I recently moved into my new place and noticed cats in my backyard. A couple months later, I noticed juvenile cats. Upon observing my lovely neighbor who feeds them, I've noticed up to 11 cats in that moment. ZOMG, that's a lotta cats!!
I told my hula sisters, "I've got lots of wild city cats in my backyard."
She said, "You mean feral cats?"
She referred me to work with San Francisco's SPCA and the rest is history:
A link to San Francisco's SPCA Community Cats Program.
Hit up the friendly cat angels:
(415) 522-3539
communitycares@sfspca.org
Feral cats:
- Can give birth to 3-8 cats per liter
- Are usually hungry and unvaccinated; lots of suffering :'(
- Are usually euthanized :'(
Why do we should help them:
- Help eliminate their stress caused by competition for resources
- Help their little bodies stay strong with vaccinations
- You don't want 20+ cats in your backyard
The SF SPCA will:
- Provide you with humane traps
- Spay or Neuter your kitty
- Vaccinate them
- Clip their ear (this is how you recognize a cat has been fixed)
- Provide advice and training on how to use the cat traps
- Give you a medical report of your kitty
- All for free with smiles upon smiles! (please consider a donation if you are able. Each procedure usually runs $150 - $300)
Side notes:
- Be present and plan it out. You don't want your cats sitting in the trap waiting long for you. I checked on my traps every morning and evening. If I was home, I never played music so I could hear a trap go off.
- Cats will have to recover overnight before they are released. If you have Spotify, search "Cat and Dog Brainwave" Play it for your kitty before they're released
- Some cats will f-ing hate you, don't be alarmed
- Some cats will be so startled they can smash into the cage so hard they knock their teeth out (it happened to one of my kitties I named Charles)
- This project was quite traumatizing at first. Mantra: I am brave, I am kind.
- Three of the kitties were actually prego; we let the babies go in their 1st trimester :'(
- At first I hesitated to neuter the male cats since I read online somewhere that they lose their fighting mojo. My friends encouraged me to continue. And as an update, I believe the cats are doing really well; I still hear them fighting in my backyard.
SPCA will give you traps, sheets, even food to bait
Trap baiting; getting them used to the traps. no trapping here yet.
Trap setting, here's the real deal (note traps are now separated)
Trapped: The Commute. Make sure you keep the covers on them at all times to keep them calm.
This is Charles. He's the one who had his tooth knocked out :[ poor baby
Kitty wants to get out, make sure you try to cover them asap.
Possums, they can happen too
A fixed cat being supportive to a trapped colony member. Notice his left ear is clipped.
last tid-bit: get a large bin for travel in case they pee in your car (it happened)
HMU if you have questions or need help with your feral cats.
Meow-ing out. Peace and Paws. =^_^=