One thing that pulls at my heartstrings is homeless cats. It’s a difficult thing to control but we can all do our own part to help stay ahead of the curve of natural population. There are some great facilities most likely in your city that will do Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) to help control the population. If captured young enough, there’s a much greater chance for adoption as they have not fully learned to not trust humans and ultimately will not get along in a normal household with adults, kids, or other pets.
The studies don't lie, TNR does work!
- Colonies that are involved in TNR diminish in size over time.
- During an 11-year study of TNR at the University of Florida, the number of cats on campus declined by 66%, with no new kittens being born after the first four years of operation.
- A study of the impact of TNR on feral cat colonies in Rome, Italy, also observed colony size decrease between 16% and 32% over a 10-year period. -Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
- Trap-Neuter-Return quickly stabilizes feral cat populations by instantly ending reproduction and by removing socialized cats from the colony.
- A TNR program at the University of Texas A&M neutered 123 cats in its first year, and found no new litters of kittens the following year.
- Over the course of the same study, 20% of the cats trapped were found to be socialized stray cats and adopted. -Implementation of a Feral Cat Management Program on a University Campus
This video I created is of a litter of kittens I took care of at my old office space in an industrial side of town. The 2016-2017 winter was pretty brutal and I kept a fleece blanket inside the little house for them with a cover on top during the worst of the temperature drops. I went to the office 7 days a week just to make sure they had at least one solid meal a day.
The squad recognized me but were still very cautious. The neighboring businesses had guard dogs that had them on their toes at all times but as you can see, they eventually came around and at least let me pet them. Knowing their odds of adoption let alone survival is pretty low, I was happy to at least get the little grey one adopted out into a good home. I no longer work in that area but know the property manager kindly feeds them when he is around.
