How to Help the Feral Cats
in your Town:

(1)	Volunteer to help groups already organized to help these cats. If no such organization exists, research what it would take to start such a project.

(2) Volunteer to feed cats that you have identified as unowned and in need of assistance. Keep in mind that this is a long-term commitment necessitating the help of others when vacations, illnesses, and other changes of schedule keep you from bringing food to the cats!

(3) Assist a feral cat caretaker when one of his/her cats becomes ill. Volunteer to pay the vet bill for a cat who needs to be trapped and taken for medical care. Caring for cats means much more than just feeding them! Build strong, wind resistant kitty shelters so that ferals can keep warm and dry in inclement weather.

(4) Check with local shelters and cat rescue organizations to see if they can use old towels, cat carriers, newspapers, or cat food.

(5) Host a bake sale or garage sale and donate the proceeds to help the cats.

(6) Volunteer to cook food for other volunteers working long days at feral cat TNVR (trap/neuter/vaccinate/release) clinics.

(7) Write to your local newspaper and government officials in support of efforts to help these cats. Public support for our projects and responsible pet care is VERY important (and contagious!)

(8) Arrange to trap and have leukemia tested, neutered, and vaccinated a stray in your own neighborhood. Each and every cat neutered DOES count!

(9) Neuter all of your own cats, for their own health, good behavior, and safety, and insist that your friends and relatives do the same. If someone you know expresses a desire to see kittens born, insist that they adopt an already-pregnant stray from the SPCA, giving her AND her kittens a good home.

DO’s and DON'Ts when working with feral cats

DO take your time, both when moving these cats around and when looking for signs of gradual domestication. DO keep each cat in his own crate when working with him. This is especially important working with kittens! If another cat is around, a feral cat will look to him for guidance. If no other cat is around, they will look to you for guidance. DON’T keep a hissy cat next to others. Isolate them so they won’t be an influence on other cats nearby. DO use food and a soft voice to get close to these cats. Loud, high- pitched voices (the kind that poodles like) terrify them. When looking these cats in the eye, DO blink slowly and glance away frequently. In "cat language" these are signs of acceptance and of letting your guard down. DON’T work around these cats when you’re aggravated, scared, or otherwise emotional. The cats look to your "aura" for clues on how to proceed. DO neuter a cat ASAP. Hormones are NOT your friend nor the cat’s! DO learn the difference between a hiss that is all for show and one that is serious. DON’T place a feral cat with an owner with expectations for the cat that may be unrealistic. Many never become lap cats. They need to be appreciated for their other qualities. DO let the ferals observe your interaction with domesticated cats.
Remember: They trust other cats more than they trust you.
Signs that a cat is ready for you to progress to the next step:
A slow blinking of the eyes.
Curling of the toes.
Slowed heart and respiratory rate.
Bowing of the head.
Glancing away.
. . . wait until you see one of these signs before taking the next step and your patience will be rewarded. Patience and an understanding of the role FEAR plays in a feral cat’s life are the keys to working with these cats.
Empathy with the animals in your care:
Is their shelter warm or cold? dry or damp? well lit or dark? clean or dirty? filled with loud music or peaceful? Would you like to spend a half hour curled up there reading a book? These animals are captives that depend upon YOU to respect their needs. When you speak to them, are you talking THEIR language?

Starting a Group of your Own:

Starting a group like the Feral Cat Friends begins with one person, like you, researching what it takes and getting excited about the possibilities. From there on, it takes the dedication of two (or more) strongly organized people, coupled with the enthusiastic assistance of 20-30 responsible part-time volunteers. Are there variations on this theme requiring fewer people? Sure! Use your imagination! What we detail here is what has worked for us here in Central New York.

What special skills are needed? :

At least one person needs to have a background in veterinary medicine (preferably this is a retired or part-time veterinarian or a veterinary technician). WHY: You're going to need all the good veterinary connections you can get, be they other vets & technicians, veterinary supply companies, or dedicated cat-enthusiasts. Also: the health and safety of many cats is in your hands. Doing things halfway or without the skills and knowledge needed can do much more harm than good.

At least one person needs to have good public relations skills and group-dynamics skills. WHY: As much as this is a cat-oriented project, you'll require the assistance of MANY people along the way. You'll be talking to dozens of caretakers, companies & individuals considering donations, veterinarians, and the press.

Please feel free to copy our forms and guidelines below IF:

(1) you've been instructed, as one of our new
volunteers, to do this.

(2) you'd like to use them as a template to make forms and guidelines for your own group.

All others should contact: adadma@baldcom.net first. You may notice a similarity between some of our guidelines and those from the Feral Cat Coalition of San Diego. That's no coincidence. We have the FCC to thank for giving us the information to get started. Thank you for your interest!

A hand-out to help drum up support:

Q: "How can we help the feral and abandoned-and-at-large cats in our community and why is this kind of work vital?"

(1) There simply aren’t enough good homes for the readily adoptable cats curled up in our shelters as it is and, if we are to appreciate each cat for its individuality, we must realize that not every cat wants to be someone’s couch potato. "Feral" isn’t inherently good, or bad. It just is. Indiscriminate breeding is what we must stop.

(2) Programs that trap and euthanize these cats ignore certain basic facts:

a. - many so-called "feral" colonies contain a significant percentage of domesticated, unneutered drop-offs

b. - euthanizing animals simply for lack of a designated address teaches our children that killing those that don’t conform to our personal standards is acceptable behavior

c. - experience has shown that removing cats from their ecological niche only makes room for new strays, skunks and raccoons to take over that niche, often within weeks! The options are two:

1. a NEUTERED, VACCINATED population of mouse-catchers, or
2. a breeding and ever-growing population of unvaccinated, less healthy animals.

d. - few colonies ever get eliminated using the trap-and-euthanize approach

(3) Neutering these cats addresses many of the concerns of their human neighbors (urine spraying, fighting, BREEDING). It also goes a long way toward making them healthier Distinguishing neutered animals via ear-tipping provides a way to readily identify them as better neighbors - this increases the status of the cats in many communities and can actually help to better their lives!

(4) Shelters in communities with active TNVR programs often see a significant drop in the number of cats abandoned at their shelter, even up to 70%! (San Diego - 50% within two years; 70% within eight years)

(5) Ignoring the problem doesn’t work, and that, more than anything else, has been the course of events in most of our communities!

Help can be found on the web at:

www.feralcatfriends.com (The Feral Cat Friends of Central New York)

www.feralcat.com (Feral Cat Coalition of San Diego, California)

www.alleycat.org (Alley Cat Allies)

www.feralcats.com (Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon)

Questions about TNVR techniques can be answered via e-mail at:

meownow@juno.com (Lynne Swanson, DVM)