Feral Cats - What to Do If You Have a Colony of Wild Cats in Your Neighborhood

Feral cats are cats which are wild animals. They often live in colonies and they can be anywhere. The colony may have started out with a couple of stray cats who were abandoned and they multiply from there. According to www.feralcat.com, a pair of feral cats which have a couple of litters of kittens a year can exponentially produce over 400,000 cats in seven years. That is if they live that long.

A feral cat is different from a stray cat. Feral cats are afraid of people and are truly wild. They must survive on their instincts and they know that if any thing catches them it may kill them. Unfortunately, those instincts can only take them so far. They often go hungry and are subject to disease and injury. If they survive past kitten hood, they don't often live past two years of age.

To Feed or not to Feed?

A couple of years ago, I moved into a new house. Shortly after settling in, I started seeing cats all around. I saw two on a regular basis. It was winter in New York and they were awfully skinny. So, I started feeding them. Big mistake. Soon, I was feeding upwards of five cats a day and my yard was overrun with them. I didn't know what to do.

Once Spring came, I tapered off feeding them and was determined not to get involved. There was a house around the corner that always had pans of food out for them, so I felt that I could absolve myself of responsibility. After all, I had my own problems.

But there were these two cats that I would see over and over. It seemed they were more of the loners of the feral colony, which was huge. Then, it happened. One of the cats who I saw all the time must have had an accident. His tail started to shrivel up. Eventually, it fell off, leaving a raw stub which never healed. The poor little thing would come around with his stumpy butt all raw and stuck with leaves. What could I do? Of course, I started to feed him again. And his little friend too. It became a daily ritual. I would call him, "Noooo Taiilll.... Come get your breakfast...."

Can Anything Be Done to Help?