Cats Protection

Without you, these cats will remain on the streets, without Veterinary attention, without food, without shelter.

Without you, there would be no Cats Protection, no one to feed them, care for them, shelter them, and tend their wounds.

If you are not helping Cats Protection now, please, please think of doing so.........

Please Don't Ignore Them ...

Thoughts of a Feral

by Annette Easdon

Dedicated to all the kind and caring people who give the lonely ferals a little care, a little love, and a little hope.

I sit beneath the bushes as she fills my dish each day,
I only venture out to eat when she has gone away,
I know it will upset her when I turn away and hide,
As every day she tries her best to get me by her side.
I wish that I could let her know that I don't want to run,
And hope that she will understand it's nothing that She's done.
I'd like to have her stroke me and pat my weary head,
But fear will overcome and I'll run and hide instead.
For all the kindly people who feed the strays each day,
I pray the Lord will care for them as they have cared for me.

Please Read the INFORMATION on the page before reporting a Colony to us

Please remember we can only help in the Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside Area

If you live outside that area, please contact Cat Protection Headquarters via the link on the left hand side of the page

NOTE:- We do not remove and relocate feral cats. We have a no euthanasia policy, so we will not put feral cats to sleep unless they are ill and suffering.

If you have a colony, neutering is the only way to monitor it.

There are many misconceptions out there regarding feral cats. Almost daily I receive a phone call from someone who describes 'a feral cat' terrorising their cat. The truth is it rarely happens that a feral will do that. What they actually have is what is best described as a 'Rogue' domestic cat.

Many such Cats spend their entire lifetime, living off the streets, surviving by using their wits, and along the way upsetting many Cats and their owners by their aggressive tendencies.

But all is not lost, these Cats can be helped, although its not very likely that anyone would want to adopt such a Cat, we can at least make their lives a little less fraught by neutering them. Vet's usually warn us that neutering doesn't always rid a Cat of its aggressive tendencies, but in my own experience, I have not seen one case where it hasn't improved the situation.

Also one other fact we must realise, these Cats have spent their entire lives outside, would they really appreciate a nice warm living room? In most cases the answer is No.

About 2 years ago I received a phone call from some people in Fawdon who described a 'Rogue' who was attacking the people as well as the Cats, so a trap was offered, and the people duly caught the Cat and brought him into the Vets for neutering. Later that day, the Vets received a phone call from these people, saying they wouldn't be coming back to collect the Cat as they had to travel down the Country as an emergency had occurred. So, there was little choice but to go and collect the Cat myself and bring him home.

As my household already contains 20 or so long term Cats, this idea wasn't relished by me or my family.  Anyway, Roly, as he was now called was placed in a large pen in my kitchen, and daily I would tentatively bathe and treat his wounds, watching his reactions very carefully indeed. Once he was healed, which took around 3 to 4 weeks, I opened the pen, and the back door, giving him a road to freedom, he didn't move....

In fact he didn't move out of that pen for 6 months. I was really concerned that I hadn't done this Cat any favours at all, he was obviously traumatised, but there was no turning back now. 

Then one day, he was actually on the floor, and very soon he allowed me to stroke him without threatening to dig his teeth into my hand.

Today, 2 years later, he still lives in my kitchen. During the Summer he spends most of his day, sitting in the doorway, watching all that is going on in the world, and taking personal responsibility for 'his harem' ( 4 or 5 of my other Cats who reside in the kitchen ) and making sure his family, ( my husband, Ron, and daughter, Kirsteen, and me of course) are all ok.

So, now we know what a Rogue is, now to get onto Feral's.

A feral cat is a cat born in the wild, whose instincts for survival, are finely tuned to those of their ancestors. Unlike most domesticated cats, a feral welcomes the company of other cats, hence they live in communities.  These communities have an order of hierarchy, and very much like a colony of Bees, each has its designated role in the colony.

Ferals tend to hunt at night, and normally its the queens who do the hunting, that is, until kitten season, then, they appear to enlist the assistance of local cats, neutered or not it makes no difference, and they take over the duties of the queens, along with some of the younger feral males. 

We once had a phone call from a lady who reported 2 feral queens in a greenhouse along with a litter of kittens. When we brought them in we spotted that the tom was a domestic, the queen, although feral, wasn't well, hence she allowed us to catch her without any difficulty. These 2 cats I christened Lancelot and Guinevere, Lance was all white in colour, while Guine was all black. For hours I would sit and watch these 2, and I was amazed when I saw Lance take food in his mouth and carry it across to the queen and gently lay it front of her, then when she had eaten her fill, he would begin grooming her and the kittens. 

This continued until the kittens were weaned and Guine was back to full fitness.  This story did have a happy ending, Lance and Guine were rehomed together, while the kittens were rehomed in pairs.

Since the days of Lance and Guine we have often trapped domestic tom cats while trapping in colonies, and this would seem to prove my theory.

Around March/April time the phone starts to ring with reports of missing cats, just how many of them turn up in colonies I wonder?

We control them !

How?

By neutering, and monitoring the colony for any newcomers, but we do rely on you to help us do it.

If there is a colony near you, and you are willing to help us, then tell us about it, estimate how may cats may be there, any kittens? and if you can set up a feeding routine.

Feed them daily at the same time, so they quickly get used to when food will be available, that way, when we are ready to set traps, food will be placed in the traps at the same time you normally fead them, and the cats will go into the trap easily.

At the present time, we only have one trapper, so, we need your help to do this. We will lend you a trap, and pay for the neutering, but at this moment in time, we are able to do very little else.

Remember, what may now be only a dozen cats will by next year be nearly treble that figure, if not more, so action now, will save a lot of work later on.

If you are aware of a litter of kittens born outside either to a feral or stray cat, please inform us.

Tell us where they are, and how old you feel the kittens are.

Kittens when born outside, soon revert to wild tendencies, so its important that they are in our care by the time they are 6 or 7 weeks.

Try and handle them if you can, don't be too intimidated by the hiss and spit.

You can normally tell if they are under 6 weeks of age by the colour of their eyes, till 6 weeks kittens eyes remain blue.

Once the kittens are away from Mum, we can concentrate on getting her neutered, if she is left she will come into season again very quickly, and the whole cycle starts again.

Kittens over 8 weeks of age, have to be left, and neutered when they are 6 months old.

Can you tame a kitten over 8 weeks of age?  Yes you can, but its a job that takes a lot of patience and time, and unfortunately our branch is too small for us to be able to spare the time to do this.