Just desperately need to vent

Norachan

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He is three times my size but I probably had fire in my eyes
Sometimes it helps to be smaller/older/female/weaker looking. How are they going to look if they're not only caught abusing an animal but are then caught abusing a person less physically able to defend themselves? Of course it helps that you had people with you. And I'm sure the fire in your eyes made him pause too.

Was the place he dumped the cat a long way from where he was trapped? He might be bale to make his way back there. You must have seen lavishsqualor lavishsqualor story about his dumped colony cats, right?

Catnapped Feral Cat Colony Finds Its Way Home – TheCatSite Articles

I really hope they take your advice and the rest of the animals at the warehouse are treated more lovingly.
 

di and bob

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I never did understand the mindset of certain people. I know where I worked they would find out I loved cats and would say to me, "i don't know how you can be around those filthy animals, I shoot them when they come around my place". I always told them, "You better hope that smelly, slobbering dog of yours doesn't come around my cats! I don't care for dogs, but I would NEVER intentionally hurt or kill one, you would have to be mentally off".... I can't let myself delve too deep into what those dumped cats are going through, I would go insane. the fear, the hunger, the cold.....I have never turned one away, and am going through my latest ones right now, got three females spayed, one male left, and two 'teenies' (3 months old) that will be neutered this spring. (my vet doesn't spay until at least 6 months old ??!!) Now my heart drops when I hear the coyotes out there, I was walking around in the cold at 4 AM yesterday with a flashlight, I have way too much invested in them (money and my heart) to lose them that way! I'm hopefully giving them a better life, I can't stop now!
 

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Out here there is a rescue group that only works with animals dumped in the foothills or at the beaches. That is where I got my previous GSD in the Angeles National Forest tied to a tree and abandoned so that he would not follow the deserter. Fiona herself was no doubt dumped early on a Sunday morning in a huge park where no tiny kitten could have managed to get to and no mother cat would have taken her litter. I have always believed that I saw the person who left her leaving the park as I went over to her, ironically with the dog I had rescued two years earlier. It seems like the few you save are a drop in the bucket.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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Too tired to tell all but caught the head of a large company dumping a trapped cat today! I confronted him. Illegal! Abuse! We are now talking like humans should, I think. Getting him connected with TNR group here. I am still furious with him but he did go back and put out food snd water where he dumped the cat. The two people with me when I jumped out of the car think I scared him. Lol I didn’t mean to but he was respectful to me. He is three times my size but I probably had fire in my eyes. I think I could use one of those official looking shirts! Gonna bout up the company for donations to the local shelters. Hoping I can find a way to locate that cat. :( This guy is now educated. Looks like others in that warehouse might be saved though. Hoping! Hoping!
Well, you must have put the fear of God in him. I hope that he will actually follow through and do the right thing from here on out. It is so frustrating seeing people dump or just like my case having cats turn up out of the blue and start crowding your feedings sessions. Cats you know were dumped on you. 😬

I hope all the warehouse kitties are in a safe place with a committed caretaker. I hope more people get educated about ferals cats, tnr, and how dumping is such a cop out solution that is inhumane and thoughtless. Ferals have fared out poorly from being dumped. It only benefits people who don't want to be inconvenienced by having a feral around. As mentioned previously, too many people want the easy way out and don't really care about the welfare of the cats or they lie to themselves and say everything will be fine. SMH 🙄 Thank you for being such a wonderful advocate for the cats. :rock::catrub:

moxiewild moxiewild I hope everything is okay. You are not alone, as you can see we each have to deal with situations that pushs all our buttons and stresses us out. I hope that your spirit has been lifted and you are able to deal with whatever comes your way. Hang tough. You too, are a wonderful advocate for the feral kitties. 🙂
 
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moxiewild

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Sorry I’ve been MIA.

like I said, we rarely have a free moment right now with everyone going on.

my doctor also decided to start weaning me off an anxiety med at literally the WORST possible time. Ugh.

And earlier them this week, my dog died unexpectedly… and it was one of those gruesome sort of deaths on top of it.

