cats rescue

Cat Rescue - Hope For Feral Cats

Every town and city has a feral cat colony. Cat lovers immediately think of their own much-loved cats with their cosy quarters and square meals. World-wide, dedicated volunteers have thrown their efforts into helping these domestic cats living wild, assisting with programs ranging from sterilisation to re-homing.

Ferals and strays - what's the difference?

Stray cats are cats that have grown up with humans but because they have wandered or been abandoned are living wild and homeless. At least to some degree, they have usually been socialised to accept humans as benevolent. Feral cats may not have been fully domesticated for generations. They establish colonies where they breed speedily. It is entirely possible for a new generation to be born every six months. These cats are socialised in relation to other cats, but may have little or no experience of humans. In fact, they may have learned from other cats that people are to be feared. Nevertheless, depending on their personality, feral cats can be friendly and trusting - or become so. Others are shy and suspicious and resist handling of any kind, making them more challenging to re-home.

Management of feral cats

Older policies for managing feral cat colonies focussed on simple extermination. Today a more enlightened approach prevails, concentrating on neutering and spaying, vaccination and disease control. With breeding under control and health boosted, colonies remain stable and eventually shrink. Sometimes colonies have to be moved. Feral rescue may involve relocating cats to rural areas where they can live semi-wild around barns or stables. The most difficult option can be re-homing, but it is possible and often very rewarding.

Re-homing feral cats

Cat rescue authorities give varying advice on the issue of adopting feral cats. Under normal circumstances, kittens develop trust in humans early, in the first two or three weeks of life. Some believe that even at six weeks the window for socialising kittens is closing fast. In practice, it depends heavily on the individual cat. Some may resist taming even at a young age, whereas there are many success stories with domesticating older ferals. It is true, however, that the older the cat the longer it may take to become accustomed to people and domestic life.

The viciousness of a tiny ball of fur (and the damage small claws can do) can be truly astonishing, but is a measure of a kitten or cat's fear, not a sign of a malicious disposition. Many ferals are afraid of hands and handling. Hand feeding helps them to develop positive associations. Though it may take years of small steps, rehabilitated ferals can be transformed into loving pets and amiable companions. It's not a task for the novice or the impatient, but when a former tiger insists you provide a scratch and tickle, the hard work all becomes infinitely worthwhile.

Tips for potential adopters

The first task is to make sure your feral has been checked over by a vet, de-wormed, vaccinated and if necessary sterilised.

It may not be a good idea to introduce them into houses with other pets. Though other pets cats may help in their socialising, if you have a bad personality clash you may have to choose between them. This is unfair on the feral cat, especially since they often may bond with a first owner but not with a second.

Don't push the agenda, especially with handling. Persist with attempts to stroke and play with them, but back off if they object. They will trust you in their own time if you deal intelligently with their wariness. Your biggest allies in the process are food, patience and faith that there's a great pet behind the fear.

Louise Gilbert is passionate about saving endangered species, pets, wildlife, nature and the environement. You can view her site at Baby-Mammals.com [http://www.baby-mammals.com/]

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Cat Rescue

Today, cats are the favored house pets all over the world, and have out numbered dogs for a decade or more. Many of us pet owners and our veterinarians have seen unprecedented numbers of well cared for felines living alongside people who are willing to make it necessary to give their pets long, healthy and happy lives.

Recent scare concerning feline AIDS led to the needless slaughter of a large number of healthy house hold pets. when newspapers in California reported that a number of domestic cats had been identified as carrying aids virus,many owners panicked and had their pet cats put to sleep, in case a simple scratch from a feline claw would gave them the dreaded disease. Within hours of the reports appearing in the press, vets and cat sanctuaries were flooded with requests to have cats destroyed or to find them new homes.

Fear of infection were quite unfounded, because the disease feline aids, is cause by a different virus from the ones that attacks humans. True,it belongs, to the same group of virus,but within that group it is only distantly related so, even if bitten or scratched by a cat that had somehow smeared its teeth or claws with infected blood from its sores, the human victim would still not be able to pick up the disease. There were no evidence at the time and still there are no other source that feline aids can infect the humans body. Similarly humans aids cannot be transmitted to cats.

