Sunday, January 24, 2010

Feral Cats Oh MY!


I want to talk a bit about the feral cat population on our homestead.
FYI...Unchecked populations of wild cats are alarming and the results are devastating. I feel that that shooting and killing of these cats a sad alternative to more humane population control. If 70% of the cat population is spayed or neutered it makes a tremendous impact on population control. Did you know that a dominant neutered male cat will protect his territory and keep un-neutered males from moving in and mating with un-spayed females? But the key to this is "dominant" factor. For quite a few years we have neutered our tame male cats and our populations have lessened noticeably on our farm.
This winter we lost our "Puss Cat" and "Pal", the two most dominant tame male cats to old age and illness. Both worked diligently to keep as many wild Tom Cats off the property. We still have "Mittens" and "Target" both fixed males but they are...um...wimps. We need another dominant neutered male badly!
This morning as I cleaned the outdoor cat boxes and fed them, it became apparent that our population of wild cats has increased. Another black wild Tom Cat has moved in. We now have three that I know of.
I'm going to repost my pages on the Rustic Rooster Art Project of the "Neuter Commuter" that came here in 2005. I need to find a similar solution to our increasingly feral cat population problem here on the farm and in the area.

1 comment:

Julie said...

Yes, yes, yes!!! I will help you like last time to get and go and whatever else you need. Remember Mike's report about all of that. He still gets comments once in awhile about it.
Good idea!!! We have two male strays in our area (between mama's and us). We don't need them, they just make so many more babies to take care of.
Just holler and I'll help Terri.
Take care.