So at the beginning of the week, I just didn’t feel like trapping. Then the next few days it rained at night, so we had to adjust our schedule just to get them food in the early morning.

We went back tonight, and apparently, most of the cats have been trapped. The employee was not sure by who or where they were taken, she’s tried asking and they give her the run around.

So after feeding our colonies in the morning, we’re going to stop by the gas station to speak with the manager and try to track them down to ensure they’re somewhere safe. If not, we’ll go bail them out.

I actually found interest for barn cars on Nextdoor, so I’ll be devastated if they’ve already been destroyed and we were too late😭

They’ve taken 2 adults and 2 of the youngest kittens. There are two adults left, an older kitten (~6 months), and one of the adults might have 1-3 week old babies around somewhere.

We were able to trap the older kitten tonight, so that’s something. I’ve already sent pictures and inquired about the missing cats/kittens to the county shelter. Hopefully the manager at the gas station will be open to talking with us about who took the cats.

We also found out tonight that someone has shot and killed a couple of other cats around the gas station :(

Here are some of the kitties:

This is who they call “Jack Jack”. Feeder can handle him and pick him up, but it’s a struggle (feeder kind of botched our trapping attempt tonight by trying to pick him up and stuff him in the trap, unfortunately). He is still currently there. (The other female who is left and who might have recently given birth looks exactly like him, don’t have a photo of her yet).

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This girl is a gorgeous calico. She’s more social with me than the rest of them, getting within 5 feet of me from the very first time I met her. Very good candidate for actual socialization and adopting to a home if we could put in the time eventually. She has been trapped and taken away :(

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This is the other adult calico. She’s a bit bossy with everyone else, we could get within 10 or so feet of her. Same as the other calico though… trapped and currently missing now :(

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This is O’Malley, the one we trapped tonight. Older kitten, still a bit skittish, will get within only 10-15 feet of me. Will take a lot of work to tame and socialize, but his feeder was able to pick him up a bit, so we have hope that he’ll come along eventually.

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This is the younger orange kitten we’d intended on trapping (along with his sister) tonight, but both were trapped and removed :( He’s a bit more skittish than his sister and Mom, but would get within 10 feet of us.

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And this is the sister. Last time we worked with them, we were able to get her mostly in the trap, and she’d get within 5 feet of me, so I had really high hopes of trapping her tonight :(

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And, just in her memory, here’s a photo of my precious, beautiful, affectionate, quirky dog, Maddie, who we lost on Tuesday -


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She was one of those 80lb dogs who always insisted she was a cute, tiny little lap dog :lol:
 

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moxiewild

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Not to get off the subject a little here, but I hope that you are able to do what you are doing without putting your health in even more jeopardy. One of all of our worst nightmares is that we won't be able to take care of our animals for some reason of illness or accident and it sounds as if you were very close to that. Your boyfriend must be a very good person as well to step in and help.

Previous posts had a lot of good ideas in them.

The idea of a shirt or ID is a very good one. You might be surprised how many people you immediately back down if they think that an organization is behind you. People are not going to go home and google "cat rescues in TX" to make sure. Taking the moral high ground is also a tactic to try. You are solving the problem, taking if off the hands of those who are clueless as to what to do or who only have very bad ideas of what to do. Whenever I have been in a situation where I needed to rescue from an unfriendly place, I have always taken the approach of "you people are really lucky that I showed up when I did, being the cat expert that I am." Like they know any better? A small groups is also something to consider. It does not even have to be real animal people, just a couple who could look a little bit useful and who understand what you are going through.

People bluff about what they are going to do. Not that some of them might not get out there with intentions of harming a cat personally, but most who threaten to trap and relocate are never going to get off their rear ends long enough to do what is really involved with trapping, baiting, moving, etc.