Sometimes it seem that these newspapers, and news enthusiast, take pleasure in a lot of shady uncharacteristic information, and without any caution their plans are premeditated to cruelty. This may seems paranoid but unfortunately there are unsavory people who take advantage of others through pets.

Our pets are well secured and examine regularly, http://pethealthinfomation.blogspot.com/

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stray cat

Caring For A Stray Cat

Years ago my aunt, a huge animal lover, started to receive late night visits from a gorgeous ginger stray cat. Due to disgusting abuse by his previous owners he had no teeth or claws left and was very under nourished and extremely frightened. My aunt being very sensitive to animals saw that he was so hungry that his fear was overridden by a desperate need for food. He would let no one else near him except for her and if food was left out by someone else, he would know and leave it to go stale. She really had an amazing gift with animals.

Eventually he trusted her enough to allow her to stroke him, but nothing more. He was content to live a wilder life if it meant he was safe from humans. We really are a disgrace to this planet.

So how do you help stray cats? How do you gain their trust?

First of all you need to know the difference between a stray cat and a feral cat. It's not always easy to tell because in time a stray cat will revert back to its natural instincts, which is the same as a feral cats behaviour.

Obviously a stray cat will have been abandoned by their owners or may have got lost. They might have a collar, but if not you should be able to tell by the quality of their coats if they have recently become strays, rather than being a feral cat. If you can, take a photo of it and check with your local vets if anyone has lost their cat. Don't just assume you can take someone else's cat, in a lot of areas it is illegal. Also there could be a very good reason for them getting lost and there may be a family trying to find them. Usually you can take responsibility and become a stray cats owner after about two weeks of notifying the local animal shelters, vets etc.

A feral cat will be much less inclined to engage with you and will be more likely to show you aggressive, wild behaviour. You're also less likely to see them for any length of time, as any sign of a human and they're off. Can't blame them for that!

Feral cats have been born into the wild from either feral parents or stray cats that have become pregnant. They tend to live together in casual family colonies and are able to survive in urban and rural areas. They aren't always popular as like other wildlife they will rummage through your bins for food. So be warned, your neighbours may not take kindly to you starting a feeding programme for them.

So, if you want to help a stray cat the first thing to do of course is feed them.

An adult stray that is under nourished will build up quickly on kitten food. However switch back to adult food as soon as you see an improvement. They will need the nutrients from adult food once they have initially recovered.

Try wet food as well as dry. See what their preferences are.

Buy new cat bowls as they won't like the scent of other pets.

Always provide fresh water every day.

Feed them at night to start with, but leave dry food out in the daytime in case they start to gain courage and come to your garden more often. They need to feel they have a safe place to come to.

After a while try to be present when you know the stray is going to turn up. Place the food down, step back and speak in a soothing tone. Don't attempt to stroke the cat. Let it feed and leave if it wants to. The main point is to slowly gain trust. You know you can never rush a cat.

On the next occasion offer some food from your hand. They may or may not take it, persevere and try again next time.

If no one claims the cat and you decide to rehome this stray then capturing it in the most humane way is your next step. You may not be able to do this, so it's a good idea to contact your local animal shelter and they may be able to send someone to help.

Once you've done that go straight to the vets for a thorough check up. Deworming, flea and ear mite treatments and neutering must all be done.

If you have other pets keep the new cat in one room until they've settled down and slowly introduce them.

Once you've taken responsibility of a stray cat and brought it into your home, be prepared for the settling in period to take some time. You don't know what they've suffered, be patient. They will probably want to stay by your side as much as possible. In time this should calm down but remember they may be a little apprehensive of this new home.

Pamper them with new cat toys, cat bed and stand. You may want to try using a feline facial pheromone spray or diffuser to help calm their nerves.

At http://www.petpromenade.co.uk/ we understand how important it is to not only have the latest cat toy, or the trendiest dog collar, but also to make sure the boring bits are covered. That's why we have a variety of flea, worming and fur treatments.

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