Life on The Streets
"Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to." ~ Alfred A. Montapert
CatNappers is an organization that recognizes the value in stray and feral cats. Street cats are no less worthwhile because they are homeless. They aren't inferior to any cat, they just have different circumstances. Ferals are simply undomesticated cats that have had no contact or socialization with humans. Ferals exist because at some point an unaltered cat was simply thrown out, abandoned or lost. These cats, the lucky ones, learn to survive living by their wits and with lots and lots of luck. The unlucky ones are removed from the roads after being hit or are the victims of predators, whether man or animal. Others simply starve and freeze to death from lack of food and shelter. This is happening not just here but all over the United States, Canada and the rest of the world. There are some very unfriendly issues out there waiting for cats. Outdoors is not a good place for cats to be, despite those who believe cats can take care of themselves.
There are literally millions of strays and ferals across the United States alone and we have extreme numbers of our own right here in Albany and the surrounding areas. These cats have not been altered and can breed in astounding numbers. One mother can produce six kittens in a litter, in the wild many don't survive so figure on 3 surviving. Did you know that female kittens can begin reproducing at 6 months of age? Those kittens go on to breed and by the second year the population of homeless and feral cats takes off and begins to soar. Now imagine that the orginal mother had two litters that year. They can! The reproduction cycle on female felines is around 60 days. Then we have a problem, a very large one. If left unaltered there is no way to get the population under control without T-N-R organizations4e as well as the kind and caring Veterinarians who are willing to help ferals and strays, the unfortunate victims of carelessness, apathy and many times ignorance.
Trap, neuter and return is a program that alters and vaccinates the cats and returns them to their environment where they will no longer reproduce, but continue to live their normal lives under the supervision of a caretaker. The colony caretaker provides them with shelter, if there is none, in inconspicuous places and provides healthy cat food thereby taking away the need to forage into dumpsters for survival. Caretakers strike a balance between the wild and the domestic by providing the requirements for feral cats. TNR began in Europe and Great Britain before catching on in The United States in the 1990's. Some of the leading advocates of TNR are college campuses across the US. It is also being done in cities and towns who have pioneered the way for these animals to become the recipient of care, respect and even love.
Euthanasia as population control (for all the years they've tried) has failed to work because as one cat is euthanized, many more cats are born. The overpoplulation of animals began because many people fail to spay and neuter their pets as a responsible pet guardian should. Instead of responsible pet guardianship by spaying, the cat becomes pregnant and many times it's thrown out into some field or other place to try to survive on it’s own, with babies no less. There is no food source, there is no shelter, there is nothing the cat knows or is familiar with. That's inhumane.
We spay and neuter theses animals for their own health and well-being, to stop the escalating population and to keep the cats from being euthanized because they are unsocialized, which was never their fault. They have value too, they were just the victims of bad guardians.
Caretakers of feral colonies develop a relationship with these animals that many people consider unworthy of life. These cats, fearful of humans, usually hide and won't come near people but they come to trust their caretaker and sometimes, but rarely, honor the caretaker with full trust and allow them the reward of touch, something many caretakers cherish.
© by CatNappers 2008
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