Like you, I have never actively procured any of my animals. All the cats literally just happened in all those crazy ways you find desperate animals. Once, I was actually going to go to the animal shelter and look for a friend for Jamie, but then a litter was born under my neighbor's house....so saved the trip to the pound on that one! My current dog I more or less did agree to adopt, but only because someone in the GSD network I belong to called and asked me if I would take him if they could get him out of MO and to CA. Even then, I knew nothing about him and he could have been an insane inbred killer for all I knew, so it was right on the midpoint of finding and adopting.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/21/health/crazy-cat-lady-study-scli-intl/index.html
According to a UCLA study, the stereotype is completely invalid.
Yes, stress can certainly be a trigger, so I’m being very aware of that. I’m getting powerful infusions every month along with other medication, and my doctor told me Wednesday he believes by now I am technically in remission, so that’s good. And hopefully the infusions will keep me there.

If my CT comes clear next month, I will also finally be off blood thinners, and if I pass my walking test, I’ll be off oxygen too.

I was VERY lucky my partner stepped up. This is so many animals to handle on your own, plus, we had that bad snow storm in Texas, so he had to scramble to make shelters all on his own since I was in the hospital during all of that. He never once complained.

With unfriendly people, it is just sometimes so hard to convince them if TNR (and management with feeding, shelters, etc) is preferably to simply removing the cats. They’d rather get rid of the cats and just risk whether new ones come in 🙄

Thank you for that article on that study! I have more than a few people I’ll be sending that to! 😂
 
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moxiewild

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Hello moxiewild moxiewild it has been quite a while since I saw you last on this site. I am so sorry to here about your hospitalization, and that you are struggling with your health. Just that alone can put a lot of stress on you. I commend you for all you do to help the cats, in spite of having to deal with ignorant, indifferent, and hateful people. So sorry about the poor kitty who died in your arms.☹ Also, regarding how the cat population in that small colony blew up while you were sick. Kudos for saving lives, especially young lives!!! I hope the cats who have the parasitic infections get better soon. I had saved one kitten who had everything wrong with her: a bad URI (Calicivirus, Feline Herpes Virus, Microplasm),an eye injury that healed funny, and Giardia. I had to go through multiple rounds of antibiotics until the kitty was put on the right one. I also had to put the kitty on 3 rounds of Panacour because she had one stubborn Giardia infection. In the end she got healthy and was taking to an out of state no kill who found her her forever home. What you are going through is on a much larger scale. You have a very big heart and you are accomplishing a lot, but I think you need to find some helpers. Bless your boyfriend for helping you when you were sick--he's a keeper! It is just that because you are dealing with health problems it may be hindering you from doing what you are use to doing. Please keep your health in mind and know your limitations. Also, dealing with the daily grind is much more emotional draining when you are not well, so naturally you feel stressed out with the situations you are facing. Once again,, I hope you can find the right people to help you out .

This week I vented on this site as well. That lady (hoarder/other feeder on my block) keeps dumping her cats on me and not only that other people have been dumping cats on my block.😡 I have to feed these cats in front of my house because of territorial backyard cats. People actual come on my block to see the cats and they know I feed. I am disgusted that the word is out. I wish there was a more "secretive area" I could feed, but no I am stuck. The other feeder I had a fight with knew I couldn't feed in my b.y or anywhere else, so she keeps dumping cats on me. That way all eyes are on ME and not her. I also found out from my family member, that before the other feeder left the neighborhood she asked my f.m. if they could feed the cats (my f.m doesn't feed, so it was a sneaky way of trying to offload those cats on me.) 😡 My f.m is a nice person and they thought she was a pushover, but she actually said no, so they left them in the care of the other feeder who I had a huge fight with. I think the fix was in from the start--- one way or another they were going to dump those cats on me. Now I am feeding ALL the former feeders cats and some of the other feeders as well---on top of other cats dumped by neighborhood jerks who know I feed and think I am am "the crazy cat lady" of the neighborhood so I should be able to take care of cats that they don't want around anymore. It is times like this I share your sentiment--PEOPLE ROYALLY SUCK!!!! They don't want to be inconvenienced in any way. They "create" or have problems worsen while never making any attempt to do the right thing--EVER! Then they show you animosity because YOU do the right thing by practicing tnr and feeding starving cats. If these people do want to remedy the situation it's "their solution only", not tnr and continuing to take care of the cats. That is why your posted notices dissappeared. The cat situation in my neighborhood was started by ignorant people who never got their pet cats who they let outside-- spayed and neutered. When a female got pregnant--she got kicked to the curb. Male cats would come around (some with collars on) sticking around long enough to knock up the females and then disappear. Instead of ragging on people like me and you, why couldn't these fools do the right thing in the first place and on top of that keep their pets indoors. The ignorance and lack of concern is staggering!!! Rant away, I 1000% agree with you. It is just so frustrating and disgusting. :frustrated:

