anyone have any experiences they want to share?

i am on 1/5 since i started this morning. i have the mom; i am working on the 4 kittens. my plan was foiled when i realized they have been escaping to a drain that is encased in concrete so i couldnt just go in there and get the kittens when i trapped the mom.

7/21/2008 9:14:32 AM

i've accidentally trapped a few in my rabbit boxes

they tend to get angry when they've been in there for a day

7/21/2008 9:16:34 AM

my ex-bf used to do this...

only it wasn't for rescue...

he would set raccoon traps...catch the cats...then shoot them with a pistol while they were still in the traps

7/21/2008 9:19:03 AM

a) how long was this wonderful human being your boyfriend

b) how long did you stay with him after you found out he did things like this

7/21/2008 9:22:46 AM

nearly two years...


i don't really remember what point in the relationship that was....

but that was far from the shittiest thing he did as a person....


i mean...my dad is a wonderful man that loves cats...and he would kill feral cats...but he didn't trap them first and shoot them while they were in cages

7/21/2008 9:25:07 AM

he was just eliminating the middle man between rescue and euthanization

7/21/2008 9:25:17 AM

i didn't realize feral cats were adoptable

7/21/2008 9:25:26 AM

^5wut?

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:37 AM. Reason : aer]

7/21/2008 9:25:28 AM

not really the direction i was hoping this thread would go

i have the hook up with atlanta pet rescue (http://www.atlantapetresuce.com) for spay and neuter and getting the kittens in the system for adoption. i dont know if the mom will be able to be socialized. if i have to release her, i am worried that once i move, there wont be anyone to keep an eye on her.

Quote :

"i didn't realize feral cats were adoptable"

im hoping that the kittens will be and at the very least be TNR

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:28 AM. Reason : 

7/21/2008 9:27:23 AM

that's some terrible shit

seriously

was he some kind of farm boy or something... because then it might be a little understandable

savage and fucking retarded, but understandable

7/21/2008 9:28:10 AM

5^ pretty much...it's not the act of killing feral animals that bother me...it's the way he went about it...



he would scoop it up in a shovel while it was dying and try to show it to me and laugh...

even though he knew how much i love cats


^oh definitely....he thought he was fucking Davy Crockett

he killed, caught, or trapped the vast majority of what he ate

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:29 AM. Reason : asdf]

7/21/2008 9:28:19 AM

2 years huh

and I thought I was a bad boyfriend because I was a little inconsiderate at times

jesus

7/21/2008 9:29:07 AM

yeah, sometimes you need to kill a feral cat, but he could've gone about it a lot better

7/21/2008 9:29:44 AM

no, it's not your job to kill feral cats

call animal control and complain, or whatever

but I see no good in killing things just for the hell of it ( and OMG, I'M HELPING BY PUTTING DOWN DA FERAL CATS doesn't cut it)

7/21/2008 9:31:03 AM

^^^haha...yeah...he sucked....

he fucked with my head for a VERY long time...and i was stupid and immature enough at the time for it to work...

well he introduced me as his gf for the first time at his graduation in December...I broke up with him on January 2...

it was my new years resolution that year



^i'm pretty sure animal control would not have shown up in bum fuck Rowan County

that's just the way they do things in the country

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:32 AM. Reason : dfa]

7/21/2008 9:31:26 AM

well, maybe you do have to put down nuisance animals in the country

but you don't have to enjoy it

7/21/2008 9:33:36 AM

oh i agree...

he got way too much pleasure out of it....and even more out of tormenting me with it

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:35 AM. Reason : i never said he wasn't a piece of shit....i didn't even deny that back then]

7/21/2008 9:34:34 AM

when they start killing your chickens, you start killing them. that's how it works.

7/21/2008 9:35:03 AM

Isn't 'rescuing' a feral cat the equivalent of trying to domesticate a wild animal?

7/21/2008 9:35:35 AM

it's really not much different than trapping a wild rabbit and trying to make it a pet rabbit

7/21/2008 9:37:18 AM

my dog caught a rabbit in the yard once...i tried to make it a pet...

then it got stuck behind the refrigerator...



my mother was not happy

7/21/2008 9:39:00 AM

Quote :

"when they start killing your chickens, you start killing them. that's how it works."

very true.

7/21/2008 9:39:06 AM

Quote :

"Isn't 'rescuing' a feral cat the equivalent of trying to domesticate a wild animal?"

that usually works with the kittens which for the ones that i am going after this morning cant be more than 3 months old

with adults, you just try to trap, neuter, and release

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:46 AM. Reason : 

7/21/2008 9:43:28 AM

^and try not to get your eyeballs scratched out in the process

7/21/2008 9:44:02 AM

^^ah makes sense, because I have seen some crazy ass feral cats that seemed far beyond the reach of being transformed into a family pet

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:45 AM. Reason : .]

