My partner and I support our feral cat population here in Richland, Georgia

by David Gibson
(Richland, Georgia)

This is "Sunny" the day we rescued her.

My partner and I support our feral cat population here in Richland, Georgia. We have worked with Allied Cats in Columbus, Georgia who graciously supplied us with traps in which to catch our immediate feral colony. We have trapped and ultimately had five or six of our feral cat population neutered and spayed. Unfortunately, our favorite feral cat, and the most attractive and tame one of the group, was a bit too old and died during the process of the anaesthesia.

We were heartbroken, of course, beyond words, really. We had her cremated by a pet cremation service in Columbus, GA and we scattered her ashes onto the family plot here in Richland.

Unfortunately, Richland Georgia is overrun by a pack of dogs that roam wind. The dogs have killed one of our outdoor cats that wasn't really a feral, but who was abandoned by someone and just took up outdoor living as a means to survive. She became more or less feral and although basically tame, still was an outdoor cat. But she was tame, sweet, and a joy to have around. The dogs killed her on our front lawn as reported to us by a neighbor who witnessed the attack.

Another one of our feral cats, Sweetie-Pie went missing a little over a year ago. She gave birth to two kittens which my partner and I were unaware of until I happen to catch sight of them heading toward the street. They were barely able to walk having been alone for approximately ten days as their mother recovered at Allied Cats in Columbus being spayed. We have hand raised the kittens in the house and they (Lucy and Max) are wonderful pets.

Recently, when two of our feral cats went missing, we got up early to see if they had come home. One of them, Bradley, was safely on the carport--hungry, but unharmed. We heard another cat meowing loudly. Fearing it was out other missing feral, we searched the carport and nearby shrubs. The mewing continued. Finally, on a hunch, we lifted the car hood. There was about a six-week old dilute calico kitten sitting on the car battery. As soon as she saw us, she started purring so loudly we could hear her from far away. We have rescued her, too. The vet reports that she is in excellent health, and other than a few fleas, which we treated her for, is doing extremely well. She runs around the house like she's been here for years and owns the place. She sleeps uninterrupted from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. in her large crate and food and water along with litter pan, which she doesn't even use. She is growing like a weed, is an extremely happy and loving kitten.

By the way, our other missing feral showed up, Baby-Bella, no worse for wear, and now things are pretty much back to normal. We suspect our dilute calico followed our missing feral home and she must have become frightened and took shelter up inside the car engine.

Cats are such wonderful creatures. They supply an endless amount of joy and love and the least we can do is provide them with a good a home as possible, whether that be indoors (if possible) or by trapping them, having them spayed and neutered, and then caring for them with good food and water and, of course, as much love as possible. It's all worth it in the long run. It really is.

We're grateful to Bradley (our feral who brought little Sunny home with him).

David
DavidTheLeo at yahoo.com

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