I'm not generally one for introductions. I prefer to just jump in and start posting, but maybe some background would help. The fact is that I'm not really a cat person--I'm a dog person. I love animals but I've wanted a dog for years. The problem is that with my unpredictable work schedule (on-call 24 hours a day), sometimes I'm gone 16 hours. Even a normal work day, a dog would be alone the majority of the day and I just couldn't do that to a pack animal. So, I just didn't have pets.
Last fall, I found a stray cat (one of many hanging around my apartment complex) drinking dirty rainwater off a tarp covering some things on my patio. I just felt bad for him so I put a dish of clean drinking water out. Then I started leaving some food out. When it got colder, I put a tote with some bedding in it under the tarp so he'd have some warm shelter. He brought a friend and they fought over the shelter so I added a second shelter and food/water dish. Over the winter, a couple more females showed up. I looked into getting them fixed so I didn't find kittens in any of the shelters and ended up volunteering with the local TNR program, helping out at the monthly clinics as well as using my large SUV to transport cats (Did you know that you can fit 10 traps with feral cats in a Hyundai Santa Fe?--stacking them with cardboard and pee pads between layers so the guys on bottom don't get peed on)
My patio, aka Hobo Cat City, now has a large dog house and a large tote with bedding for shelter as well as a walk-in greenhouse that serves as a feeding station.
Just after I'd gotten my feral colony sterilized (before kittens showed up
) a friend texted me to ask if I'd take a kitten in. Their neighbor had found it outside the apartments where they live and took it in (so it was born to either a stray or feral momma--don't know) but they had to move and couldn't take him. They weren't sure how old he was--somewhere between 4 and 6 months was their best guess. My area has few places to surrender cats so if they couldn't find a home for him, he'd probably get turned loose to fend for himself. That's how I ended up with Angus. The vet guessed that he was born around Halloween time so that's his birthday.
I'm also cat-sitting my niece's cat while she moves. So I have four feral cats outside and two cats indoors, but I'm not a crazy cat lady!
My ferals: View media item 421668View media item 421665 View media item 421670View media item 421671Angus is my profile picture and Riddle, my niece's cat (the one who randomly throws up and I'm trying to figure out why since I know my niece doesn't have the money for vet bills right now--thread in Cat Health)View media item 421669
So, that's how a dog lover ends up with six cats.
Last fall, I found a stray cat (one of many hanging around my apartment complex) drinking dirty rainwater off a tarp covering some things on my patio. I just felt bad for him so I put a dish of clean drinking water out. Then I started leaving some food out. When it got colder, I put a tote with some bedding in it under the tarp so he'd have some warm shelter. He brought a friend and they fought over the shelter so I added a second shelter and food/water dish. Over the winter, a couple more females showed up. I looked into getting them fixed so I didn't find kittens in any of the shelters and ended up volunteering with the local TNR program, helping out at the monthly clinics as well as using my large SUV to transport cats (Did you know that you can fit 10 traps with feral cats in a Hyundai Santa Fe?--stacking them with cardboard and pee pads between layers so the guys on bottom don't get peed on)
My patio, aka Hobo Cat City, now has a large dog house and a large tote with bedding for shelter as well as a walk-in greenhouse that serves as a feeding station.
Just after I'd gotten my feral colony sterilized (before kittens showed up
) a friend texted me to ask if I'd take a kitten in. Their neighbor had found it outside the apartments where they live and took it in (so it was born to either a stray or feral momma--don't know) but they had to move and couldn't take him. They weren't sure how old he was--somewhere between 4 and 6 months was their best guess. My area has few places to surrender cats so if they couldn't find a home for him, he'd probably get turned loose to fend for himself. That's how I ended up with Angus. The vet guessed that he was born around Halloween time so that's his birthday.I'm also cat-sitting my niece's cat while she moves. So I have four feral cats outside and two cats indoors, but I'm not a crazy cat lady!
My ferals: View media item 421668View media item 421665 View media item 421670View media item 421671Angus is my profile picture and Riddle, my niece's cat (the one who randomly throws up and I'm trying to figure out why since I know my niece doesn't have the money for vet bills right now--thread in Cat Health)View media item 421669
So, that's how a dog lover ends up with six cats.
Thanks for caring for the ferals. 
And congrats on getting them spayed/neutered before kittens arrived. 
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