Over Memorial Day weekend we got a desperate email from a young lady who had found a kitten whose mother had been hit by a car. She did not know how old the kitten was but did know he was too young to eat on his own. We managed to find a foster – thanks Luna! and got the following report today – “Little kittling is retrieved.. he is a healthy and exuberant little grey tabby and eating like a champ. about three weeks I think, closer to four. I think
he’ll be eating himself within 10 days or so. So one good one for the books.
We hope to have pictures up soon. To help us save more lives, will you consider fostering? If you’d like more information please email us at rescuties@gmail.com
While reading a friends’ Facebook messages, I found the following comment and wanted to address it:
You’re probably right and please don’t get me wrong on this, I am a HUGE animal lover. Feral cats multiply by the thousands in no time and they cannot be tamed. Not even the kittens. They are probably also posing some kind of threat to the environment. BUT I am NOT for exterminating them. I think they should be spayed/neutered and tagged or micro chipped. But WHO would take on such a huge and costly task 
Well, they do multiply, there is no doubt about that. I think by the thousands “in no time” is a bit of a stretch. I think this misconception comes from the myth that one female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in seven years. This number has long been used to “encourage” people to spay and neuter their pets – we think there are plenty of reasons to spay and neuter your pets without lying to you about numbers – but as you can see it can backfire when people start to think that TNR (trap, neuter, return) is not going to work due to the numbers.
The real number that 1 female cat and all her kittens can produce in 7 years is 100-400.
The difference, you see, is:
- The original figure was based on one cat delivering 12 kittens a year, with a 20% mortality rate. Dr. Stoskopf ’s studies found six kittens a year, with a 75% mortality rate.
- The original projection assumed 100% survival of all the cats grown to adulthood for the entire seven years, a percentage that should have triggered red flags from the very beginning.
Source is here.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get your cat spayed or neutered. There are plenty of health and behavior benefits without spreading misinformation. A male cats roaming range decreases from 10 miles to 1 mile after neutering, thus leading to less deaths in traffic (better yet, keep them inside). Spraying is decreased or eliminated (if your spayed kitty is spraying, this is likely to indicate a health or behavior problem and a vet visit is warranted). Fighting and the spread of disease is reduced or eliminated (and again better to keep them inside anyway).
As far as “they cannot be tamed, even the kittens” – this is absolutely not the case. The kittens are easy to tame up to about 6 weeks. After that, they become progressively more difficult – BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE – to tame. Our fabulous feral cat coordinator has tamed several adult feral cats. Our South colony is tame to the point that they allow petting by feeders they know. We do concentrate our efforts on TNR and taming kittens rather than adult cats because we feel it is more helpful to the majority of adult feral cats to TNR them rather than trying to tame them.
As far as threats to the environment are concerned, I’m not sure how to directly address that without knowing which specific threats this person was referring to. However, I can’t see how a maintained colony of spayed and neutered cats would be any more threat to the environment than are indoor/outdoor housecats.
As far as who would take on such a huge and costly task, well, we would. We spay/neuter the cats, have them vaccinated against rabies, and return them to their homes, with the help of volunteer trappers.
Please help us with this project today by contributing to our 30 Spays in 30 Days project:
Here are two of our wonderful former feral kittens (now adult cats) ready and waiting for a loving home:
Here’s our Zorro – hard to believe he was once a hissy little bundle of fur in a trap, slated for death at Austin’s pound:
Pillowcase, scissors and ruler not included with adoption of cat:)
We are glad to report that Brook’s paw was not cancer. It is a benign paw growth that is apparently very rare. Our vet has only seen it one other time in 40 years of practice. The treatment is to remove the growth and monitor for regrowth. So now Brook only needs to be neutered and have his teeth cleaned to be ready for his forever home. He’d prefer a forever home with this companion Shiloh, who has been spayed and is ready to go.
Razoo.com is sponsoring a “Month of Goodness” during the month of March.
Or see our fundrasing page directly.
The cool thing about this is that the organizations with the most individual donors, not necessarily donations, win grants. *And* all the money donated comes directly to us – no fees to you or us.
And should you choose to make your own fundraising page for us, you could win an Ipod Touch, Nano, or Shuffle. Pretty cool, huh?
As always, thanks so much for your support:)
Shiloh is Brook’s companion. She was rescued from the same property. She is FELV/FIV negative and very sweet and friendly. She knows what a brush is and loves to be brushed. I’m hoping to go meet her at her foster mom’s tomorrow.
The vet approximates her age at 2-4 years. Like all our kitties, she will receive all vaccinations, be spayed, and be microchipped before being made available for adoption, but you could inquire about her now!
We are still waiting for the biopsy results on Brook.
Oops – I posted the wrong pic of Brook’s paw. I posted the better pic – which is the rear paw – the front paw is the worse paw and looks like a big round rubber ball.
Brook doesn’t like to walk around much (imagine that) and we are still waiting for an update on his biopsy. We hope to have one tomorrow at the latest. We have collected some money for his care but still have a ways to go. Remember that any donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law as we are a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Get on over to Get to the Vet, powered by Bayer and Advantage, to get a voucher good for $20 towards preventative care at your local veterinarian. If you have been putting off vaccinations or other necessary care this would be a good time to get those items taken care of. The way it works is that the vet must fill out the voucher and you must send it in with a copy of the receipt in order to receive your $20 check. They give away the vouchers at the top of the hour every hour between 9 am and 9 pm, EST. I was successful in getting my check by having the form pre-filled out and then hitting submit at exactly 6 pm. This offer is only good through February 28th, so hurry and get your voucher!
We rescued Brook yesterday – one of our board members was looking for property out of town and found two friendly cats living outside there. The property owners had been feeding them but they had not gotten any other care. She asked if the property owners wanted to keep the cats (something that ethically you should always do!) and they said no, so she called me and I brought her two carriers.
Unfortunately, there is something wrong with two of Brook’s paws. We took him to the vet immediately but we are not sure of a diagnosis yet. Our vet believes he is a middle aged kitty and he is underweight. He is at the vet’s receiving needed medical care and will have both paws biopsied.
We have started a fundraiser to help with Brook’s medical expenses.
Ted E Bear (Teddy) for short, is one of our most recent rescues from a high kill Central Texas animal control facility. He had been previously adopted, but when he was brought to the shelter his owners were unable to be located, despite his wearing a collar with current rabies tags. Teddy was not neutered. We took care of that today, as well as having him tested for Feline Leukemia and FIV (he was negative for both), having all necessary shots, and being wormed. He’s now ready to go to his new home and be your best friend. If you have room in your home and heart for Teddy, please let us know.
