Honey Bouncy Bear found a new use for our chiminea. She’s a part of our James’ Gang Colony and has been coming to our yard regularly since being TNR’ed in May of 2011 at PAWS Chicago.
You weren’t going to use this for anything else, were you?
Nineteen inches is a lot of snow all at once. Jim did most of the heavy shoveling since I was out of town for work and missed the storm.
Mooha helped me with the little bit of shoveling that was left yesterday afternoon. I made sure to clear out the cat paths so that my colony had access from the alley to their outdoor heated cat condos and feeding stations in my yard.
B.B. waited patiently for me to finish. Mooha wanted to check her out as well.
B.B. bounced around from house to house to stay out of our way, and settled in the Feralvilla Feeding Station at one point.
Hope everyone is safe and warm out there!
Every year, the temperatures drop after the holidays, along with my mood. I’m not a fan of winter. But my mood picked up when I saw the James’ Gang Colony cats in my yard lounging all morning, looking totally comfortable in their environment.
These particular cats in my yard have been around for a few winters now. I started this blog to show people that a feral cat can live a long life outdoors, because that is what they know and prefer. Yes, they get help from me, but they were also surviving before that. I trap-neuter-return TNR a feral cat colony because I don’t think cats should be outdoors and I don’t want more of them, but the ones who are already out there deserve to live out their lives.
I’m happy to provide extra comforts to the feral and stray cats in my yard, and I encourage all of the cat colony caretakers that I work with to do the same. Once a feral or stray cat is spayed/neutered, they will start sticking around more because they are no longer roaming and looking for a mate.
Cats need water year round, like we all do, and that gets harder for them to find in the winter. There are lots of easy ways to provide fresh water for them.
A few years ago I bought a heated water bowl for them. I actually bought the one in the second picture of that link.
I didn’t really ever see any of the stray cats or feral cats using it and kind of shrugged off my purchase. Until this morning, when I saw Dice drinking from it, while Springy Funny Face and Bouncy Honey Bear dined together.
This is the fifth winter that I’m caring for Dice now since his TNR surgery at the Anti-Cruelty Society on January 26th, 2009. He was pretty upset in the trap and hit his face trying to get out, but he’s come a long way since. He seems to enjoy the extra comforts I put out for the cats in my yard the most.