Today we honor our feral brother and sisters with the help of Alley Cat Allies. National Feral Cat Day began in 2001 as a way to raise awareness, promote TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return), and help make the world a safer, healthier place for feral cats. Here are a few facts about ferals that I have put together for you… and keep reading to the end because I have a surprise!
- Physiologically, feral cats are just like me, and like you kitties out there. The only difference is that they are not hardwired for human contact. They fear humans and think more like wild animals — which is what they have become, raised away from humans and living by their wits.
- Feral kittens learn their wild behaviors through their mothers, but can learn to form a bond with humans, especially between two and seven weeks of age. The older they get, the less likely they are to become tame. With patience and hard work, some older kittens and adult ferals may become used to humans, but there is no guarantee.
- Although some bird groups try to claim that feral cats are responsible for declining songbird populations, the truth that is humans destroyed a lot of birds’ natural habitat and that has had a far greater impact on these populations. Feral cats much prefer to capture easier prey — ground animals like mice, voles, and lizards. In fact, a significant amount of a feral cat’s diet is garbage, the easiest “prey” of all.
- A well-managed feral colony gets rid of many problems that humans complain about. Cats that are spayed, neutered, vaccinated and fed regularly at a station rarely have loud fights (there are no mating battles anymore), and they don’t spread disease. Their numbers do not increase since no kittens are being born. In fact, over time, the population decreases through attrition.
- Did you know that in freezing winter weather, feral cats’ ear tips can get frostbitten and break off? If you have strays or ferals in your neighborhood, you might give them some extra support by building inexpensive shelters for them.
Now for the surprise (at least it is a surprise if you did not come here through either Facebook or Twitter): I am having a commenthon! For every comment you leave until midnight tonight, Pacific Time (only one comment per kitty family, please), my human will donate 50 cents to Alley Cat Allies, up to $150! We love them because they do so much to help colonies and educate communities about feral cats! I thought this would be a great way to celebrate National Feral Cat Day… and my human agreed!
Mom and Dad volunteer for a private no kill animal rescue organization. We try to help SNR feral cats whenever we can. There is a large population in our city and we are going to find a way to help out with the ferals. Not their fault they are feral. paw pats, Savannah
Kisses on your nose, Sparkle!
Hope I am not too late! Thanks for the comment-a-thon!!
Sparkle
What an honorable generous thing.
We are glad to contribute.
Abby
Harley is lucky he did not end up as a feral kitty, since his mom was part of a TNR program and he got to be borned instead!
All of my kitties were feral, so were my grandmas. The younger ones were easier to tame, but i do have to say in the eleven years we have had them they all came out of their shell. Just takes the right touch and yummy cans to tame any kitty 🙂 hopefully one day we can have a tnfh a trap neuter forever home program
Thanks for the good info Sparkle!! It just shows us two lucky kittehs how good we actually have it now that mom rescued us!! Thank you for helping our friends left behind by giving the donations too, i know that our Mom likes to help out when she can, but this is right from the two of us!! 🙂
Licks n purrs for the ferals today!
I think Leo was at the top end of that age, or a touch older, when Chrystal rescued him and his sisters from the feral life. His mom could not be tamed, she was TNRed, but Leo and his sisters are now tame and loving. Four of the sisters are still waiting for homes over at Daily Dose.
Feral kitties can make wonderful pets, like my baby Leo! Thank you for the great information! And the commentathon!
Thank you for your donation to this great cause!
We are purring fer all the feral cats today…
Great info! I did not know that about the ears. Poor sweeties! Thanks for the commentathon! they are a wonderful organization. xo
Thanks, Sparkle, for helping everyone understand how beneficial feral populations can be to a community. Many people take them for granted and think they are a nuisance. We need to stop that ignorant way of thinking and help to protect these colonies via TNR programs. Thanks, again, for putting the word out!
My beautiful Myrrh was made homeless when her former human died. The landlord threw out his three kitties and they were homeless for some months. Myrrh was almost fully feral when we got her from the rescue home and it took many months of work to gain her trust. I’m pleased to report the other two cats also got loving homes and Myrrh has us firmly under the paw, though Max my other much loved cat would dispute this (from a safe distance).
Sparkle, you are the best! Thank you for posting about National Feral Cat Day, and for supporting the amazing work of Alley Cat Allies. We hope the commentathon goes super-successfully!
I am the proud mom of three cats who were all born in feral cat colonies. Knowing them…. its hard to ever imagine what life would have been like if I had never rescued them. They have made my life so much richer for being in it.
Thanks for sharing these facts about feral kitties Sparkle! We hope you get tons of comments too! And by the way, that is a gorgeous photo of you!
Great facts for a great cause!
