Why are we building outdoor cat cages?

We trap, and neuter/spay, all homeless and hungry cats that visit our 21 acres in the country. 

Over the past few years we have taken in 21 abandoned or feral cats and kittens, neutered/spayed all of them, and found homes for 8 of them.  The last one was released and we hope will be returning for food, and the remaining 12 are under our continual care. 

We have also adopted 2 homeless dogs and we are building a barn so that we can take in homeless or abused horses, but that is some time in the future …

Below are a few shots of our surroundings, so you can get an idea why our cats are so happy.  There are 1100 feet between us and the country road.  The "front yard" consists of about 8 acres of meadow,  a few acres of weeds, and plenty of young trees.  Hundreds of acres of cow pasture are directly behind us, and we are surrounded with farmland and some rural folks who do not believe in neutering or caring for their pets.  Feral cats come from all around to feast on our garbage (more on that later), but especially our abundant rodents, rabbits, and birds.

This is from our kitchen window on a wintry day, admiring the deer in our neighbor's cow pasture.  Those weeds you see are full of rodents and rabbits:

This is Bonny and Andy, also taken from our kitchen window, on a summer day.  When hunting for her feral kittens, Bonny would sit at the edge of the weeds in the background and grab a rabbit before you knew it.  It was very tricky trapping Bonny and her kittens: one at a time without alerting the remaining cat (s) to avoid the trap. Andy was also trapped in the same time period.  The 4 of them became an inseparable and very close family.

 This is from the front porch.  If you look closely, you will see the lovely Kendall Hyatt rollerskating.

 

We love cats.  But we also love nature. 

Some feline experts now estimate 70 million feral cats live in the United States, the consequence of little effort to control the population and of the cat's ability to reproduce quickly.  It is estimated that each year domestic and feral cats kill hundreds of millions of birds, and more than a billion small mammals, such as rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks, and numerous endangered species.

We know firsthand about how much they kill, and how fast they multiply.  And how quickly they become infested with parasites, and how much they suffer.

Because we love our cats, we let them roam freely on occasion.  The alpha male cats must be kept separate, and they also chase off other homeless cats that we can help.

So to allow our cats to enjoy the grass and sun, help reduce their infections from parasites, and help more homeless cats and protect the wildlife … we are embarking on a huge cat cage project. 

You've already seen a few pictures of the first cat cage ... and more will be taken tomorrow as work continues!

Meeting the Current Cats

Before getting more into the project, you might want to meet the key players (aka cats and kittens!).

Their names are admittedly ridiculous.  For educated people, our family has come up with some really silly names!  But after the second trip to the vet’s office with “Mama, Kitten 1, Kitten 2, etc.”, we decided to use silly names that all ended in “y”.   

In 2008, we moved here with Fluffy and Ruckey.  Fluffy is an offspring of a cat whose owner took years and dozens of feral litters to finally spay.   Ruckey was found on the 10^th floor of a parking garage in downtown Houston.

Even though they hated each other, life was good compared to having to put up with 19 more cats and kittens along the way.  You will meet most of them over the next weeks as we also update you on our wonderful cat cage construction project, and other tips like “how to successfully trap a feral cat : - )”. 

Fluffy was #1.  She is about 10 years old, and the stern matriarch of the cat-hold.  Because in her older age she refused to make it to the litter box, we "put her out to pasture" and she lives outside 100% of the time.  Her outdoor lifestyle is the envy of all the other cats.

Ruckey is #2.  He is one of the two alpha males which must be kept separate from others, and put outside only when all others are locked up and we aren't expecting homeless visitors.  He will soon have his own Cat Cage but he is 3rd in line!

You will meet other cats during the course of this blog!

 

Coming soon!  New construction pictures on Cat Cage #1.