Support our Feral Cat Colony

A few years ago my husband and I started feeding two stray cats that showed up in our yard one day. Before we knew it, we were feeding several cats. Our colony is now eighteen cats large. 


We wanted to be responsible about this new venture, so we did our research. We borrowed humane traps from a neighborhood feline program and started trapping these wild cats and we had each one of them spayed or neutered. Often we had no idea if we had trapped a male or a female so it was exciting to start figuring out who this new family of ours was becoming. 

When we brought them in for their individual surgeries and basic check-ups they were given rabies shots and checked for diseases. Almost all of them were very healthy considering the life on the lam they had been living prior to taking up residence in our back yard. A couple of them ended up desperately needing dental work and as you know that can be expensive, but we figured if it improved the quality of their outdoor life, then we did it.

Each month they are treated for fleas and they are wormed twice a year. Figuring out how to administer medicines and supplements was a chore since they are wild and don't like to be touched much. I have a few small spray bottles of Neosporin that I aim at them during breakfast if I see cuts, abrasions or open sores. If they are hurt badly we will watch them with binoculars and make a trapping plan that won't injure them further so we can safely get them to the vet. 

Speaking of vets, we have the best! Dr. Logan Botzman has a mobile vet office and comes right to us. He performs surgeries, teeth extractions and gives regular basic shots and checkups right in our driveway. He and his assistant Corah take great care of us and all of our furbabies. They are awesome at what they do and both of them are all around great people. It has made things so much easier for us when it comes to caring for such a large colony of wild cats. 


Taking care of our feral cat colony is not a cheap undertaking and so we need help now and then. Medications, surgeries and general care can be costly.  We go through about 30 pounds of kibble a week and over a dozen or so large cans of wet food. We keep two large self watering bowls, one inside the garage and one in the back yard, so they always have a fresh water source to drink from. Sometimes I wonder why we bother when I see them on their tippy toes drinking from the birdbath!

We have also built a few outdoor sanctuaries the cats can take shelter in during inclement weather or if they are being chased by a predator. The shelters are two levels with the bottom level usually for food and dining and the upper level with enclosed bedding and spots for them to stretch out with windows so they can check the lay of the land before venturing out. These shelters are located in secluded places in our back yard with one on our upstairs deck. Our downstairs garage is equipped with a working cat door and every cat knows they can run inside for safety, comfort or to cool off on a hot day. 


Taking care of this feral cat colony is something we have grown to love and we want to continue caring for these lovely animals for as long as they will keep coming back to visit us each day. We take this responsibility seriously and along the way it has taught us some valuable discoveries about ourselves as people. We know that every morning we have to be outside and ready to prepare and serve them breakfast, even if we aren't feeling that great, they are depending on us. Then each evening we make sure they have enough kibble available for their dinner and if someone needs a back rub or an ear scritch we are there to make them feel loved and special, if only for that one moment. 

We have also learned not to hang on too tightly.

A feral cat's life is incredibly unpredictable and we lose them to old age at what we think is too young, simply because their lifespan is not an incredibly long one. This past Spring and Summer we lost so many cats in a short amount of time to an influx of the coyote population here on the island and it was heartbreaking to see so many of the older girls simply disappear.

Raising a litter of feral kittens also taught us a few things about people and about our own expectations. I think in some respects, we all have a little bit of feral in us, even if we don’t want to admit it.

“I might let you touch me, even though I am terrified of being hurt by you. Even if you show me nothing but love, I’m still going to be wary because there will always be something you do that scares me and makes me want to hide.  You don’t know me and I don’t trust you, but if it means I get to eat and have a nice warm place to sleep, then I’ll tolerate you. I might even purr a little and sit in your lap, but the minute you leave the room, I’m going to pretend you don’t exist and that I don’t need you.”

When you caretake a sentient being that has always been wild, you learn to accept them as they are. You make as many advances as they will allow and you let them be when they withdraw. You wait for them to come to you because unless they come freely, they will never trust you.

The truth is that they don’t need us. They never have. They may not live as long, or have our definition of a quality life, but they do not need us, or our interference.

I have come to the realization that we humans are the ones who want to tame the wild and control the feral. We are the ones that want all of them to fit snugly into our idea of who and what they should be. And we are the ones that suffer the most when they remain who they are and refuse to conform. Our disappointment is far more poignant than the life they choose for themselves. But until the day they cross that rainbow bridge and we dig a fresh grave to settle them in with a seashell marker and a small prayer for a life lived under their terms with a bit of assistance from us, we will continue to get up every morning to prepare breakfast and put out dinner every evening, we will fix the booboos and love the hurts away and we will be there when they breathe their last and they will know that they were loved and respected for their whole life.  

Any donation you can make will be really appreciated by us, and by all of them. Thank you so much!