Foffmom: Feral Reality

Until I saw that emaciated little cat, I believed that feral cats had a nice life. "Everyone" had always said so. Living off the fat of the land as they say. Cats are great natural hunters. Everyone says that. So why was the little black cat starving before he was hit by a car? I have since rescued a few more starving ferals/abandoned cats.

The skinniest was Pippin, a gorgeous Siamese with long soft fur and startlingly blue eyes.

Pippin was prowling the ruins of a burnt house, sited beside a railroad track. I have no idea how such a fancy cat wound up homeless and starving, but he was. Luckily, he came to my daughter (we had been going shoe shopping until she pointed and yelled "Cat!"). He had a collar of ticks across the back of his neck. He was so thin the transverse processes of his vertebrae were clearly visible. We later noticed, when hungry, he yeowled loudly, as house cat often do. Guess the noise didn't improve hunting skills.

Opie was another nonthriving abandoned cat, one Daughter also spotted, as he chowed down on roadkill possum that had been flattened for 2 weeks. He was so hungry that he didn't want to leave his meal as I approached. He was thin as well, and had FeLeuk and toxo, as we would later find out.

Ferals have short life spans, 5-7 years quoted in some web sites. They encounter cars, dogs, coyotes, hostile cats, diseases and parasites,such as ticks, fleas, worms, and earmites. If unneutered males, they travel for miles searching for mates. Females cycle into heat at 6 months, still a kitten to our human eyes. Males fight one another, for mates and to defend territory. Females have litter after litter. Distemper can wipe out a feral colony. It is a harsh and hard existence. Seems "everyone" was wrong again.