Relocating and “combining” colonies?

moxiewild

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Hey everyone,

Last night we ran into a small, unmanaged colony at the gas station down the road from our house.

We spoke to the clerk, and it turns out she’s been feeding them for a while (and hoped to get them fixed when she had the money/had socialized them enough to pick them up), but was just told to stop by management.

Apparently the cats had lived under the house next door, but the owners recently boarded it up. That has left the cats with nowhere to go, as this area is SUPER barren.

Management had apparently called animal control to get them 4 days ago (when the cashier was forced to stop feeding them), but no one has showed up yet.

Everyone appears to be semi-feral thanks to the kind cashier, but as we know, that won’t help them once they get to the city shelter.

As far as a headcount -

There are three kittens that she’s aware of. We met two last night who are about 4 months old. She said the other kitten is about a month or so younger than the other two, and only recently came around. If that’s true, I think there’s a good possibility there is more than one young one.

We’re currently socializing two 5 month olds and three 3 month olds, so we’re hoping to trap the kittens starting tonight, and integrate them with the ones we already have, so that they can be adopted out.

There are also four “adults” total (one looks definitely under a year old to me, and possibly another one too). The clerk said she thinks one of the adults was pregnant but doesn’t look pregnant anymore, so she might have very recently given birth.

Management and the neighbor that boarded up under their house really want these cats gone.

And to be honest, in this case, I kind of agree with relocation over TNR -

The cats had been attracted to the area before because of the space under the neighbors home, and likely food/mice by the dumpsters of the gas station. Without any adequate shelter, I think there’s less of a chance of creating a vacuum effect by removing the colony.

The clerk said ever since they lost their sheltering spot, they’ve been kind of scattered and lost at the gas station parking lot. People have even complained about the cats sneaking into people’s cars or trying to.

Without adequate shelter, I don’t think these cats will survive winter either, and management certainly doesn’t seem open to hosting shelters at the gas station.

Right now, the only place they have to hide and have been hiding is under the dumpsters and under cars. As the weather gets colder, it’s only a matter of time until one of them ends up in a car engine.

This gas station is also right next to a busy, high speed intersection and an on ramp to a major freeway.

it’s just not a good location in general, especially now that they have no shelter.

I feel like we have no other option but to take them in, but our house is completely overflowing right now.

So that really only leaves the option of relocating the colony outside at our house.

Now, I’ve assisted with MANY relocations so far, but this is the first time I’m running into a few specific problems I need advice/input on -

- Our backyard is at a steep slope. This prevents us from setting up an enclosure for the relocation process (we cannot afford to fix this at the moment).

I’ve always had an enclosure/kennel/shed/barn/etc to use for relocation before - has anyone relocated a feral by keeping them inside during the containment process, then letting them outside to the new territory after 6-8 weeks? Would it essentially work the same? (I’m a little bit more worried because we aren’t too far from the gas station, but they would have to cross the highway or the overpass above it to get back there, so I REALLY don’t want them to attempt that).

- As mentioned, we already have a colony at our house. I’ve never really heard any stories about combining/introducing colonies like this before. Has anyone else done this or heard of doing this before?

- Ideally, we’d have a room in our house to use to contain these guys, but as I said before, we are overbooked as is.

Therefore, the only viable option we can think of is placing all four adults in our relatively small bathroom…

The bathroom floor space is not-quite 8ft by not-quite 3ft (excluding the tub, which we would place two litter boxes in).

2F295773-69B3-4926-8C0C-F7F657922B58.jpeg


If we clear out the bathroom cabinets for beds, that adds another almost 2ft x 4ft space.

Plus, there’s vertical space to utilize - another almost 2ft x 4ft space on the counter, a corner cat tree, and suction cup window seats work relatively well on the tile in the shower. There is also a small window and ledge, plus the top of the cabinet above the toilet. We can also add an additional shelf or two, plus wall mounted scratchers to save space, and hanging a “radiator hammock on the door of the above-the-toilet cabinet (example below).

