Feral Cat Situation: Legal/ Ethical Options

Not at all. These efforts can be successful, especially when people pull together and don't allow for laxity until the project is finished. One of the city shelters we go to offering low-cost/high-volume spay neuter has done a phenomenal job over the last couple of years of getting the word out, keeping regular clinics (2/month), etc., and their annual cat intake has dropped by 300 since we started going up there. They're the exception rather than the rule, but even on a citywide scale it's possible to make a dent with relatively modest resources.

The trick in these neighborhood situations isn't just to get the cats who are there done, but to get it done before surrounding folks figure out that it's a place where they can dump their own unwanted cats. This appears to be more of a problem on farms -- many of the dairy folk who bring us cats swear that people keep dumping cats there, and I actually believe some of them -- but it can happen in cities, as well. Cat ladies attract cats even when they're not looking for them.

So keep up the good work. Hope feathers aren't too ruffled with the neighbs.

(for all I know, our neighborhood is coming together in the same way, watching our burgeoning household dog population.)

PPD, do you mean your neighborhood bids fair to be overrun with feral dogs?

Just our yard.

You take care of 'em though! And, especially, spay/ neuter 'em.

How many do you have now?

Thanks much for the encouragement re: the cats, it does feel a bit Sisyphean at the moment. Excellent point about dumping, I never would have thought of that. I have a cat-lady-in-the-making friend who swears kittens keep showing up on her doorstep. I thought of prevailing upon her good nature but I couldn't do it, she already has like three cats (one or two recently died) and not much money. We are getting a fair amount of owners lined up though. The motherlode is the mechanic who wants some mousers for his shop, he's willing to take 2 or 3.

Overrun with Patio's dogs, eh?

Sozobe thinks three felids a cat lady makes. What a naif.











Four dogs at the moment. I give one of them less than a year to go, but I gave her a few months 2 years ago, so who knows?

No no, "in the making," plus she had more but one died recently.

(OK how many cats do you need to have to become a cat lady?)

I think 5.

(unless there's ferrets involved)

A lot.

No hard rules, but I'd say half a dozen in a small dwelling, and double figures required for a trailer or a house. 3 cats is --------- well, it's a little gross, cuz they **** in the house, but it ain't cat lady territory.

Unless one of your cats dies unexpectedly in a neighbor's yard, and you don't notice. That's a cat lady territory regardless of number.

Are there every any cat men?

I do remember seeing a news article on a cat man....once. If I can find it I will post it.

Never encountered a cat man. A couple of pit bull guys (in the pathologic, rather than the breeding for nefarious purposes, sense), and of course there are pigeon men, but a cat man? Well, they must exist, but I expect they're rare birds...

I figured as much, but it could have been my assumption. I knew a pit bull guy who had a lot of pups at his place, but he was too wacked out and poor to get the dog neutered, so not the same thing - or is it.. He worked for a contractor I knew, and that all got resolved eventually.

I can see guys being collectors, say, of thousands of fish, but they tend to be the guys who can handle the techniques of keeping that going and it's called a hobby.

I did have an oddball co-worker (male) who was a big cat guy. Not the cat man type with 10 cats or something - he had two or three. And the odd thing was he had pictures at his desk of them with Santa hats and crap like that.

Oh, Cat Guys! I immediately think of "An Engineer's Guide to Cats," that very-funny (I thought) YouTube video from a while back.

They only had 3 cats.

_I_ only have 3 cats. At one time I had 5 cats. So, I'm a Former Cat Lady? Darn It!

The second caught cat was also pregnant... there may be a third caught one, I'm not sure yet. (Ambiguous email.)

Spring is in the air.




And the uteri.

Well here he is....