Early one Monday in late February, Sarge, our beloved tabby cat, limped up to the front door. He was in obvious pain, and one eye was swollen shut. I knew he’d had another tangle with a feral cat that had been hanging around. Black with yellow eyes slightly askew, this aggressive cat had been claiming Sarge’s territory and taking as his own the cat food we often left on the porch. When Sarge would come home with various scrapes and scabs, I joked about wimpy Sarge getting his butt kicked. Seeing him hurting that morning was painful, though, and I realized I hadn’t taken the stray cat seriously enough.
Sarge joined our family in 1996 after we decided a cat might fend off the rats that frequented our attic. Before we had even chosen our cat, we had decided to name him “Sarge,” envisioning a tough-whiskered mouser who would not suffer fools or rodents. Although we loved Sargey from day one, we were way off the mark with the name. This kitty never struck fear in the hearts of anyone, nor did he take care of the rat problem. Instead, he preferred to pester us for canned food throughout the days he spent inside and out.
With his recent eye injury, Sarge’s condition did not improve with medication so, after 36 hours, our vet referred us to Nick Faber, D.V.M., a specialist in animal vision. After examining Sarge, Faber recommended the damaged eye be removed. Trying to save it would be problematic, iffy—and expensive. The surgery was performed the following day.
I could not allow the feral cat to continue to terrorize our pet, so I contacted City of Sacramento Animal Care Services to figure out what to do. They informed me that I could safely trap the cat and bring it to their facility, where they’d take a look at him. I rented a small trap from Western Feed & Pet Supply. Although I doubted that the wily cat would get near the cage I set on our porch, I placed a serving of Sarge’s finest vittles inside. Surprisingly, within an hour, my wife called to say there was an angry, hissing black cat in the trap.
I immediately took the captive cat to the city facility on Front Street, where a staff person determined that the cat was indeed feral and told me that rehabilitating such a cat was not possible. Nor could this particular cat be introduced into one of the feral cat colonies that the city monitors; he wouldn’t be accepted. I quickly realized he would be euthanized. I felt bad for the black cat but, seeing no viable alternative that would keep Sarge safe, gave the go-ahead.
Sarge recovered quickly at home, his frequent purring providing ample testimony to an animal’s supreme ability to adapt. He is back to sunning himself outside most mornings, absorbing the warmth from the hood of my car most evenings. Every time I look at his sutured eye slit, I am reminded of the nonchalant attitude I had while the wild black cat regularly beat him up. While I feel remorse for contributing to the situation and for putting the feral cat down, allowing him to continue to make our neighborhood his killing field—or turning Sarge, a longtime indoor-outdoor cat, into an indoor-only cat—was not an option.
Mr. O'Brien's last sentence is to me potentially quite revelatory. I assume that his "indoor-outdoor" cat is litter box trained? If not, then the feces Sarge leaves in the flower beds of Mr. O'Brien's neighbors' yards makes him no better than the feral cat that was put down.
Apr 7, 2008 06:40 pm
Posted by Anonymous
A recent letter to the Editor from a woman regarding feral cats was published in the paper. While she certainly has legitimate issues with these cats, she is very poorly informed about what TNR will do to remedy the feral cat issues in her neighborhood as well as the entire County. The purpose of TNR is to alter (spay and neuter) cats so that their reproduction is halted. Once this task is accomplished, the group of cats (colony) not only stabilizes and stops increasing in numbers, it also stops exhibiting the mating behaviors that frustrate and anger people. Feral cats, like any unaltered animal, use various methods to mark their territory, to attract a mate and to establish dominance. For cats, this is spreading "scat" (unburied feces), urine marking and fighting. Once the cats have been altered and their testosterone levels drop, this unwanted and annoying behavior stops. Also, the females no longer reproduce, halting the constantly increasing numbers of cats in that colony and outlying, adjacent colonies. This colony will now reduce in size through natural attrition over time. And yes, it takes time but the cats will not be displaying the obnoxious behaviors that bother people so much. The "R" in the TNR means "return" and that seems to be a rub for some people. Over and over, studies have proven that if you remove a colony (trap and kill the cats) the vacancy is rapidly refilled with new cats. Also, when cats are trapped and removed from a colony, the food source (rats, mice, small mammals) becomes abundant to the remaining or new cats and their reproduction actually increases due to greater food supplies. Returning the altered cats prevents this vacuum effect, keeps the food source under control and tends to exclude any new, unaltered cats from joining the colony. Throughout the County of Sacramento and adjoining counties (Yolo, Solano, etc.) hundreds of volunteers are working constantly to provide inexpensive spay/neuter clinics for feral cats and promoting TNR as the only proven method of controlling the tremendous feral cat population. Colony Caregivers are managing the colonies with incredible results! Huge colonies that existed only a few years ago are now stable, reduced significantly in size and managed well. Within our own communities we have dozens of examples of what TNR can do to reduce and control unwanted cat populations. Also this woman commented on the potential threat to birds. In truth, bird population declines are directly due to habitat loss from human encroachment and not from cats. Birds are a very difficult prey for cats and studies of stomach contents of feral colonies shows that their predominant prey is small mammals such as rats and mice. Bird kills are very minimal. In the end, the real problem here is not a cat problem...it is a human problem! Feral cats are the direct result of human abandonment. People who move away and leave their cats or dump them at the nearest park or river are the culprits in this mess. Making people aware of the desperate need to not only spay and neuter their pets but to give their pets a life-long home without abandonment will ultimately resolve this horrible problem. We are all very tired of trying to clean up after humans who neglect and abandon their pets. Instead of forcing these abandoned cats to suffer the ultimate consequence, let's start educating people to feel some sense of responsibility for the pets whose lives depend upon them!
