Yesterday I wrote about Biggie Smiles, the Iron Works Colony cat that is bonded to his feeder, his TNR’d feline friends, and his outdoor home.

Here is Biggie Smiles when he was small, and we just started doing TNR for this colony in 2012. 

A coworker told me about this colony and the complaints from neighbors on this block. This is how the colony looked at the time. 

I understood why neighbors would complain – the cats were very visible and very bold.

It’s disconcerting to see small kittens in alleys. This is Biggie and his brother.

Oscar, their feeder loves the cats and fed them diligently. They obviously were well-cared for. He showed me photos of kittens from the past. Some he would keep, and some he would give away.

This breeding cycle needed to stop. Oscar liked the idea of TNR and getting all of the cats there fixed and vaccinated. A Tree House staff person came with me to TNR. At first Oscar thought we would be “taking away” all of the adult cats, while he “got to keep” the kittens of his choice. Eventually he understood that was not the way it worked.

When we showed up to TNR, it was fairly easy initially because the cats were bonded to Oscar, so he was even able to just pick up some of the cats and put them in traps himself.

TNR doesn’t always go like this. Now this is what I call herding cats!

We set traps all over and the cats came to check them out.

There was no room for the kittens at Tree House. Oscar knew which cat was their mother, and since she was fairly friendly towards him, he agreed to foster her indoors with her kittens, until they were old enough to be weaned, and then vetted for adoption. He set them up in a much cleaner space. Oscar diligently took the kittens for weekly vet visits at the clinic, and admitted two of them when they were ready for adoption into Anti-Cruelty Society. He kept two of them for himself to be part of the colony. The mother of course was TNR’d.

Two years later now and Oscar told me that the kittens he kept were killed by cars on the street. But the colony population is now contained, there are no more neighbor complaints or “new” cats, and Biggie Smiles, his brother, and two other TNR’d cats are thriving and still there to this day.

The Iron Works Colony is down to four TNR’d cats now. We spayed/neutered twelve cats and kittens total from here in October 2012. Obviously that’s a a two-thirds reduction in outdoor colony size in two years. TNR works.

The Iron Works Colony is one of my satellite colonies pretty far from where I live. I first heard about it from a co-worker and went there to TNR, and I keep in touch periodically.

When I visited the colony the other week Oscar, their feeder, had just gotten home. I watched two cats run down from his front steps to greet him. They were well-fed and obviously bonded to each other and him.

Oscar and his parents live in a well-kept house with a beautiful garden. The cats have heated shelter next door in their iron works business. Years ago they started feeding cats and of course the population increased. When I first met Oscar he talked a lot about how much he loved the kittens. The kittens would get hit and killed by cars frequently, or he would give them away to friends and neighbors. Even though Oscar really loved having kittens mostly, he understood that the breeding had to stop. He also asked me repeatedly if I would “take the adults to a shelter.”

The adult cats are pretty friendly, especially this one I call Biggie Smiles.

This cat is all smiles all the time.

Seriously.

Biggie Smiles is completely bonded to Oscar. He ran right up to him, along with his TNR’d sibling, and they both tried to climb right into his car. They came near me, but never quite let me touch them.

Biggie would just rub and roll on everything.

Including his brother.

Oscar asked me again if I would take the adults to a shelter. I’m not sure if that is the best solution for these cats. I can’t touch them easily, they have food and shelter, and are heavily bonded to each other. They’ve “adopted” Oscar, and this is the only home they know. But, of course I want the friendly cats to be adopted indoors. I hate hearing about kittens being killed on the street, or given away without being fixed. But we all know that reputable no-kill shelters are always full, and finding potential adopters takes a lot of effort. After doing the majority of the TNR work, when feeders ask me these questions, I am careful to make them understand that the responsibility is on them. If they want to find these cats home, they should try and do so. This is THEIR colony and yard, and by all means, they may be able to find another indoor solution for the cats on their own. I give them ideas and contact information on what I try to do when looking for another home for a cat. Oscar has given away a lot of kittens from his yard. Perhaps some of those people would also be interested in a fixed adult cat.