How it Started

My Journey with feral cats started with Miso. A week after one of our elderly house cats passed away, Kevin our Dachshund got out of our fenced yard. When I went to find him, he was proudly trotting down the street to our gate with something black in his mouth. I felt dread. He had brought me a dead kitten a year earlier, but he had obviously not been the killer - it had been torn by talons and when Kevin kills a creature (mouse or mole) it is a quick bite and shake, no shred. He calmly, gently released the kitten to me at the gate.

It was limp for a second,  then had one soft cough. Looked up at me, then claws came out and it attempted escape. I calmed it and it quickly nuzzled into my arm. I wasn't sure that she would live, but got some powdered kitten formula and supplies. 

 

The first few days were difficult. It was hard to get her to eat and she needed a lot of care. Gradually she gained strength and started looking healthy.

I had know that there were cats in the area by the spring and pond, but I had always assumed that they were a neighbor's cats. I talked with neighbors and looked for the mother cat and more kittens. The adjacent neighbors to the west knew of the cats and put some food out from time to time, but didn't make claim to any of them. Knowing that there were more cats and not wanting more dead kittens, I asked the veterinarian what to do. He told me about TNR - Trap, Neuter (& spay) and Return. I started feeding what I thought was three to four cats and eventually realized there were well over a dozen. I started trapping and bringing them to the vet as often as I could. 

Since then, Miso has grown to a healthy adult cat and remained part of our family. Now along with our four 'rescue' dogs we have three cats; Caesar, that we adopted from the Humane society many years ago, Miso, and Scout - another feral kitten picked up near the spring where I feed them.