Life on the Streets

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, assuming the entire litter survived, a single cat and her offspring can be responsible for 36 kittens in one year. None of whom will have homes. 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 53 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 organizations like ours 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. These Veterinarians understand the need to control the population, they understand the suffering of these street cats, and they are progressive in their attitudes as well as doing tremendous community service. And there is no mistake that this is a community problem, nationwide and world wide.

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. The caretaking is crucial in eliminating the dangers to cats of people who might not want them in the area. Caretakers strike a balance between the wild and the domestic by providing the requirements for feral cats. TNR began in Europe and then Great Britain before catching on in The United States in the 1990's. Maybe surprisingly some of the leading advocates of TNR are college campuses across the US. It is also being done in progressive 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 has failed to work because as fast as a cat is euthanized, many more cats are born. Basically as one animal is dying by euthanasia thousands more are being born. The overpoplulation of animals begin 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, cats who have been taken care of (domesticated) don’t survive because they’ve lost the hunting instincts but the ones who do survive revert to feral and their offspring become even more feral.

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.