7/21/2008 9:45:09 AM

^^ true

^ its not impossible but it would take a very patient person and the right adult cat

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:46 AM. Reason : 

7/21/2008 9:45:50 AM

There's an organization in the Atlanta area that deals just with feral cats. My grandmother contacted them when she had some living in her garage. I can't remember the exact name, but I can ask and get back to you.

7/21/2008 9:53:20 AM

sounds good because i have no idea what im going to do with the mom after she is spayed

7/21/2008 9:54:49 AM

I wish someone would post that video with that animal control guy getting pwnt by that wild ass cat that crawls up his leg and bites the shit out of him

7/21/2008 9:54:50 AM

They encouraged her not to try and keep the mom, but I assume they would help you spay and release.

7/21/2008 9:56:26 AM

well i already have the hook up for the spay...if anything ill release her back where i got her and just try to keep an eye out for her

i cant keep any of them...i already have two of my own which is enough for a one bedroom apartment

[Edited on July 21, 2008 at 9:58 AM. Reason : 

7/21/2008 9:57:29 AM

I didn't mean keep personally, sorry. I meant try to try to make a house cat out of her, regardless of where.

7/21/2008 10:02:28 AM

oh i knew what you meant, i was just throwing that out there

7/21/2008 10:04:08 AM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8JjUG7Dgofw

and this was a cat that's available for adoption.....i can't imagine trying to wrangle a riled up feral cat

7/21/2008 10:14:56 AM

you dont wrangle anything

all i did was put the trap out, set it, and bam i got one of them. as long as the trap stays covered, they stay pretty calm

7/21/2008 10:16:14 AM

i have 4 feral cats that live at the house i bought...i really like having them around because it's a rural-ish area (the closest big road is only 2 lanes) and so they keep the rodents and birds away from my garden and berry bushes

that said, i really want to catch them and get them up-to-date on shots, for their sakes, and then put them back outside...i'm not sure how to go about catching them (2 of them will let me touch them, but only barely, and the other 2 won't let me get close enough)...and then, i'm afraid they'll be so pissed at me that they'll not come back or let me get close to them afterwards

7/21/2008 10:27:23 AM

i wouldn't worry about the shots

if they get sick and die, they die

circle of life, motherfuckers

7/21/2008 10:28:56 AM

well, i don't worry about it, per se...but at least the deworming (food gets expensive when i'm just feeding the worms in their intestines!)

7/21/2008 10:29:45 AM

feeding a feral cat, eh?

7/21/2008 10:30:22 AM

yepper...like i said, i like having them around...for the most part, two of them hang out on/around my back porch all day, and they keep the birds off my berry bushes and rodents out of my garden

7/21/2008 10:31:52 AM

I had a friend who had a cat problem back in the day. Contacted animal rescue for some cages and they told him to just off the cats...

7/21/2008 10:35:00 AM

like i said, cut out the middle man

7/21/2008 10:36:26 AM

my dad's clinic was associated with "friends of feral felines," which meant once or twice a week we would get about 10-30 cages dropped off with cats in them to be vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and checked for other things like worms/mites/etc... those things could be mean as piss, but it was the right thing to be doing

7/21/2008 10:40:34 AM

Call animal control and tell them that you're willing to catch them yourself and bring them in. They'll usually loan you a trap.

I was trying to trap some one time with a 'have a heart' trap and a can of tuna, but they were smart enough to stick their paws through the back of the cage and get a pawful of tuna and pull their paw back out and eat it. I could see the claw marks in the tuna, but the trap would still be set. I did catch a possum one time... but possums brain case is like 1/3 the size of a cats. haha

7/21/2008 11:08:22 AM

Quote :

"i didn't realize feral cats were adoptable"

results are horrific if they are attempted to be made into anything other than barn cats...

7/21/2008 11:12:34 AM

Quote :

"he was just eliminating the middle man between rescue and euthanization"

ftw.

7/21/2008 11:19:47 AM

well the mom pissed herself when i went to put some water in the trap

all over the concrete breezeway...through the newspaper that was down under the trap

good thing i had vinegar on hand to clean it up immediately

7/21/2008 11:48:27 AM

i would guess since they are kinda stringy you'd need to have something on hand to tenderize them a lot.... probably cook it like you would goat? I'd be worried about parasites.

oh wait you said RESCUE....

n/m then

7/21/2008 11:55:19 AM

one of our cats back home is a feral cat that was basically scraped up off the road as a really young kitten. he's not too sociable (even for a cat) but he's still great to have around

7/21/2008 11:59:26 AM

:squashed cat pic:

7/21/2008 12:08:49 PM