I hope you feel a little bit better all around. Hang in there--you are saving lives and making a difference. You got more class in your little pinky than these haters have in their whole body. Thank you for what you do!!!!Stay strong!!!🙂
That is so horrible, I’m so sorry.

do you perhaps have the space and funds to hire someone to build two enclosures in your back yard to separate the cars who don’t get along?
 
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moxiewild

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I didn't read all thru, but want to ask if you've considered doing a Go-fund-me thing and starting a new version of Spca or something there... ?
Well, our long term plan is to apply for non-profit status. Between Covid and my being hospitalized for so many months, we’ve been forced to delay that at the moment.

A Go-Fund-Me is an option we consider on and off, but we don’t have a big social network.

We’re not really on social media aside from here and Reddit, so I’m not confident in how successful a GFM would be for us.
 
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moxiewild

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Getting a 591 started might bring you some physical help through other humans. I hope so! Look for helpers!
fionasmom fionasmom I found that study too! Thanks for posting that link! I didn’t choose to rescue either . I just couldn’t turn my back on abuse. I have kept the, so called, “unadoptable!” They are not that, they are wonderful!
I strongly suggest to others to try and put aside funds for the cats you are guardian to. I have trustees lined up and am building for their futures, just in case. Recently I was talking to an attorney and was on the subject of the cats and an indisputable will. He suggested that as long as “You’re not a crazy cat lady” it should be okay.:headshake: When I worked for the environment, rescuing endangered plant species in the rain Forrest it was quite risky but , no one would have called me crazy plant lady! Unh!

Let’s just read your post again!:clap2:
What is a 591?

We actually have a lottttt of funds set aside specifically for the cats. I feel like we’re almost there in terms of having enough to reasonably cover their expenses through to end-of-life if someone had to take over.

We also have a document detailing each cats personality, medical issues/special needs, any other cat they are bonded with, etc.So that if anything happens to us and they need to be rehomed, they’ll have all the information (including our adoption process if family does on their own).

The ferals are trickier. With them, all funds are going to TNR, food, and shelter right now. Once that’s done, we’ll be saving up for building enclosures for them, as we hope to move in the next few years on at least a few acres so that we can take them all with us.

Once that’s done, we’ll start on their “lifetime care” funds too.

Hopefully by then we will be an official nonprofit, and luckily we are still young so hopefully we’ll be around for a while and have time to figure out who will take over in the event of our passing.
 

fionasmom

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I don't know what to say. I am glad that your health is improving, so sorry about the loss of that beautiful dog, and sick over the "missing" cats. You do have a wonderful plan in place for the future which is a great credit to you to think about where this care is all going.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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Hello moxiewild moxiewild it is good hearing from you again. First off, so sorry about your beautiful dog Maddie suddenly passing away. On top of all you are going through that is a rough blow. I remember years ago when my dog passed away (he had cancer) it took me quite awhile before I got over it, even though I knew he was on his way out. I hope you find comfort as you mourn the passing of your beloved dog Maddy. 🐕❤❤❤

I hope things get better for you all around. That it is confirmed you are in remission and your health improves day by day. You are a warrior fighting health battles and still going out tnring, rescuing and helping kitties anyway you can. Once again, thank you for all you do for the kitties---you are making a difference. I know it is upsetting with the cats/kittens that were shot at or confirmed trapped, or are MIA. You seem to be living in a place that has little to no laws protecting feral kitties. Maybe in time, you can get together with as many like-minded people as you can and see if new laws protecting the feral cats could be passed. It seems also the public needs to be educated about ferals like Jcatbird Jcatbird did with the dumper she encountered. I really hope you can find those cats that were trapped or are missing. Keeping my 🤞that you find them and rescue them.