Apr 9, 2008 12:02 pm
Posted by Anonymous
What, then, is to be the recourse in the meantime for homeowners who don't want their flower beds fouled with cat poo? The cat sprays you buy at the store don't work. Home remedies need to be applied daily in order to work at all, but who wants a yard that smells like vinegar or cayenne pepper?
I agree this is a human problem. If I could identify the human "source" of the cat(s) who foul my yard, I would definitely speak with them. But I live in a subdivision of hundreds of houses. Could be any one of them.
Every morning I clean up after this cat. I am nearing my wits end, and have already contacted my local shelter about a trap. But I've read this usually doesn't work anyway. Cats are too clever.
» DOWN BY THE SEA Crab lovers feasted at the Sacramento Children’s Home’s crab feed and auction, Down by the Sea, at the Folsom Community Center. Originally an orphanage, the home now serves as a safe haven for abused and neglected children.
» DOWN BY THE SEA
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Reader Comments:
Mr. O'Brien's last sentence is to me potentially quite revelatory. I assume that his "indoor-outdoor" cat is litter box trained? If not, then the feces Sarge leaves in the flower beds of Mr. O'Brien's neighbors' yards makes him no better than the feral cat that was put down.
A recent letter to the Editor from a woman regarding feral cats was published in the paper. While she certainly has legitimate issues with these cats, she is very poorly informed about what TNR will do to remedy the feral cat issues in her neighborhood as well as the entire County.
The purpose of TNR is to alter (spay and neuter) cats so that their reproduction is halted. Once this task is accomplished, the group of cats (colony) not only stabilizes and stops increasing in numbers, it also stops exhibiting the mating behaviors that frustrate and anger people. Feral cats, like any unaltered animal, use various methods to mark their territory, to attract a mate and to establish dominance. For cats, this is spreading "scat" (unburied feces), urine marking and fighting. Once the cats have been altered and their testosterone levels drop, this unwanted and annoying behavior stops. Also, the females no longer reproduce, halting the constantly increasing numbers of cats in that colony and outlying, adjacent colonies. This colony will now reduce in size through natural attrition over time. And yes, it takes time but the cats will not be displaying the obnoxious behaviors that bother people so much.
The "R" in the TNR means "return" and that seems to be a rub for some people. Over and over, studies have proven that if you remove a colony (trap and kill the cats) the vacancy is rapidly refilled with new cats. Also, when cats are trapped and removed from a colony, the food source (rats, mice, small mammals) becomes abundant to the remaining or new cats and their reproduction actually increases due to greater food supplies. Returning the altered cats prevents this vacuum effect, keeps the food source under control and tends to exclude any new, unaltered cats from joining the colony.
Throughout the County of Sacramento and adjoining counties (Yolo, Solano, etc.) hundreds of volunteers are working constantly to provide inexpensive spay/neuter clinics for feral cats and promoting TNR as the only proven method of controlling the tremendous feral cat population. Colony Caregivers are managing the colonies with incredible results! Huge colonies that existed only a few years ago are now stable, reduced significantly in size and managed well. Within our own communities we have dozens of examples of what TNR can do to reduce and control unwanted cat populations.
Also this woman commented on the potential threat to birds. In truth, bird population declines are directly due to habitat loss from human encroachment and not from cats. Birds are a very difficult prey for cats and studies of stomach contents of feral colonies shows that their predominant prey is small mammals such as rats and mice. Bird kills are very minimal.
In the end, the real problem here is not a cat problem...it is a human problem! Feral cats are the direct result of human abandonment. People who move away and leave their cats or dump them at the nearest park or river are the culprits in this mess. Making people aware of the desperate need to not only spay and neuter their pets but to give their pets a life-long home without abandonment will ultimately resolve this horrible problem. We are all very tired of trying to clean up after humans who neglect and abandon their pets. Instead of forcing these abandoned cats to suffer the ultimate consequence, let's start educating people to feel some sense of responsibility for the pets whose lives depend upon them!
What, then, is to be the recourse in the meantime for homeowners who don't want their flower beds fouled with cat poo? The cat sprays you buy at the store don't work. Home remedies need to be applied daily in order to work at all, but who wants a yard that smells like vinegar or cayenne pepper?
I agree this is a human problem. If I could identify the human "source" of the cat(s) who foul my yard, I would definitely speak with them. But I live in a subdivision of hundreds of houses. Could be any one of them.
Every morning I clean up after this cat. I am nearing my wits end, and have already contacted my local shelter about a trap. But I've read this usually doesn't work anyway. Cats are too clever.