows best.

The injuries were likely the result of being hit by a car. So what do you think my readers? Good decision? Questionable decision?

It is so difficult for event the volunteer veterinarians to make these judgement calls.

And then there are the incredible, clearly purebred cats that come through Mom L’s “admission table”. Thankfully, the humans who brought this purebred Ocicat in were more than willing to care for him after his neuter.

Why am I here?

What? You think I am special

Yes, I am an Ocicat

The last photo simply shows this incredible kitty after being sedated. Mom L followed him from admission all the way through being discharged to his rescue family. And yes, this male cat is purebred, Ocicat, who just showed up in the backyard of his rescue humans. Such is the reality of community cat rescue.

Another incredible cat group represented today were Lynx Point Siamese.

We had youngsters and adults. Amazing community cats, abandoned either as adults, not spayed/neutered or even as juveniles, not spayed/neutered. The end result is the same. The cats are left to reproduce, not cared for and well—just abandoned. These cats are not “feral”. They are afraid, don’t trust humans, but if they do not “run”…then likely they are willing to try just one more time to trust humans. Meaning, they are not “feral”.

Feral: Feral cats are the result of a domestic cat being abandoned or lost and left to fend for itself. The offspring of the domestic (now considered feral) cat are usually never handled by people and become terrified. Many times, when approached by people, they will hiss out of fright.

So many of the cats coming through our SNIP clinic are not “feral”. They are simply terrified after having been abandoned by humans. And because all community cat rescues do not have sufficient numbers of “fosters” for these adult abandoned cats, we can only “return them to where they are being fed”.

Please, do not abandon a cat. They are not able to live “off the land”. Please do not “shoo away a community cat looking for some love and a meal”. Please, call a local community cat rescue and ask for help. Every cat deserves love, kindness and a safe, warm place to live out its life with good food and understanding that the kitty did not make a decision to live without human caring.

Thanks lots for reading my post,

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Community Cats, paw it forward, Project Delta View Cats and tagged feral cat rescue, paw it forward

22 Oct 2018

16 Comments

What a difference time can make

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

Hey guys, how many of you remember our foster kitten named Andi? Mom L trapped her and her Mom Mandi last October 2017 where they were living at an Elk’s Lodge near my castle. Well Mom L received notice from my cat Vet that Andi’s annual checkup is due next month! That made us all remember sweet Andi and miss her all over again.

Thanks to Face Book, Mom L was able to find Andi’s new Mom and ask for an update. Here you go—Andi one year later!!!

She is just as cute as ever and still a bit shy but always progressing and loved very much by her family.

I am learning in my own recovery from trauma that time and patience make such a difference. Now I can see that happening with our current foster kitten, Katie. She is about eight to nine months old and recovering from a traumatic early kittenhood including being a mom cat at age five months!! We have also learned that she has a permanent limp, likely due to a trauma at birth which has made one of her front elbows not function quite right.

BUT—Katie is progressing lots with the four months we have had her and with love and patience. Katie adores being brushed and loves having her full tummy rubbed and brushed. She throws herself down and stretches out from the tip of her front paws to the tip of her hind paws!

She flips over when she expects some more attention and she always gets it!

More please!!

And last but far from least, a look at what the passing of a few weeks can mean to some new born kittens Mom L and a pal rescued using the kittens as bait for the mom cat.

Remember how tiny they were when reunited with their mom?

Just take a look at them now! You can see five of the six kittens in the first photo. They are all so much like their beautiful Russian Blue mom cat. Only one gray tabby and the others are like mom.

And here is the one cute tuxedo kitten.

They will start being weaned soon. Mom cat will be spayed and released in her favorite neighborhood as she has shown she is very much a feral cat. But all the kittens will be going to adoptions in another four to six weeks.

So I say APAWS APAWS for how much progress can be made when we give rescue kitties some time, love and patience. Don’t you agree?