My situation is complex. I am not allowed to bring the stoop cats into the backyard. The cats i feed in my backyard sort of got grandfathered in. Once they pass away or leave, there is to be no more cats in the backyard according to the owner of the house. Also, as mentioned they are territorial. The minute the other cats step into the driveway or yard--they are chased away. I still see the stoop kitties going into the other feeders backyard, but I don't know what she is doing for them and since I am not on speaking terms with her(she made a legal threat against me), I am in the dark as to what is going on with her. I will try to figure something out for shelters for the stoop kitties. They are all healthy cats, thankfully.

Well, I hope you are having a Happy Caturday. Take care. 🙂
 

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Norachan Norachan I agree that it would look bad to accost someone like me. He probably would have gotten in more legal trouble doing that.
I have been having regular texts from the dumper. He even asked me for a referral for a humane wildlife group to handle the raccoon there. Progress? The food he went back to leave for the dumped cat was eaten. It appeared to have been eaten by a cat rather than any other type of creature. I followed the cat tracks. Now they seem to be headed back towards the warehouse. Food is being left to lead it that way. I contacted every group I could before the weekend. I’ll be getting calls on Monday about resources for the remaining cats. It’s tricky since they are just over the county line. We may be able to work it through a group in the county where the dumper lives though. I have offered to donate to assist the group with funding this. The dumper tells me that he will cooperate. It remains to be seen but I always hope. I did know the story of the missing colony. I have rescued lost cats here. One made it from 17 miles away after a fire. He had lived near me previously and headed to his old home. Another from 5 miles away. Cats are tough. Both survived well. I am following this up as best I can.

di and bob di and bob I know what you mean about investing of yourself. Me too. If I see them, they have me. When I saw that one, I was instantly invested. Fortunately I know that cats have amazing skills. Besides seeing the tough starts of many, I have seen many, many happy endings to the stories. I try to hold those stories in my mind. :hugs: There isn’t any question. You ARE giving those cats a better life. For all creatures, to be loved makes life worth living. They know. I would wish to have someone like you as my advocate. I would count myself blessed.

fionasmom fionasmom It does seem like the saved ones are a drop in the bucket sometimes. To those few, it is a huge success though. If you start adding all the drops by everyone, just on this one thread, our bucket if overflowing. Others see and follow. I hope it is like a ripple in the middle of a pond. It expands and touches the entire shore eventually.

moxiewild moxiewild That was a typo. Sorry. I have been having eye treatments and surgeries so my vision is a bit off. It should have been 501 as in a non profit status. You are well on your way with handling everything financially.:clap2:
I am so sorry about Maddie. She is beautiful. Rest In Peace Maddie.
I am also so sad to hear about the missing kitties. Shooting cats is horrendous. It happened here too. I hope you find that some you thought were trapped are just hiding out and can also locate the others. Whenever humans intruded here, cats hid.
Please keep getting better! I send all my hope for good results and my heart is with you.
Also with you Whenallhellbreakslose Whenallhellbreakslose I hope I did put fear in that dumper but even more, I hope he feels remorse and will never do that again as well as , hopefully, working to spread the word and save the other cats. He seemed to understand that the cats could be beneficial as guardians in a warehouse.
It seems that every person caring for colony cats faces complications at some point. If only we “like minded” could form a human and cat colony, Cat city USA and go out on rescue missions wherever we could offer experience and assistance. Perhaps one day, we will live where all cats are protected.
I am most grateful to everyone who goes to such efforts to help the cause of kitties. Thank you for all you do!
 
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moxiewild

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I just wanted to thank you all for your condolences on Maddie. I feel like I haven’t yet had a chance to truly grieve because of everything we are dealing with, and I am sure it will hit me like a brick wall unexpectedly at some point.

Update:

We talked to one of the managers at the gas station.

I was in some serious luck here, because I knew her and recognized her even with her mask on. We went to school together and were friends for a period of time in middle school (I still have her school picture around here somewhere even!).

It had been 10 years or so though, so I had no clue if she’d remember me, but I took the opportunity to renew that rapport. Luckily, once I took down my mask, she remembered me too, and immediately became more open and forthcoming in the conversation!