Hey there! Feral cats are wonderful cats and do you know how I know? ‘Cause I was once one. That’s right. I’m so grateful to my peeps for convincing me to trust them and come into the house to live. Then, I convinced my brother and sisters to come join us. Eventually, the peeps managed to get even my mom and dad in although they weren’t feral. They had been abandoned. But now, havin’ lived with my peeps for over nine years, I just LOVE ‘EM! Yay for the peeps who help the ferals!!! purrs
I have 6 house ferals. Once they are used to the house, they love it and rarely go outside. We have a wonderful cat fence for our backyard.
joan+20
Thanks for always thinking of the ferals, Sparkle! You and your human have big hearts. Alley Cat Allies does such great work.
sparkle; this iz WAY awesum oh yur mom ta donates moniez ta alley cats; they R a trooly deserving organization !!! headbonks….ouch….. two yur mom…
Wonderful post, Sparkle! We are all about educating and teaching facts, we feel it is the only way true change and understanding can happen and that is our theme at Zee & Zoey’s today too. So nice of you to have a commentathon – hope you get tons of comments and we love Alley Cat Allies!!
Sparkle you are the best! Thank you for supporting National Feral Cat Day.
Great cause!
I feel sad for feral kitties because they seem to have such a sad life. I love the idea of a cared-for colony.
YAY FOR YOUR HUMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxo
Oh Sparkle, I hope you get a slew of comments!!
I’m also having a comment-a-thon over at my blog, to help celebrate my 10th blogoversary
http://www.kittyblog.net/2012/10/2002-2012-and-beyond.html
Yay, ferals, for your commentathon and more facts! Thanks for visiting us to see our feral photos 🙂
Great info!! And good for you doing a commentathon!! xx
Yay for you & your human Sparkle!!!
We love you & we love Alley Cat Allies & all the hard work they do!
We have a feral cat colony at work that we take care of. I work for a restaurant/bar with a 700 person music venue. So we have a lot of property & unfortunately a lot of kitties get dumped on our doorstep! All our kitties are fixed and vaccinated & any time new ones show up we either find them a home if they are friendly or we get them fixed & welcome them to the family. It is a lot of work but all our employees and even our regular customers pitch in & help us take care of the babies!!
These are some great facts about feral cats, Sparkle! We also posted some feral cat facts today. And thanks for doing a commentathon! We know the Alley Cat Allies will appreciate it!
Great post & needed facts … so happy you are supporting Alley Cats with your commenthon.
An excellent and informative post. We did not know that about the tips of the feral cat ears. Hmm…
I just sent them a check but I’m more than happy to add a comment to add a little more to their coffers. And I don’t need a stamp!
Those are great facts, Sparkle! I actually saw something that said if a colony is fed they will control the rodent population even better than if they are left to fend for themselves.
One of my brofurs, Oliver, is our “porch panther” … I guess you could call him “feral” except that he lets MomKatt pet him – guess you could say he started OUT that way and “evolved”. Sometimes he’ll let DadKatt pet him but it’s MomKatt he leans toward – of course, since she spends the most time with him, feeds him etc. She likes to think she “saved” him from becoming truly feral – he was grown when he started coming up to the house but she just sat patiently with him night after night, feeding him & talking to him very softly. The day he touched his nose to the tip of her finger, she was in tears! DadKatt was watching from the kitchen door & gave her a big “thumbs up”!
Come to think of it, I guess *I* was saved from being a feral too!
Thanks for all this info, Sparkle! Hope you have a Happy Feral Cat Day!
PURRS!
Selina
I always learn so much when I come here. There are many differing attitudes about ferals, and it’s good to lay out the facts!
This is very good information. Mom says I was on my way to being a feral when I was found at three weeks, but now I am a very pampered kitteh. As I should be. – Toby
It is our good fortune that Kip was captured as a feral kitten, he is such a loving and gentle cat!!!!
great post…..we are a big supporter of TNR and hope your comment-a-thon is a BIG success….
Thank you for having this commentathon!!! Alley Cat Allies is super.
That was terrific info Sparkle! I hope the commentathon is super successful. We love all feral kitties and try to do our best for them every single day!
We hope you raise the full amount, Sparkle. It’s a wonderful thing to do!
Nicki was a feral kitten, found between 8 and 10 years of age. He had a good foster mom (via the shelter), because it’s impossible to imagine Mr. Purr Bug as feral at all! 🙂
We are most in favor of TNR here on the Farm, Now if someone would trap Abby I would be a very HAPPY GOAT
We are happy to hear you have a commentathon today – we hope you get squillions of comments.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
Excellent facts! And we hope you get hundreds of comments, Sparkle!
Purrs,
The Chans
Supe that you are doing a commentathon. We wish all feral cats could live in well managed colonies.
Good luck on the commentathon. Thank you fur educating us about our wilder relatives!
Another great post Sparkle. Good luck with your commentathon. We hope you raise lots of monies.
I come from Sam’s blog.
I think the donation per comment received you are doing is a great and noble initiative.
I don’t own a cat, but thanks for what you are doing.
Now I don’t if you would mind me passing the word on, it could end in a million dollars donation lol (I don’t have that many visitors), but you deserve recognition.