Capturing and Socializing Feral Cats

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                   Rule #1 in working with feral cats is to
                         always avoid injury to yourself. 

Always bear this in mind whenever you are around
stray or feral cats.  Remember that you do not know their
history.  Not only do you want to avoid wounds from the
standpoint of infection, you need to safeguard yourself
against rabies, parasites, etc.   Always wear thick clothing
and gloves.  Avoid direct contact with them until you have
had an opportunity to determine how social they are from
a distance. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                 How to Capture Feral and Stray Cats

                                        Neighborhood Strays/Ferals 

If the cat you are attempting to capture has been frequently showing
up at your front door looking for food, what action you take will
depend upon a number of factors.

Do You Belong to Anyone?

If the cat seems very friendly to begin with, it  could be a neighbor's
cat from down the street.  If there is a collar and there is no display of
aggression on the part of the cat, you should check to see if their is a
nametag with an address.  Remember to make sure you place yourself
at no risk for injury.  If the cat begins to back off, hisses, growls, raises
its fur, and things of this nature, do not attempt to check for a collar or
nametag.   

If you do not find identification linking the cat to a particular
household, you have several options.  Of course, you can just leave
the cat alone and hope it will survive on its own.  If you're not
comfortable with that, as I wouldn't be, you can take the next steps
in deciding what to do.  If the cat seems particularly friendly/social,
then you can pretty much assume that he has at some point been a
member of a household.  He is either just roaming around as his family
prefers to allow, or he could have managed to escape from his house
or simply has been unable to find his way home after prowling the
neighborhood.  

If you're in an area where there is a lot of dangerous traffic, you might
want to see if you can get the cat into a safe environment such as a
spare room or basement in your home or by having animal control take
him to the local Humane Society.   If you are going to take him inside,
bear in mind the possibilities of infectious diseases which could put
any cats in your house at risk.  You would, therefore, want to make
sure he could be confined to an area where there was absolutely no
risk to your family's cats.  There is also the concern of bringing
fleas into your house which could be a problem to other household
pets and your family members as well.  The problem with taking the
cat to the local shelter is that if his owner does not claim him and he
is deemed "unadoptable" due to lack of space in the shelter or
because he is not sociable enough to be adopted, he will more
likely than not have to be euthanised.   Being run over by a car
or truck, however, is a lot less humane than the kind treatment he
will probably be shown at the shelter.

If your area is relatively low in traffic level, you might just leave him
outside and attempt to find out where his home is located.  One way to
do this, of course, is simply asking around the neighborhood.  Another
would be to post signs.  If you take the cat inside, many local
newspapers will run a free ad in the classifieds for an animal which
has been found.  They usually run these in the "lost & found" section
of the paper for a few days at no charge unless you decide to extend
the ad.    An approach I have taken is to purchase a safety cat collar
and a "barrel-type" name tag which allows you to place information
inside the barrel.  I write a short note asking that a member of the
family where the cat lives please let me know that the cat belongs
to them and where they are located.  If it is, indeed, a house close to
mine, then I pretty much allow the cat to roam as his family wishes
unless the cat has obviously been hurt. 

While it is my preference that all cats be kept indoors, there is no
ordinance in our community prohibiting individuals from allowing
their cats to roam.  I feel, therefore, that I can educate the cat's
family as to the advantages for keeping a cat inside and hope they
will agree, but if they do not, then I have no choice but to honor
their choice.

                                To Be Continued: 
                My tight schedule mandates that I work on this in
                bits and pieces.  Some of the items I hope to cover are:

                        You Have No Home.....What Now?   
                                    Friendly Neighborhood Cat
                                    Unsocialized Neighborhood Cat

                            Feral Cat Colonies          
                                     Daily Maintenance
                                            What is required to help ease their suffering   
                                            on a day-to-day basis?
                                           
                                    Capturing Feral Cats
                                            Types of devices which can be used to trap 
                                            feral cats.

                                            Ways to trick cats into the traps.

                                            Transferring ferals from their capture cage
                                            to a holding cage.

                                    Socializing Feral Cats
                                            It's a slow process, but it can be done in
                                            almost every case. 

                                            Kittens up to five to eight weeks can be
                                            adoptable in a very short period of time.

                                 Placing Feral Cats for Adoption

                                  Spay/Neuter/Release programs used throughout
                                       the world to hold down the high feral cat
                                        population while maintaining an area's
                                        colony.  The argument is that if the colony
                                        is completely eliminated, another colony
                                        will move into the area.