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TNR

Gry

Well-known member
About twenty years back when we moved into this place, we found there was a colony of 3 dozen cats under an empty house next door.
Looked on line for options as to how to responsibly deal
with the situation, and was not finding anything I could consider.
Nearby vet wanted 115 dollars to spay or neuter one, the animal
control dept was willing to supply me with vouchers that would be good for 35 bucks a cat, applied to the cost of spaying or neutering,
Back then, I used to be able to spend about an hour collecting cans from a couple of nearby strip malls and generate about 30 bucks worth of soda cans.
Over a period of months I gradually got all the cats all done but two, which I manage with birth control.
When I think back on it, I wonder why I financed it the way I did.
Just seemed like the right thing to do.
Was hard to place them.We were really lucky and met this wonderful
woman who would screen prospective adopters very carefully.
Had a couple of them returned. My wife told them that they could stay.
My wife had been caught up in combat tours in the Bush wars.
There was a period when tours were being extended, and that
is just how life was. She had a hard time coming home,
and a difficult time adjusting to being home.
Going out at night to deal with trapping and caring for cats
did more good for her than did many other things.
Got hooked up with an organization that would do
the spay and neuter at no cost to us, and they were
really good. The recovery time was half of what it had
been when we had been using the vet.
Have 8 old cats now, that could not be
placed for whatever reason.
Two of them were bottle fed.
Lots of people and organizations deal with TNR now.
Average lifespan of a feral is 18 months.
Lost a young male to a car this afternoon.
Reminding me once again, it's the colony which matters.
 
About twenty years back when we moved into this place, we found there was a colony of 3 dozen cats under an empty house next door.
Looked on line for options as to how to responsibly deal
with the situation, and was not finding anything I could consider.
Nearby vet wanted 115 dollars to spay or neuter one, the animal
control dept was willing to supply me with vouchers that would be good for 35 bucks a cat, applied to the cost of spaying or neutering,
Back then, I used to be able to spend about an hour collecting cans from a couple of nearby strip malls and generate about 30 bucks worth of soda cans.
Over a period of months I gradually got all the cats all done but two, which I manage with birth control.
When I think back on it, I wonder why I financed it the way I did.
Just seemed like the right thing to do.
Was hard to place them.We were really lucky and met this wonderful
woman who would screen prospective adopters very carefully.
Had a couple of them returned. My wife told them that they could stay.
My wife had been caught up in combat tours in the Bush wars.
There was a period when tours were being extended, and that
is just how life was. She had a hard time coming home,
and a difficult time adjusting to being home.
Going out at night to deal with trapping and caring for cats
did more good for her than did many other things.
Got hooked up with an organization that would do
the spay and neuter at no cost to us, and they were
really good. The recovery time was half of what it had
been when we had been using the vet.
Have 8 old cats now, that could not be
placed for whatever reason.
Two of them were bottle fed.
Lots of people and organizations deal with TNR now.
Average lifespan of a feral is 18 months.
Lost a young male to a car this afternoon.
Reminding me once again, it's the colony which matters.

You're one hell of a good person Gry.:good:
 

Hookahhead

Active member
Thanks for you and your wife’s work Gry. Feral cats can be a handful. I used to work in a veterinary clinic, and volunteer at a castration clinic every month. We castrate 100 animals in a single day on average, and have done over 800 so far this year. I can not stress the importance of having your pet spayed or neutered.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
At this point, I would say the Domestic Cat (Felis Catus, literally) has become an indigenous, or feral, whatever the word is - "basic wild animal" - in most US states - in rural areas.

Of course, the cat kibble and canned cat food that my pet cat eats, has to be replaced by something. Not sure how many wild birds the feral cats eat, per day, but obviously they are a terror for other smaller wild animals.

In areas where mountain lions are truly free to roam, the domestic cat is just another food source.

So the feral cats get picked off on the periphery of rural towns, and the cat populations grow in urban areas.
 

brickweeder

Well-known member
TNR is being proposed all over the US, the world even. Except that the Audubon Society and their brethren are fighting TNR because of the "R" part...they claim that the released cats (after neutering) are a threat to birds, so they wants all the feral cats to to rounded up and killed, not neutered/fixed and released. Never mind that Audubon members probably live in the burbs on what was once native bird habitat...
 

I'mback

Comfortably numb!
TNR works, f..k pro whatever groups. Cats aren't the problem!!!!! People (irresponsible pet owners) ARE!!
 
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