Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats.
Alley cats are generally called feral cats. But among the alley cats are also stray cats and even house pets that live indoor/outdoor.
I like how the difference between the stray cats and feral cats is explained here. In short, it is the friendliness towards people (strays are friendly, ferals are not). That web site also emphasize that is often hard to tell them apart, as stray cats behavior looks feral when they are scared, and they are scared... With regular feeding I find that the stray ones start to relax in few months. I share this, because I know many people think that all outdoor cats are feral, and in my experience this is far from the truth. In my experience, in the colonies I've looked after, at least half of the cats are friendly. That web site also tells you the appropriate action one should take when handling the alley cats (find homes for strays and kittens, and TNR- Trap Neuter Return - the true ferals). I'll write posts about my experience with both getting the stray cats adopted and the TNR process. I will say now, that I do agree with everything the web site I shared say, but I don't how to practically implement this when I look over 75 alley cats. I find myself in the position of helping one cat at a time...
Read this only if you are in a moment when you can handle the straight truth about the alley cats hard lives, told by PETA.
I share the opinion of this organization, that ""feral" is a behavioral characteristic, not a biological one", so they didn't evolve genetically to be feral, they regressed behaviorally from being domesticated. They are not wild life, as some cities classifies them. Why it matters? From a legal point of view, it is illegal to feed wild life. My city considers feral cats as wild life, but has am ordinance setting condition in which is legal to feed them, as I mentioned in the Introduction. From an ethical point of view, to me, the feral cats existence and their pain, is the result of human behavior, people leave their un-spayed/un-neutered cats outdoors, or pets get lost, or kicked out, so I see it as a responsibility of humans to fix the problem.
Do I help them because I feel responsible as a human? I don't think so. I've red psychological studies that humans are feeling happy when helping. And it's true, it makes me happy to help them, but, on the other hand, I feel a lot of pain and sadness about their situation, I actually feel more pain then happiness. And I've felt overwhelmed, burned out... In the end, I think I feel less pain helping them, then knowing how they live and doing nothing.
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