According to her, they made a deal with animal control to pay $40/cat to have the cats spayed and neutered, get the kittens adopted out, and possibly the adults if adoptable, and if not, have them returned to the gas station.

She said they don’t mind if they’re there, but they couldn’t have them reproducing. She said at one point, there were ~7 more cats, but they were trapped immediately. By who, she didn’t say, but they obviously were never returned…

I’m hoping it’s not too late for these cats. Most people don’t realize what animal control does with ferals and semi-ferals. The fact that the previous 7 were never returned isn’t a good sign to me at all.

I’ve also never known the municipal shelters/ACS here to TNR or make a “deal” like this (though I suppose it’s possible they do for businesses?). And usually TNR programs - especially government run/open intake/kill shelter ones - only hold the cats for one night after surgery before returning them due to lack of space.

By the time I spoke with the manager, I had already contacted the county animal control, because I know that gas station is just outside the city limits, and therefore under county jurisdiction. But the county animal control said that they do not think they’ve had any cats matching the photos I sent them.

The manager said whoever they talked to said they might be transferred to city or county depending on space.

I’ve contacted the city shelter already and am waiting to hear back. I’m also going to press the county shelter more (were you guys sent to trap at that location last week? What about cats that have recently been euthanized? Etc), because I find it very odd if the city was spearheading this and doing most of the work for a location outside of city limits.

If they have them, we want to bail them out (especially the kittens who are already 12-16 weeks, semi-feral, and neither the city or county have the resources to work with them), but this has messed up our timeline quite a bit honestly.

I have no idea what we’ll actually do with the cats. I had intended on putting the adults in a small bathroom together since the employee who was feeding them felt pretty sure they’d get along, but we witnessed one of the calicos being… very, very intolerant to others in her space. All were very afraid of her. So I don’t think shoving her in a bathroom with the others would be a good idea.

Maybe once I locate them, I’ll try to set up barn homes for them ASAP and hopefully find people willing to move forward quickly with that.

I just hope it’s not too late 😭

As for the older kitten we managed to trap, O’Malley, he’s adjusting okay! Started exploring the crate early on, which is typically a great sign for socialization. He hisses at me now and then, but is exceptionally tolerant of my presence. He is very vocal though, so we are losing sleep over it :(

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Tonight, we’re going to pick up Jack Jack, the older (supposedly “alpha”) male. The feeder is working tonight and can pick him up, so hopefully with some careful planning, she can just get him in a carrier or use the set-over trap we have.

That will leave only one cat left, who may have recently given birth. I don’t know what to do about her, honestly.

On one hand, I’m kind of competing with animal control to get her before they do.

On the other hand, if she has very young kittens, they will die without her, especially with the cold weather we’ve been having the last few weeks.

Normally, I’d leave a cat like this alone until her kittens were old enough to start coming around and be trapped, so I really don’t know what to do here…
 

Norachan

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The dumper tells me that he will cooperate. It remains to be seen but I always hope
I think the fact that he is willing to talk to you and listen to what you say is a good sign. I hope they let you help, thank you for everything you are doing.

:hugs:

moxiewild moxiewild I'm so sorry to hear about Maddie. She looks like an absolute sweetheart.

:hugs:

Great news about knowing one of the gas station managers! Is the cat that may have young kittens near the gas station too? Maybe your friend could call off Animal Control for a while and explain that someone else has offered to take care of the cat and look out for the kittens too.

I wish I was close enough to offer you some practical help. I have space for ferals here, but I'm thousands of miles away.

O'Malley is gorgeous! I love gingers.

Take care of your precious self. I know it's tough when there are so many animals in need, but you've got to rest and avoid burn out and compassion fatigue.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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Prayers, good thoughts and keeping my 🤞you find out where those kitties are, rescue them and trap the other kitties before the ACC get to them. I hope you catch Jack Jack, so he can be reunited with his brother. Also, you are able to find and trap that Momma with her kittens.

