How to help skinny cats in my neighborhood?

[pssh]

Hello,

So I started feeding this terribly underweight cat a few months ago. I bought her a feeding dish and high quality dry and wet food. Another neighbor seemed to have the same idea and would add some extra dry food when it got low and I wast there. She was doing well and appeared to be gaining weight. I wanted to gain her trust and take her to a good cat rescue, but one day, before I could, she just disappeared and I haven't seen her since (I'm hoping someone took her home!) after that incident, I've started noticing quite a few cats that range from moderately underweight to very underweight (visible hip bones, ribs, spine, and tail ) in the surrounding neighborhoods. I want to help them in some way, but most have tags on them (and I can't find their owners) or I can't get close enough to catch them. I found one cats owners, and gave him some better food for her, and she seems to be doing better, which makes me feel better. I still drop by and give her a can of wet food once in a while to check in.

I'm not sure what to do about it. The city animal control website says they don't make field calls anymore to remove/catch strays (not that I would be thrilled with that option because they could very well get put down even if they could be helped fairly easily, though I guess that's better than possibly starving to death,) and I haven't been able to find any places that do field calls. All the tags just have the cat's name on it! It's so frustrating.

What should I do? Should I feed them when I can? Some of the other, well fed cats seem to have taken some of the little food I could offer the thin ones. It's starting to get cold, and I feel bad for them. I just want to help them if I can, you know?

 

[sandrachameleon]

in my area, there is a feral cat society. They put out some minimal amounts of food, catch strays, spay/neuter, treat for worms, etc. then re-release. they only keep those that they can place in foster or forever homes (cats that are calm and people friendly) and only put down cats that are in terrible health/suffering.
I think they try to help people with cats that cant be cared for anymore, to reduce the number of pets that are dumped.

maybe there is something similar in your area?

 

[pssh]

I know several vets/groups will do free neuter/spay for people who bring in feral cats, but I haven't heard of a specific group that helps feral cats. I will look into it. I don't think the cats are feral, just strays that don't want me to touch them. I can get pretty close, but the second my hand goes in their direction (even if I'm belly down on the ground, moving at a snail's pace) they will make a quick retreat. The only ones that don't are the ones that have tags on them that are not helpful at all.

 

[kinyonga]

Don't know California but this says northern California....
Http://www.feralcatfoundation.org

 

[pssh]

That's too far away. I forgot I don't have my location up. I'm in Sacramento, so if anyone around here knows of anything, let me know!

I'll keep looking around though.

Edit: I've looked at some feral cat sites, but they don't really take in cats. They only do trap-neuter-release and tracking of colonies.

 

[kinyonga]

Maybe these ones...

Http://www.yelp.ca/biz/happy-tails-pet-sanctuary-sacramento
Http://www.examiner.com/cat-rescue-in-sacramento/valerie-heimerich

 

[djfishygillz]

I know several vets/groups will do free neuter/spay for people who bring in feral cats, but I haven't heard of a specific group that helps feral cats. I will look into it. I don't think the cats are feral, just strays that don't want me to touch them. I can get pretty close, but the second my hand goes in their direction (even if I'm belly down on the ground, moving at a snail's pace) they will make a quick retreat. The only ones that don't are the ones that have tags on them that are not helpful at all.

Very cool what you are doing.

I have to say though the image of a grown man on his belly crawling to pet a cat just was hilarious to me.

Once again, very cool for you to be helping out the strays... It has to be a hard, hard life for them.

 

[kinyonga]

One more Site that might be helpful....
Http://www.wikihow.com/Tame-a-Feral-cat
And one more...
Http://www.theluckyfew.org/site/feral_cats.html

 

[little leaf]

if its getting cold ( not sure how cold you get there ) these are easy shelters to make, we make these and put them out- it get well below zero here - alot of times you can find these type coolers behind pet shops - fish orders - so it cost nothing just don't put it in a windy area unless you strap it to the boards

 

[pssh]

I've volunteered with happy tails before, but not in a while. As far as I know, they don't help catch them. I'll call them though. Every cat rescue/shelter I've been able to find just doesn't do catches (except for TNR and then they can't supply the traps anyways.) I might just rent some traps and see if I can get them myself. As much as I would love to spend the time taming them, I don't know if the small amount of time I have would actually work.

Those shelters are neat. I'll see if I can find some and make a few. We don't get terribly cold temps (usually above freezing) but when they are skinny, I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Very cool what you are doing.

