T.G.I.F. This Group – National Feral Cat Day

Today is National Feral Cat Day, so I want to get my T.G.I.F. out of the way right up front. Our T.G.I.F. for this special day is This Group Is Family.  Those of you who help ferals will know exactly what I mean.  Even if you don’t take care of ferals on a regular basis, I know you will understand.

Most of you might have seen some of these photos before, but I’ve recently had some questions about housing, especially in winter, so I am sharing them again.  It was really kind of sad as I went through the photos of our ferals and I realized just how many of them were not with us any more.  It’s so very sad, they are family.  Their family dynamics are amazing to watch.

This is baby Zelda.  I told you about her the other day.  Mom Kitty, Zelda’s Mom, has been gone almost 4 weeks now.  It was very obvious that Zelda was sad.  Zelda is a bit older now, but still very young.  Zelda has 2 kittens of her own that she is caring for now.  But Mom Kitty left behind 2 of her kittens.  They are bigger, perhaps 4-5 months old.  They were always right there with their Mom Kitty.  Zelda has stepped up and has taken over the role as Mom for them and she watches out for them just like they are her own.  So with Mom Kitties 2 and her two, little Zelda has her paws full, but she is such a terrific Mom. We sure hope we can get them trapped and fixed, but they are the ones who have faithfully avoided the traps.

One of Zelda’s kittens went missing and was gone for about 3 days.  Zelda and her other kitten gave Dad a lead by pointing him in the right direction, almost taking him there.  The Dad heard some distressed meowing.  The other kitten was trapped in the neighbor’s crawl space.  The little one got in there likely when a maintenance human was doing some work under the house.  We’re so happy that Zelda and her other little one were successful in getting Dad to understand them.

This is their feeding station with the morning feeding..  It was important that we get them somewhere to eat where they could keep dry when it rains or snows.  This is actually a deck storage box with out the top.  The food bowls fit in there nicely.  The Dad drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom so it can drain easily if rain happens to get in there.

They get dry food and fresh water every single morning.  They get more dry food and two big bowls of wet food every evening and the wet food is replenished should they happen to finish it off early.

As you can see, they do enjoy it.  The do seem to eat in shifts, another bunch will come after the first bunch finishes.

There are several places for them to keep dry, under the deck, and under the cover of the riding mower seem to be favorite spots.  Even though we live in the South, winters can be quite cold and we had record low temperatures last winter.

This is their winter house, although they do use it to keep dry when it rains.  It is double insulated, and you can see the cord in the bottom photo and the plug in spot in the top photo.  The house is heated to a constant temperature safe for kitties.  The electrical cord is wrapped in spring wire to prevent them from chewing on it.  We also have a super big doggy igloo which the use as well.   Those windows are not open, they have plexiglass in them.  There is also a front deck that also has plexiglass and it serves to block the wind and wet from getting inside.

We’ve also been trying our paw at TNR.  So far we’ve done 14.  Nope, Zelda, the kittens, and her Mom’s kitties are not in that number.  We’re not giving up though, some of you have given us some good tips.  The super nice lady in the picture is Sandy from Kitten Action Team.  She is the one that save me, Sister Gracie, Sister Zoe, and Sister Sascha.

So, as I said yesterday, we’re not really celebrating being feral today.  But we are sharing our group, because they are family, and hopefully we can all raise awareness of the difficulties they face on a daily basis.  We salute feral caretakers everywhere, thank you all for doing so much for those who have so little.

Remember, adopt cats, we deserve it!!!!!  More Forever Homes More Often!  Purrrrr! Zip! Later!

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