Like Renae's scare with Nathan, I hope this is just a scare. But Gary up into the woods to fill the feeder.... and there wasn't much food gone. ???????
(For those who don't know, we live in an RV Park in a farming community. You're not allowed to have pets here, but we trapped and had spayed/neutered all the feral cats around here... they were going to put poison out to kill them last year. They may or may not know we have the four (now five) cats inside as pets, but they don't say anything. But they do know we're managing the colony here, and they see us ferrying back and forth to the vet with the crates, and we are able to make arrangements for a neighbor to feed and put water out for the cats when we're away - it's a gated community with the office at the gate, so there's no way to sneak people and/or cats in and out).
Anyway... we've seen Funny Face and Attila today, but that's it. We don't see all of them every day - in fact, we don't see quite a few of them that often (part of the reason we have the feeder up in the woods as opposed to out in the open). But the food does disappear. But we only have to fill the feeder every 5 - 6 days (we like to keep it clean, anyway) for what we believe are the 11 cats that have made this area their home.
We haven't seen any new cats this year, no kittens (although we are aware of a woman who's socialized one male we didn't trap last year and has a pregnant female inside with her now - but this is in the Mobile Home Park that's about a half a mile up the road from the entrance to the park... which is about a mile from here).
But we're worried. This is NOT a cat-friendy area...and what if "our" cats have been living up at a neighbors - which through the woods (for a cat, not a person) is pretty close... we can see the home and barn in the fall when the trees are bare. What if these people put poison out? How do we find out? "Our" cats probably do eat elsewhere - there's lots of other sources of food around here. I know it's a little early to be letting our imaginations run wild...
Any thoughts on what we should do while we wait to see how long it takes for this food to disappear? Like Renae - like all of you in situations with ferals - we don't want to just sit here and do nothing. But we don't know what to do!!!!!
Gary's thinking of borrowing someone's VHS recorder and making a lucite box for it to record activity at the feeder....setting a timer for dawn and dusk.... (we can get an extension cord up there so we don't have to worry about batteries....)
????????? Should we do this? Anything else you can think of?
HELP!
(For those who don't know, we live in an RV Park in a farming community. You're not allowed to have pets here, but we trapped and had spayed/neutered all the feral cats around here... they were going to put poison out to kill them last year. They may or may not know we have the four (now five) cats inside as pets, but they don't say anything. But they do know we're managing the colony here, and they see us ferrying back and forth to the vet with the crates, and we are able to make arrangements for a neighbor to feed and put water out for the cats when we're away - it's a gated community with the office at the gate, so there's no way to sneak people and/or cats in and out).
Anyway... we've seen Funny Face and Attila today, but that's it. We don't see all of them every day - in fact, we don't see quite a few of them that often (part of the reason we have the feeder up in the woods as opposed to out in the open). But the food does disappear. But we only have to fill the feeder every 5 - 6 days (we like to keep it clean, anyway) for what we believe are the 11 cats that have made this area their home.
We haven't seen any new cats this year, no kittens (although we are aware of a woman who's socialized one male we didn't trap last year and has a pregnant female inside with her now - but this is in the Mobile Home Park that's about a half a mile up the road from the entrance to the park... which is about a mile from here).
But we're worried. This is NOT a cat-friendy area...and what if "our" cats have been living up at a neighbors - which through the woods (for a cat, not a person) is pretty close... we can see the home and barn in the fall when the trees are bare. What if these people put poison out? How do we find out? "Our" cats probably do eat elsewhere - there's lots of other sources of food around here. I know it's a little early to be letting our imaginations run wild...
Any thoughts on what we should do while we wait to see how long it takes for this food to disappear? Like Renae - like all of you in situations with ferals - we don't want to just sit here and do nothing. But we don't know what to do!!!!!
Gary's thinking of borrowing someone's VHS recorder and making a lucite box for it to record activity at the feeder....setting a timer for dawn and dusk.... (we can get an extension cord up there so we don't have to worry about batteries....)
????????? Should we do this? Anything else you can think of?
HELP!