B68C05E7-524C-4283-A343-144A1E18A357.jpeg


We’ve kept many single cats in a similar set up in that bathroom for 6-8+ weeks before, but four cats for 6-8 weeks is really, really pushing it space wise :/

I can’t decide how cruel this would be. At the same time, we really don’t have another option…

Anyway, this is the only plan we have right now.

If anyone has any comments or other ideas, please let me know! We’re trying to do our best with what little we have to offer these guys right now.
 

fionasmom

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Starting at the end of your post, I think that leaving them where they are is a lot more cruel. They have no shelter, are actively not wanted, AC has been called, and someone may take matters into their own hands and either kill or relocate them to a much "worse" place. The bathroom I use for cats is about 10 x 5 but is L shaped so there is another piece of floor off to the side. If you empty the cabinets, use the tub, it should be fine. Don't get overly sentimental about whether or not this is the best that they can have; there is no other option and you are an angel to do this for them. Believe me, they will know it once they have food and safety.

I agree with you that TNR is not the solution here, meaning leaving them at the gas station. They will be eliminated even if they are not able to breed.

IMO containment in the bathroom will work as far as retraining them to see this as their home. If you have anyone who can help you, that is one more option, but I don't know if that is possible. Maybe once you get them to the bathroom, you can evaluate them and see if one could be fostered, might be adoptable, etc. It may not be that they have to stay with you once they are brought to safety.
 
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moxiewild

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Starting at the end of your post, I think that leaving them where they are is a lot more cruel. They have no shelter, are actively not wanted, AC has been called, and someone may take matters into their own hands and either kill or relocate them to a much "worse" place. The bathroom I use for cats is about 10 x 5 but is L shaped so there is another piece of floor off to the side. If you empty the cabinets, use the tub, it should be fine. Don't get overly sentimental about whether or not this is the best that they can have; there is no other option and you are an angel to do this for them. Believe me, they will know it once they have food and safety.

I agree with you that TNR is not the solution here, meaning leaving them at the gas station. They will be eliminated even if they are not able to breed.

IMO containment in the bathroom will work as far as retraining them to see this as their home. If you have anyone who can help you, that is one more option, but I don't know if that is possible. Maybe once you get them to the bathroom, you can evaluate them and see if one could be fostered, might be adoptable, etc. It may not be that they have to stay with you once they are brought to safety.
Thank you. I’m hoping they all actually get along like the cashier says they do!

I think the two of the adults we met could definitely be tamed with time, I just don’t have the time at all right now to work with them.

We kind of swore off taking in more cats until the colonies we take care of were fully TNR’d and the kittens and adult fosters we have now were adopted out, but seeing these cats and kittens scrambling in the parking lot, knowing they’d abruptly stopped being fed (don’t worry - we went home and brought them food!), and that only 4 days ago animal control was called to pick them up… it just felt like a “fate” sort of thing, and felt impossible to turn our backs on them.

I honestly don’t know how we’re going to swing it. We’re already completely overwhelmed (understatement) with 24 cats and kittens in the house right now, but I just don’t see another way to help these cats since they’re semi-feral and there aren’t really any rescue resources for cats like this outside of TNR. Working/barn cat programs are almost impossible to get into, and I’m not sure that we’d even have the time to sort that out (we are trying, though).

I’m just trying to tell myself that it will just be a really rough couple of months, but once we get them outside, we’ll essentially be back to where we are now (probably even better, since we’d presumably have most of these kittens gone by then too). Just gotta get through 6-8 weeks.

I just hope there aren’t going to be any issues with them joining the colony here. No idea how that might play out.
 

fionasmom

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This situation presented itself to you and, like many of these, is potentially tragic enough that you did the right thing. Hopefully, this will be short term, they will go outside, and things will get back to normal. Take one step at a time. If they were a colony, even a loosely bonded one, they will probably get along. I believe that I could put my ferals who live outside on my property in a room if I had to. Only one tolerates me at all, but they seem to have a working relationship with each other, especially where food is concerned.
 
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