Out of all the myths about cats, the myth that feral cats live short, miserable lives outdoors is the one that drives me crazy the most. It is pretty much why I started this blog. This blog chronicles the lives of the feral cat colonies that I TNR, trap-neuter-return, and continue to care for with the help of feeders and caretakers in my community. You can see the stories of the individual colonies by clicking on the links under “Categories” on the right. All of these cats and their colonies have names.

The reason why this myth is wrong is because it is based only on human emotion, and is propagated by humans who know nothing about these cats. They are the people who walk into a room, shout, “You’re doing it wrong!,” and walk out without offering help or an alternate solution. They never tried TNR. They never tried to do anything at all.

Who are we to determine what constitutes a short, miserable life? What is short? What is miserable? Do these people think these cats would rather die than be outdoors?

So enough about these myths, and let’s show the cats that dispel these myths.

I’ve written about Dash before, since he has been in the colony in my yard, the James’ Gang Colony, since being TNR’d in November of 2007. He’s been coming back ever since sporadically, on his terms, for almost six years now. He never lets me get close, but he will stay in my yard now when I open the back door, instead of dashing away like he used to. He doesn’t even feed all the time in my yard, so obviously he finds alternate food sources because he is clearly not starving. He is healthy and free and feral.

This morning I opened the door and found him hanging out under my deck. He was hard to see at first as he was in the shade. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing, and then realized he was enjoying the catmint. Sometimes I worry (another pesky human emotion that is a waste of time) that the cats are not visiting my yard in the summer, but then I can tell when there must have been a cat party overnight by the freshly trampled catmint plants.

I ran back inside to get Dash a plate of food, put it outside for him, and went back into the house to watch him eat it. But he didn’t eat it, he just turned and walked out of my yard. He is living his life outdoors, as he wants to, as he knows how, doing exactly what he wants to. We should all be so lucky to live our own lives like that.

I have a new cat visiting my yard! It’s been awhile. The current line-up of my James’ Gang Colony was established when I TNR’d Honey Bouncy Bear in May 2011. So far the cats have been pretty accepting of this new visitor. He’s been coming the last few weeks, starting late night, and moving on to dusk. He leaves as soon as he sees me but I managed to get a dark photo of him through my window.

Introducing Puffy McWonder Tail.

He definitely does not have an ear tip yet, and looks a little disheveled. Jim named him Puffy McWonder Tail. Jim is in charge of naming the cats in my yard, since the James’ Gang Colony is named after him.

Puffy prefers wet food so we’ve been leaving it out diligently to keep him coming back for more. I hope I can trap him with canned sardines in oil in a humane Tru-catch trap next week when I’m off work.

Yesterday he actually came during the day and was waiting for wet food with the other cats. He will not stay in the yard with me but I got a shot of him on the cat path. Can you see him watching me from back there?

And here he is in the rest of my winter garden. It looks so bare! I can’t wait to start planting!

There is a public hearing to review the 2007 Managed Care of Feral Cats Ordinance scheduled for Tuesday, March 19th, 11:30am, at the Cook County building, 118 N. Clark St., room 569.

The ordinance is to be reviewed because anti-cat groups such as the Chicago Audubon Society got the attention of Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin.

If you sent a letter to the Cook County Commissioners through Alley Cat Allies’ action alert page, you would have gotten the same email response I did:

I was so engrossed checking out cat paw prints around the neighborhood that I forgot to take a look at the path the James’ Gang Colony use for access to my own yard. This path is the gangway next to my garage. There are stepping stones along the path but I did not get a chance to shovel it out. I love how the cats use the same exact paw prints every time. They’re practically etched into the snow. We’re expecting a big storm tonight so I’ll have to make sure their entrance does not get blocked.

I’m not sure if the James’ Gang Colony is actually protesting anything. But they are definitely, and deliberately, ignoring me here. Dice and Funny Face, the boys on the roof, like to keep an eye on their escape route, while Bouncy Bear snuggles inside and keeps a close watch on their feral cat feeding station.

Last week I was talking to one of my favorite feral cat bloggers, Chicago Feral Cat Files, about feral cats who need extra recovery time after their TNR surgeries because they have other medical issues going on. Normally male feral cats can be returned outside after their surgery within 24 hours, and female cats can be returned after 48 hours. If a cat is recovering from a wound or a URI, however, and require antibiotics, their recovery time is obviously longer. In these cases we were brainstorming on how to keep the cats more comfortable.

Ideally cats that require more recovery time should be transferred into a larger cage so that they have room to stretch, eat, sleep and use a litterbox comfortably. I need to do some more research on these cages, but there are good options out there. One thing that I try to do for these cats is to line the trap with a puppy pad. The pads are more absorbent and comfortable for the cats to sit on rather than just newspaper, but they should only be used for cats that remain calm. Some cats like to shred and chew on everything in the trap, in which case the puppy pad is not a good idea.

But in the case of Boo, one of the cats I trapped in my yard, the puppy pad was perfect. She seemed to like how soft it was and only used a corner when she went to the bathroom on it.

PamPurrs Puppy Pads

Boo was TNR’d at PAWS Chicago in 2009. Her photo is also featured on PAWS Chicago’s Trap Neuter Return site. Boo turned out to be a pregnant female, which was so surprising to me as I rarely trap females from my yard, and she was so tiny. I named her Boo after seeing her for the first time the previous week looking out at me from inside my open basement door. I was outside gardening with the door open for hours. At some point she came into my house without me seeing her. When I did see her in the doorway, she bolted, and I did not see her again until I trapped her a week later late at night.

I recovered Boo in the trap for a few extra days with the puppy pads and she was good to go. Because she was so tiny, the trap did not seem that small for her. How do you keep the feral cats from your colony comfortable during their recovery time after TNR?