Expert: Jessica - 7/23/2010

Question
I am writing this because I don't know what to do anymore. I have the luck of feral cats ending up in my back yard and on my front porch. Most of the time they're females and pregnant and very hungry. I feel so sorry for them and feed them and of course, they don't ever leave. The thing is that I can never catch up with the spaying and neutering of the offspring. And this is ruining my back yard and front porch and my life! I am not a hoarder but anyone who passes by my house would think I was. I have spayed and neutered over 40 cats. It is very expensive even though I get it done at the shelter. They don't care that I'm rescuing these poor creatures. And not to mention the food! ( I spend at least $40 a week because total I have 21 cats in the back and 13 in the front( I have spayed all the of the front ones even though they belong to my neighbors-I only have 4 that are actually mine and not really because the neighbors stopped taking care of the first female cat and she had 3 litters of 4 and that's how I ended taking care of them and started spaying and neutering because they would spray my front porch.) Anyway, I am in desperate need of help and I don't know what to do. If I call the Animal Control would they place them up for adoption or would they euthanize them? What can I do to change my life around? I spend 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon, and 1 hour at night feeding them. I don't get to do a lot around the house because of this. Can you give me some advice and also what can I do to not inherit more cats?  P.S. One time this lady, I had never seen before, came up to me while I was outside and  brought me a shoebox with a tiny kitten and told me she couldn't take care of it and that if I didn't take it, she would just leave it in the yard. My husband and I just looked at each other and took the kitten that was about 2 weeks old. We ended up feeding her with a dropper and then with an orphan kitten bottle. So, do you get what I'm talking about?  I even have contemplated moving because I don't know what to do. Help!

Answer
Hi Esther,

Sorry you find yourself in this predicament.

Animal Control will euthanize the cats.  The best way to try to be free of the colony is to remove the kittens from the mothers when they are young, just a few weeks old, so that the babies will be socialized and adoptable.  You will need to bring these babies into your home and potentially bottle feed them for a couple of weeks, depending on how old they are when they're caught, and spend some time with them to accustom them to humans.  Then bring these babies to a shelter once they're eating solid foods, assuming one is available to you.  Try to trap the mother and get her spayed immediately, though, because once she stops nursing, she's likely to go back into heat.  At least with this method, you won't have new generations heaping up on you.

The only other option you have is to taper off their food supply.  This is certainly a less effective and less humane way to go about it, as the cats have now come to depend on you as a food source.  But if the cats aren't finding their requirements where they are, they may move on.  The only problem is that they may, instead, become more problematic, getting into unsecured garbage, etc., and this will cause you problems with the neighbors.  Also, they may continue to stay around your home because it's established territory if they are able to develop hunting skills, and since you aren’t feeding them, you won’t be able to trap them and neuter them.  Populations may continue to rise.

As for people who decide to drop their cats on you, I'm afraid there's no cure for that ignorance.  I hope there's a shelter in your area that will take the kittens that people are choosing to abandon.  There's nothing wrong with turning in an animal that was never your responsibility.  If people approach you with their kittens, let them know they’re going straight to the shelter.

Best of luck!

Jessica