"No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens." - Abraham Lincoln
After reading two articles on cats, Susan Lee’s http://factoidz.com/why-its-important-for-your-pet-to-get-yearly-vet-checks/ and also Brenda Nelson’s http://factoidz.com/how-to-provide-better-care-for-a-farm-cat/ , I felt cat-fact-obsessed to add my comments.
It’s obvious from these two factoids that the writers not only love animals but believe in caring for them. I will write about the other extreme: people who do not treat animals as living creatures and might think, ‘it’s only a cat’.
Living in a tourist, beach area that provides fun and entertainment for visitors, I have been told by more than one vet, that families come to our area and ‘adopt’ a kitten for a short duration. There’s always ‘free kittens’ signs that may lure the kids in their families to beg, borrow and steal that it’s ‘only for a short while’. The parents may say OK, thinking to themselves, ‘it’s only for a short while’. After everyone is tanned, relaxed and fun-filled, it’s time to load the suitcases and the car and head home. ‘Uh oh, what do we do with the kitten that we have petted, loved, fed and made a family member for 2 weeks? It was only for a short while, and we can’t take it home’. So they–and many like them–go for a drive and drop it off in a ‘nice’ development because ‘people there will probably feed it and take care of it. Wrong. People in most developments have one or two dogs and even one, two or three cats themselves. So the disoriented kitten, who was pleasantly socialized and fed and cared for, now lives in an unknown area where its hunger and survival mode pushes it into the ‘feral cat’ category. A feral cat is defined as an unowned and untamed cat separated from domestication. Feral cats are born in the wild and may take a long time to socialize or may be abandoned or lost pets that have become wild. They should not be confused with the wildcat, which is not descended from domestic cats.
The ‘chosen for dropping-off development’ frowns on these cat-trusions. Their dogs want to chase them; the cats are viewed as disease carriers (I am guessing that 2-week owners of kittens do not bring them in for their rabies shots) and the once-loved animal soon learns that he or she is not welcome here. They get a ragged look and are usually very hungry and thirsty. They even look unhappy.
I’m thinking that this happens a lot. We have lots of scavenger cats prowling around the hood. In fact, in Point Pleasant, NJ (another tourist area), there are colonies of 300 feral cats in one area. Usually, cats do not carry rabies, BUT in Point Pleasant, there were a number of rabid raccoons who did infect some of the cats. Recently, one of the rabid cats attacked a teenager–who had to have the series of rabies shots which are not the most pleasant things to have done.
When we moved to South Carolina, there appeared on our patio, a very small tuxedo kitten (a black cat with white markings that looked quite like a tuxedo). We already had an indoor cat and the kitten would come up to our screened-in porch and try to befriend our cat. There’s always a risk of fleas in the southern hemisphere, so we made sure our cat was protected with flea medicine even though we do not let him outside. Once you feed a cat, he will be yours. And this happened to us. We fed Feral - which we called her - and watched her grow from a small kitten to an adult cat.
If you choose to feed a feral cat, it will stay in your yard and wait for you to feed it again and again. Feral remained an outdoor cat. Although she did allow us to pet her when we fed her, she never got beyond the few strokes stage - she was independent and feisty. And this next statement is the reason for my article.
By ‘keeping’ a feral cat, even though it lives outside, it is your responsibility to make sure that the animal is protected against rabies and distemper (as well as being spayed or neutered). They become semi-domesticated, and any child in your area who tries to pet it, may get scratched or bitten. If the feral becomes rabid, it would be dangerous to anyone and/or it could infect another animal and then you have the Point Pleasant, NJ, scenario.
We ‘trapped’ Feral by placing her food in a cat carrier and closing the door. She was not happy. We brought her to a pet clinic and she was spayed and had her shots; they kept her overnight and everything cost $80.00. It turned out that she had 6 kittens within her at that time and the loving workers there told us it was better that way because they were heartbroken when they had to put kittens to sleep. We brought Feral back the next day and she behaved as if nothing happened. We also ‘petted’ her with the flea medicine so she wouldn’t get infected. She slept on the patio and communicated in some way with our cat and they seemed to be friends. She was happy as she pranced and rolled over and played with salamanders. We had her for a year and someone did take a fancy to her and she was officially adopted. We missed her, but am glad that she has a ‘real home’.
Recently, a ‘dropped off’ adult cat came into our yard. He was ravenous but we did not feed him. He was trying so hard to get onto the porch when I opened the door that he inadvertently scratched me with the tip of his claw - and broke the skin. I called the pound and they came by and picked him up and gave me forms to fill out since the skin was broken. He was observed for 10 days and found to be all right. Since then I have heard conflicting reports from accredited vets that you cannot get rabies from a scratch and yet the DHEC feels if an infected cat licks its paws, it could transmit rabies through the saliva on its paws. In any event, I was lucky, because they observed the cat that scratched me. Someone else could get scratched or bitten and never find the cat and then have to go through trials they really don’t want to. Just because someone was irresponsible and ‘dropped off a cat’ they no longer wanted. To be fair to this poor animal who scratched me, he just wanted so badly to ‘get inside where he was probably used to being’ instead of living the hunted, competitive, survival-of-the-fittest mode out in the woods. They did feel that he would be adopted.
Animals should never be dropped off if they are not wanted. It’s better if they are taken to the pound where they may be adopted or — I hate to say it - put to sleep. It’s less cruel to the animal who may get diseased or starve to death. Dropping off animals is becoming a problem in many states. If you know anyone who wants to do this, offer to take the animal to the pound, if no one wants to adopt it. You will be doing the animal and your neighbors a favor.
Remember, the Creator who made us also made the animals. He even saved them on an ark during a great flood. They should be treated fairly and not tossed out with the mindset that ‘it’s just an animal’. Animals matter.
