Dear Diary - feeding the colonies

Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats, and the Summary, to put the stories on a timeline.

I was telling you that last week I had a bad cold/ flu, and I fell behind with everything. This week I had no choice but put most of my effort into running errands, cooking and cleaning. There wasn't much time for the cats. But, wait... I had to make time.  My husband  caught the flu too, and he was feeling as badly as I was feeling last week. So badly, that he considered not going to feed the alley cats the third day in a row...

So,  last Sunday I offered to go with him. We left home at 4 pm and we went firstly north side at one of the newest found colony, where we know there is a kitten in a garage, plus few adults (these are mostly black cats, very unusual). These, he was feeding usually every day, as he goes that way anyway.

Then we went south. This is still a bad neighborhood. At the first stop came four cats, then another two. My husband seemed happy with the head count, the regulars were there. He gave each of them a can of wet food and left dry food behind too. We didn't put water this time, there were puddles all around. A man stopped by, he knows my husband feeds the cats, they've talked before, and now he was curious about me... He said he feeds them sometimes, gives them his fries, and puts them water. Water definitely helps, fries not that much. But he cannot afford more.

On the next stop, my husband said that there used to come 10 cats, and now comes nobody. He saw once a new cat that was aggressive towards the regulars. He might have displaced them... We waited, we shook the dry food, we call that the bell call to dinner. Nobody came. We left two cans of wet food and dry food, just in case.

It started to get dark. We made three more stops and again my husband was happy with whom he saw. On the last spot there were many coming. As my husband was busy feeding to the left I saw small shadows to the right, grown kittens, and I went and put them food myself. My husband said that they are part of another colony, at the other end of the ally (just 100 yards), but they must have been very hungry to come to this colony. We went and put food for the colony at the end of the alley  too. We came back to the first end of the alley so I could see the kitten, it is small, around 3 months old. He/ she wouldn't stay to be touched, it was in and out a garage. Luckily now the weather is mild, if the kitten has enough food, it has a good chance to make it. My husband will try to go there every day

We got home just before 8 and we fed our home colony, they are spoiled, we feed them twice a day... And because they don't have to go search for food, or search for partners to mate with because they are all spayed/neutered, they are a stable and happy colony for few years, no disappearances. After we got home, my husband said that he was feeling much better!

So we went to all the colonies except two, one that my husband fed in the morning and one we know somebody feeds quite enough, especially in the weekend. All in all we saw around 40 cats so more then half of what we know are around. It took 4 hours and around $30, well plus the food that he left in the morning, plus the feeding of our indoor cats, and the litter... And he feeds the outdoor ones at least every second day, more if he knows there are kittens around. The first time I realized to how much time and money we spend per month with the alley cats I was shocked. And the following month we had to use a veterinarian too, so it was really painful for our wallet. And spaying/ neutering that we do to all the cats we bring in the house costs too. TNR will cost too. I realized that we've cut a lot from the entertaining and vacations, so that works out in balancing the money, but... not our lives. On the other hand, if the cats have a heaven, I'm absolutely sure both me and my husband will have a good spot in it, and that's priceless, right?

Opinions and Resources: What are feral cats?

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.