Celebrating Feral Cat Day By Making a Difference

It’s no secret at a Cat Wisdom 101…

It’s National Feral Cat Day and the best info about what you can do in your community is at Alley Cat Allies. If you’re sharing on social use the hashtag #feralcatday.

What is a feral cat? They are unsocialized cats who look exactly like any domestic cat. Most are fearful of humans and go out of their way to avoid us. Ferals can be called tom cats, barn cats, alley cats or street cats but they don’t live with humans, at least not indoors. They may sleep in a shed, under a porch or any place offering shelter.There is a movement to call them community cats instead of feral for a friendlier, less wild perception. Sometimes feral cats become socialized and sometimes a socialized cat can revert to being feral. Cats are the only domesticated animal capable of doing so because cats, unlike dogs were never fully domesticated.

Our former feral Domino is celebrating his third anniversary of coming in from the cold. Yes, it’s hard to believe but he lived as a feral for seven years and is now a lap cat who lavishes kitty kisses. Domino is not typical. Most ferals will not enjoy that fate. If they’re lucky, they will be trapped, neutered/spayed, ear-tipped and returned to their feral colony where volunteers regularly feed them and provide shelter. By the way Domino was not ear tipped. He’d lost the tip of his ear from frost bite the first winter he showed up on our porch.

Any feral kitten rescued before 8 weeks, socialized and adopted has a good chance of leaving their feral roots behind. I often hear stories of feral cats who decide to leave their wild ways for a cushier life. The feral cats I’ve known who made the switch to formerly feral were solo cats like Domino who didn’t belong to a colony. Feral cats prefer to live in bonded groups or colonies. At the recent PetSafe Summit in Knoxville I met their photographer Sharon Popek who shared a story of her former feral and I thought you’d enjoy it too.

It’s true some “feral” cats are indeed feral, they don’t want to be inside or touched or hang out with you. But if some of them do. Just give them a chance. This cat lived behind a gas station down the road from us for at least 5 years. She was outside, alone. She had kittens and was trapped by the Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee and spayed. They had to return her, since they did not have a home for her. The owners of the gas station started to complain and threatened to call the shelter and have her removed by animal control. My husband had been feeding her a little and thought she was pretty friendly. We took her, planning to keep her outside. But it didn’t take long for me to realize this girl was ready to be a part of a family. She has lived with us for several years now. She does fine with our other cats and she loves attention. ”

Our U.K. pal Theresa posted her latest poem about ferals.

Feral

We never know what the day may bring,
or what we have in store.
Each day is taken in our stride,
just like the one’s before.

Some of us have battle scars,
and wounds that cause us pain.
Mother nature is our nurse,
and soothes us back again.

We’re loath to trust, it keeps us safe
the past has taught us well.
Compassion’s shown by very few,
how many? We can’t tell.

The elements can be unkind,
both old and young may die.
Life is tough for feral cats,
for that we won’t deny.

Some us are trapped and caught,
no longer can we breed.
Others wind up at the pound,
for them a home they plead!

Our future’s never guaranteed,
the risks for us are great.
Poison, cars and unkind folk,
can often seal our fate.

However, we just soldier on,
we’re streetwise, shrewd and smart.
We’ll take our chance in the hostile world,
and hope it has a heart!

Teresa Harrison-Best
www.facebook.com/catawall

Merlin used to be friends with a feral colony I fed when I lived in Toronto. Not snuggle buddy close but I’d see him sitting next to ferals on fence a few feet apart, just hanging out. He inspired me to make a difference and I founded a cat rescue in 1997. Merlin’s birthday fundraising campaign ends tomorrow. It did not meet his goal but we’re grateful for everyone who kindly donated.Next time I’ll figure out the tech glitches earlier 🙂