# Feral Cats..



## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

Hello, I am a feral cat enthusiast looking to exchange ideas with other rescue groups.


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## Heather102180 (Nov 19, 2003)

Welcome to the forum!


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Glad to have another feral cat advocate here. Do you feed colonies? TNR? Belong to a TNR group. Looking forward to your input and stories!


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## kittiesmom (Aug 27, 2013)

Hi and welcome, my two were feral kittens we rescued.


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## daperlman (Mar 22, 2014)

Hi Feralsoul, 
Thanks for supporting the cause. We have TNR'd 6 cats outside my office... and continue to spoil the ones that remain.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

I have several inside cats that were strays, and one completely feral cat that I have finally tamed down and she is quite delightful. She was truly feral, she has lived in my neighborhood for 5-8 years, and used to only come out on garbage days, and get into the garbage. Now, for 3 years now, I have fed her, and slowly she has learned to trust me. It took me 6 months before she would even come near me, and probably a year before I could pet her. Now I can pet her, and she sleeps in my garage at night. She is already been TNR. Her name is Arwen and I adore her. She used to only trust me, but now she loves my husband also, and the weirdest thing about her, she doesn't like other dogs, except my neighbors yellow lab. She waits for the dogs owners to walk him every evening, and she follows them on the walk and rubs up against the dog and the dogs owners the entire time. She will throw herself down on the ground in front of the dog and roll around exposing her belly. She has never shown me her belly, and just recently started letting me pet her while she is laying curled up on her bed in my garage. She completely ignores my dog, who is cat friendly, and wants nothing to do with any other friendly dogs in the neighborhood.....I jsut don't get why she does this, but it is so interesting and I can't figure out why she loves this dog so much. 
But that is my feral story. I don't work with a rescue. My 3 indoor cats are all strays that found me over the years, and I have a 4th stray that I am fostering until I find a good home for her. They have a way of finding me  

Looking forward to hearing more about your ferals


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## daperlman (Mar 22, 2014)

BTW these carters feeders are worth their weight in gold for feeding ferals
they have a dry food trough but I put wet bowls in there if I am around sometimes
Cats using their new feeder - YouTube


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

I have two ferals that live in my barn and am adopting two more in a couple months. My own little colony. I am a huge supporter of TNR and regularly do fund raisers and try to help out two of my local feral organizations here in Maine. I'm not sure where everyone else is from but here in Maine (USA) TNR is a new concept to most people. We are overrun with feral cats and the shelters are not equipped to deal with them so most of them get euthanized. I volunteer at my local shelter (which is LOW kill) and this is where I became aware of the feral problem. I am friends with the founders of Tommy's Feral Feline Friends, they have been trying desperately to promote TNR while dealing with ignorance of the population up here for over 20 years. (Tommy's Feral Feline Friends - A NO-KILL Shelter for feral cats - Tommy's Feral Feline Friends) I volunteer for them as well, and am horrified to find that they don't qualify for most grants because they are a no kill group. ? Anyone else run into this? It's so hard to raise funds because people seem to think that these cats should just be put to sleep. It's heartbreaking.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

The policy is to not accept feral cats from the public and for the shelter to start educating the public they support TNR. That is how Tucson H'S did it. They are low kill now. They get grants for s/n of feral cats. Right now all ferals are s/n for free till the grant money runs out. They lend out traps to the public with a deposit. Does your state have a S/N license plate program where they give out monies raised from it for groups that S/N? Try for that grant if you have that in your state.


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## wallycat (Nov 10, 2012)

Welcome!
I'm no expert but feed strays when we see them; trap/fix them.
Some cats are strays but not true ferals and can be rehomed. Thank you for loving them and caring for them!


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Looks like a wonderful group your working with. 

When we started in 2006 in Arizona, no one heard of TNR. It took years of explaining and education the public in our area as to what our mission was. Its finally coming into it own 8 years later. 

Keep up the good work. You are making a huge difference for the forgotten cats called community cats. You are their angel.


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

My state does not have a grant program for feral cats as far as I know. Maine is way behind on the TNR thing. It's a struggle for sure. I am going to try to take a grant writing class but again, Maine is mostly just trees and bears so it's hard to find a place to do so. I appreciate everyone's suggestions though. I will have to do more research on how different states have gone about approaching the feral situation. Perhaps there is hope for Maine after all. -on a side note I am delivering a litter of kittens as I write this. Or I should say I'm watching my foster kitty have kittens, I'm not really doing any of the work.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Is your local shelter interested in becoming no kill? I do know that the HS in Phoenix got a large Maddies Fund grant to help it become no kill. Of coarse with any grants these days you have to verify where the funds were spent and they track paper work. People want to invest in a shelter that is no kill. They are shocked at what shelters have become and don't want to give money to place that aren't invested in saving lives. I understand the point of view.

Our TNR group survives on grants and donations. Grant writers are so important to the financial health of a rescue. People who are good grant writers are invaluable. Also people who are willing to think outside the box and do things differently than the tired old ways. You are such an asset to your group.

When we were first getting started I surfed the internet looking to see where other groups were getting their grants from and what they were doing to raise funds. 

How are those babies doing? We would love pictures of your new additions!


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

Well, the local shelter only puts cats to sleep who are seriously ill. They try to coordinate with local feral groups to get feral cats into barns, it's just a slow process. Not enough people willing to help I suppose. I'm not sure how to share pictures on here. ):


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## daperlman (Mar 22, 2014)

to share pics... you need to host them somewhere else like google+ / picasa and then click the image icon and paste a URL of the image you want to share


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

Oh man. I must be computer illiterate.  I shared a bunch of pics on facebook, if anyone wants to see them they can message me and we can connect.


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## daperlman (Mar 22, 2014)

you can use facebook... right click the image and choose copy image location... then paste that into the image URL


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...4117.111078.674269117&type=1&relevant_count=1


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152129709184118&set=pcb.10152129710454118&type=1


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## feralsoul (Mar 19, 2014)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152129709789118&set=pcb.10152129710454118&type=1


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## daperlman (Mar 22, 2014)

you gotta copy the image url from viewing the image (not the thumbnail in the feed)... then hit the image icon in the posting box and paste over it. An image url looks like this 
https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...95/1601387_10153051144265942_1400539678_n.jpg

Notice it ends with the image extension (.jpg, .png, .gif)


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