It was a stroke of very good luck that someone you went to high school with who is an open friendly person tell you what happened to those kitties. But seriously why is Animal Control going out of city lines to trap cats? If they were only taking cats in for only tnr(not adoptable), they should be released the next day. Also if someone paid them $40 dollars per cat for tnr and to adopt out kittens and friendly cats then why hasn't that person who made this deal with Animal Control, not ask for an update of what is going on? Once again, I hope you find these kitties and figure out where you will put them. I sure you and the others will figure something out.

Well, I hope you are hanging in there. It takes a very special person to do what you do. Stay strong. Post updates when you can.🙂

Jcatbird Jcatbird I love what you said about finding other like minded people and form a human and Cat colony. Wouldn't the world be a much better place then? Sign me up!!!🥰
 

dustydiamond1

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moxiewild moxiewild 💔😞😿🌈💝💓💗 So sorry for your loss of dear Maddie. She is watching over you and will someday meet you at the Rainbow Bridge 🌈💞 Bless you and your bf (he's also one of the good ones) for all you are doing for the poor kittys but please take care of your self. It's like they warn on airplanes in the event of oxygen masks deploying. First instinct is to place on the child or weak in your care but that's not the best case scenario since if you blackout who's going to protect the ones unable to protect themselves or you? Hope events are going well, keep us updated as you can and, as you know, you are always able vent to your fellow 'Crazy ABOUT Cat Ladies (and guys) :bliss: :lol::touched::grouphug::grouphug2:
 
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moxiewild

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Sorry for the late response.

I hate to say, we have almost given up on the other cats at this point.

Every day has been pulling teeth trying to get straight answers from the gas station employees, and the city animal control won’t tell us anything.

And of course, we have more human intervention now.

Someone called the number we leave out at our colony at the woods. He wants the cats gone.

He’s convinced the cats gave his dog ringworm (extremely unlikely), and that the cats are pooping in his yard (which is probably rare considering they have a massive wooded area and this guy has a large dog).

He think us providing shelter and food is what’s keeping/attracting them there, etc

He said he really hates cats, but understands what we’re doing and wants to resolve this as civilly as possible.

Of course, nice as he was, it was all but implied that the only resolution this guy would accept is that all the cats are gone, and soon.

He reiterated he gets what we’re doing but he doesn’t want to be dealing with these cats the next seven years.

My boyfriend is the one who spoke to him, and he tried to explain the vacuum effect, but I definitely need to elaborate to the guy - he lives near woods. There are absolutely always going to be cats because of the food and shelter that area naturally provides.

There are also a handful of pet cats who live near him, and I’m wondering if he’s mixing up those cats for ours.

I’m not sure what to do, honestly. I’m just so tired of all of this. These cats aren’t at fault, and neither are we.

It’s really frustrating because we were planning on looking for some land to move to so that we could take all the cats with us and just finally not have to worry about them anymore or deal with people like this. But that was a probably two year plan.

I’m trying to think of other solutions. Only thing that comes to mind is offering to pay to cat proof his fence, but even if he were to agree, that’s costly and doesn’t guarantee the other neighbors won’t complain about something else.

I swear we cannot catch a damn break this past year.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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it’s really frustrating because we were planning on looking for some land to move to so that we could take all the cats with us and just finally not have to worry about them anymore or deal with people. But that was a probably two year plan.
I really wish I could do that as well. I am getting too much grief over the kitties yet again. It wears you down at times.

So sorry that you were never able to find out what happened to the missing cats. Your boyfriend could talk to that man about "The Vaccuum Effect" to the cows come home and that person will keep complaining about the cats. There are people who are very stubborn and ignorant and will never accept any other solution other than what they perceive as the solution (dumping cats elsewhere, etc]. I have had to deal with a few of these types, and it is very frustrating because there is no way of getting through to them. 😕 The cat proofing of his fence seems costly, could you try cat pellets or some other solution first? I bought a Sonic cat Deterrent for a neighbor some years ago, and they handed back to me saying it would drive their dogs crazy. My views of this product has changed over the years, but I heard of some cat caretakers using it. Look into it and see if this is something you agree with. I bought this product on Amazon for less than $40 some years ago.

Well, I hope you catch a break soon. You been through too much in the last year. Take care. Hope things improve from here on out. 🙂
 
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