My Houston neighborhood has been invaded by feral cats.
At least twenty-five have made their home at a foreclosed house that backs up to mine, and now that it is mating season there will soon be more if nothing is done.
As defined by Alley Cat Allies, a feral cat is: "A cat who has lived his whole life with little or no human contact and is not socialized, or a stray cat who was lost or abandoned and has lived away from human contact long enough to revert to a wild state.
Feral cats avoid human contact and cannot be touched by strangers.
" These cats do serve a purpose in helping to control rodent populations, and the current thinking among animal welfare groups is that a program encompassing humane trapping, sterilization and return to their neighborhoods is best for both cats and humans to continue to co-exist peacefully.
Several neighbors and I have been feeding our little colony for a number of months, and I have grown fond of the independent little critters, all of whom have their own distinct personalities.
Some are braver and more approachable than others, and several will come within inches of me when it is dinner time, sometimes even batting at my hands if I am not dishing out the food quickly enough.
All, however, run away if I try to touch them, and many will only come out of the shadows once I have packed up the food and left the porch where they hang out.
One brave little white Siamese mix was more friendly than the rest, and would let me pet him and pick him up; I was quickly able to crate him and take him to a local shelter where he went into a foster home for some socialization before being put up for adoption.
While I am sure that the rest of the cats would be very happy to continue their current arrangement, there are several problems from the human side.
First, the foreclosed house will shortly be taken over by the mortgage company and I am sure they will not appreciate a number of kitties running around the property.
Second, the longer the colony exists without intervention, the more cats there will be.
Finally, many neighbors are not happy with their presence due to spraying, screaming and mating behaviors, and several have begun to threaten to trap and kill them.
After researching various resources to learn more about feral cats, I have become the neighborhood proponent of a Trap/Neuter (or Spay)/Return (TNR) program.
Basically, the cats are caught using live traps, taken for spay/neuter surgery as well as vaccinations, parasite control and ear tipping (where the top of the left ear is cut off so that these cats can quickly be identified as already sterilized and part of a managed colony), then returned to their original location.
Caretakers agree to continue to provide food, water, shelter and medical care when needed.
This type of program can be successful in controlling local populations and allows the cats to live safer, healthier and longer lives.
The cats can then continue their neighborhood jobs of controlling rodent populations, and their average life span increases from a mere two years to about ten.
Here in Houston, the only group that currently helps people manage feral cat colonies is called the Feral Cat Assistance Program (FCAP).
It is an organization that works on limited grants and funding, and their resources are stretched thin.
Through my ongoing work with the local shelter from which FCAP is an offshoot, I was able to get our little colony on the list for their assistance.
Even so, it has been four months of waiting for spay/neuter surgery appointments to open.
Finally, this past week, they were able to secure ten surgery spots and seven live traps for our little group.
Neighbors added another two traps to the effort.
Then, the hard work began.
With limited help, and after asking a lot of questions of those who have done this before, I carted nine traps over to the abandoned house on a Tuesday evening.
I baited them with smelly food like human tuna and sardines (a very messy job) and then set them in various secluded spots around the yard and porch so that they could not see each other getting caught.
Four cats had entered the traps before I finished setting the remaining five.
Other cats were more wary, so I took the four trapped felines back to my house to spend the night in a heated room off my garage, waited an hour, and went back to check the traps again.
In the first hour, one more cat was trapped.
Several of the cats had figured out how to get the food without springing the trap, so I re-baited and moved the four remaining traps.
Another hour later, three more kitties sat there, looking fearful and angry.
They, too, spent the night in a comfortable room.
The unoccupied trap was sprung with no cat inside, so I decided that eight was enough for the first night.
Early the next morning, I loaded them all in my car and off we went on a thirty minute drive to the new Spay Houston low cost clinic.
Even though I was a little late getting there due to rush hour traffic, they took them all in and told me to return the next morning at 7:00 AM to collect them.
Physically, I was exhausted and sore; who would have thought that setting and carrying nine unhappy cats in traps could cause so much muscle pain in legs, arms, shoulders and back? And, I am sure they were not feeling any better about life.
I collected them the following morning, furry little balls huddled in corners of their cages, some hissing, some meowing and some just sitting and watching.
I was instructed to keep them confined for an additional twenty-four to forty-eight hours if possible, to make sure they were eating and there was no bleeding.
In all, there were four males and four females, two of which were already pregnant.
Most were fairly young.
Back we went to the heated room off the garage, where I set them all down on a plastic tarp covered with newspaper, and covered the traps with a sheet.
I provided them with food and water and left them to recuperate.
On the second morning after their surgery, all had eaten at least something and all seemed responsive and alert.
There was no sign of bleeding and I am sure they were uncomfortable sitting in their little traps.
One smaller cat had somehow pulled one of the sheet covers into his trap and balled himself up in it, and looked a little surprised to have it pulled away from him.
One by one I took them out to the yard near the fence backing up to their "residence" and opened the traps.
All looked relieved to be out in the fresh air, and all took off like lightning towards familiar territory once the doors were opened.
We will try again next week to capture additional members of the colony and go through the same process.
Little by little, we hope to get most, if not all, sterilized and vaccinated, so that the colony remains at a manageable size.
Sterilization tends to alter a lot of the behaviors that annoy people...
spraying, vocalizing and mating being key.
Several neighbors have agreed to continue to feed and keep an eye on the colony and to spread the feeding stations around various homes so that the foreclosed house can be put on the market, hopefully without cats as part of the home's features.
With any luck, this program will be a win/win for all.
For more information on feral cat colonies and management, you can check the websites for Alley Cat Allies, the Feral Cat Coalition, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).