I've seen a black cat wondering the neighborhood the past few months. This morning I saw her again....with 4 kittens in tow. Not sure how old they are, but they look big enough to not be too new born.

It appears their home base is the lot next door to me which has a vacant house on it.

What is the best thing to do? Call Animal Control? I would hate for them to be put down. I also don't want the 4 kittens to each have 4 kittens and so on and so on.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
Call Animal Control?

This. Or there may be some feral cat organizations in your area who can help - sometimes they trap them to fix them, so they stop having litters.

Find a TNR (Trap Neuter Release) in your area.

What kz1000 wrote.

Yup. Animal control here won't deal with them. You are on your own, and most of the kinetic or permanent solutions are either illegal, or needlessly cruel. If you can trap and neuter, that's the best option, and then they will keep you free of rats and mice, while not reproducing.

Call animal control. Here in South Florida they will come out and pick them up.

Wait for it....

A friend just found a Momma and her 4 babies living in their boat.

She trapped them, neutered the mamma cat, then released her. She's working on socializing the kittens and finding homes for them. After a few weeks, she'll get help from a local cat rescue if she can't find homes for the cats, but she's a sucker for any and all animals.

After TNR'ing the mamma, I'd start leaving food out for her. She'll stick around and keep other feral cats from moving in. Will also help keep rodents / snakes away.

Do try some of the rescues and ask your local animal control for suggestions.

As much as I hate to say it as a last resort putting them down is much less cruel than what happened to our feral cat population in the fields around here. They vanished about the same time a pack of coyotes arrived.

The spaying process around here runs about $225 which includes required shots and the surgery. I'm willing to spend that on one of our pets but taking in five feral cats would get real pricey here. Some locations have organizations and/or programs which would certainly help.

quote:

would certainly help.

Thanks all. Turns out we have a Cat Alliance in town, which deals with feral cats and runs a TNR program. I am in touch with them and letting them know where the cats are usually seen.

Just pisses me off that humans domesticate these animals and make them dependent on us then abandon them to create wild populations that live a difficult, usually short life.

trap ( if legal) spay, neuter,chip, shouldn't run you more than $600.00

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Wait for it....

SSS.

Or:

Charlotte County Animal Control will loan you traps and take the trapped animals away. I'd find out if Collier County had a similar program.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
trap ( if legal) spay, neuter,chip, shouldn't run you more than $600.00

Not a chance I'd pay that for a feral cat. I did pay $140 to put down a feral cat my dog had caught many years ago. It was half dead when the dog brought it to me and I took it to the vet. That was my last trip to the vet with a feral cat.

Check to see if there's a 'no kill' shelter in the area.

The one near me will loan you traps, then take the cats, shelter and adopt them out.

Send them to Cparktd.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/3230016064

Check with your humans society. Ours provide the trap for free along with the spay and neuter.

A friend of mine feeds a bunch of free-roaming neighborhood cats. So many, in fact, that I refer to his place as "Ken's House of Pussy."

When new ones show up he captures them and has their reproductive system disabled. I don't know where he has it done, but I'll guess that he is not paying retail for this service.

The cat rescue from which we've adopted our last three does TNR for ferals. Those they catch they evaluate to be not feral they keep and work to find forever homes.

My Amazon Smile donations go to that group, plus my wife and I donate to them regularly.

I have a variable number of fairly regular feral cats that come to my yard to eat. I've always paid to have the females neutered; I don't usually bother with the males because they can't bear kittens. My yard has been kitten-free for many years now. In the last year or so I have had 3 of my regular feral cats disappear. One I assume died elsewhere (she was looking ill) and the longest-term one just died last month in my yard. She was the mother of 4 of my "indoor" cats. Another regular (male, fixed) disappeared several months ago--no idea what happened to him.

I do not treat my outdoor feral cats as "pets"--they only get initial shots when they are fixed. I pretty much leave them to their own destinies. (I did pay $4000 to fix a broken leg on one--she is a regular now.)

Needless to say, I do not have a mouse/rat problem, nor any tree-rats (sqirrels).

flashguy

I don't get this feral cat TNR BS. They damn sure don't do that with dogs. And putting cats back out with no one to insure they get an annual set of shots to keep them healthy removing the potential problems that could create, makes no sense to me.

We had a huge feral cat problem (like 10/12 plus) a few years ago, and Animal Control basically told me they had no ability to deal with them at the time, so we were on our own. Shortly thereafter a neighbor's pet cat got clobbered. Then I had cat crap all over my yard which I didn't want the dogs to get into. In the end a neighbor and I eventually eliminated the problem over two week period time. Moral of the story, spay and neuter your damn pets!