I have to say though the image of a grown man on his belly crawling to pet a cat just was hilarious to me.

Once again, very cool for you to be helping out the strays... It has to be a hard, hard life for them.

I'm actually a woman, but my boyfriend comes with me and will do the same thing. Sometimes we are both down on the side walk, cat food smeared on our hands, trying to touch/feed them and the people walking by look at us like we are crazy!

We bring my small dog with us sometimes because he, for some unknown reason, will befriend the cats and cuddle with them. He's like a cat magnet. He has also helped us find lost/missing cats for the neighbors this way. He just does a little sniffing, walks around the block, finds the cat's hide-out, then the cat comes right out and goes to touch noses. It's crazy how he does it.

 

[ridgebax1]

I actually acquired a cat this way. She would hide out on my porch so I started feeding her and eventually she would let me pet her then finally pick her up. I put a collar on her just in case she belonged to someone thinking they might take it off but that never happened. I eventually brought her in my house but she escaped before I could get her spayed. She was gone for three days and ended up having five kittens. I kept three and found homes for the others but wished I'd kept them all. Her babies just turned ten.

 

[DanSB]

Coalition for community cats is local. They used to loan out traps. Honestly, nobody wants a cat and they are best off using the tnr method. Most strays and all ferals wind up euthanized unless they are lucky enough to get into the happy tails system.

Check out alley cat allies. They have tons of great info but aren't local.

I have 4 pet cats that live indoors. 2 fosters that live in their own bedroom that I can't find a home for, and about 10 ferals I feed that live in my yard. I love cats.

For food go to Tractor Supply. They have 32lb bags of food for 20 bucks and it is decent food. Not top grade but good enough for an outdoor cat and definitely better than paws brand or other garbage food. The ferals get that and table scraps. They are the fattest feral cats.

For skinny cats in the area I would be concerned about FIV, or a particularly nasty Uri. Our area has fatal, untreatable URI strains according to a local vet. If you do pet them it can carry to your cats so wash up well.

Alley cat allies has some good advice for feeding feral cats. I would follow that. I have fed our local colony every day for 5 years. Once you commit you can't stop.

Our area doesn't get cold enough to hurt cats. If you want though a cardboard box with rag towels is perfect. Or even just a box. Remember, it won't take long to get filthy and filled with fleas so you need to swap out the box every week or so.

Good luck, if you need more info let me know.

 

[djfishygillz]

Coalition for community cats is local. They used to loan out traps. Honestly, nobody wants a cat and they are best off using the tnr method. Most strays and all ferals wind up euthanized unless they are lucky enough to get into the happy tails system.

Check out alley cat allies. They have tons of great info but aren't local.

I have 4 pet cats that live indoors. 2 fosters that live in their own bedroom that I can't find a home for, and about 10 ferals I feed that live in my yard. I love cats.

For food go to Tractor Supply. They have 32lb bags of food for 20 bucks and it is decent food. Not top grade but good enough for an outdoor cat and definitely better than paws brand or other garbage food. The ferals get that and table scraps. They are the fattest feral cats.

For skinny cats in the area I would be concerned about FIV, or a particularly nasty Uri. Our area has fatal, untreatable URI strains according to a local vet. If you do pet them it can carry to your cats so wash up well.

Alley cat allies has some good advice for feeding feral cats. I would follow that. I have fed our local colony every day for 5 years. Once you commit you can't stop.

Our area doesn't get cold enough to hurt cats. If you want though a cardboard box with rag towels is perfect. Or even just a box. Remember, it won't take long to get filthy and filled with fleas so you need to swap out the box every week or so.

Good luck, if you need more info let me know.

Lee's feed and western store sells technically expired and or ripped bags of food for really cheap in shingle springs. I am not in an area where I know of any stray cats but I thought that someone may care to know they have cheap brands of food.

 

[pssh]

I don't have any cats so I don't have to worry about the disease issues, but now I certainly won't go petting multiple cats. I've been going to a feed store for the cat food. I had left over Orijen from when I was feeding the first cat I found and used that until I ran out. Now I'm feeding them EVO.

I have been offering food about every other day now just so I know they at least get something. It makes me so mad that the cats with the collars are so thin! I just feel bad for them. Would it be better if they were euthanized if they have FIV or the URI you're talking about? If they are really that bad, and I mean like almost no hope for them, then I might consider taking them to be put down if I can catch them and they test positive. (How much would a test generally run? I haven't had cats since I was a kid, so I don't know about these things.)