A Cat’s Tale - Fall 2021
Donations Needed!
We appreciate donations of any size! All donations go directly to caring for community (stray, homeless, feral) cats. To send a check, please use the enclosed envelope. To donate by credit card, click on the Support link in the top right corner. Please consider making Friends of Feral Felines part of your legacy in your estate planning! All donations are tax-deductible.
FFF Volunteers Needed
Hotline Volunteer – respond to voice mails left by people needing help.
Facebook Volunteer – assist with posting stories and photos and responding to questions/ comments. Must be familiar with the intricacies of Facebook.
Email Volunteer – assist with answering questions, concerns, or comments. Trap, Transport or Recover - assist with TNR efforts.
FFF Wish List
Monetary donations Cat food – both wet and dry Wire crates Towels/flat sheets Barns/land for relocation Humane traps Wish List on Smile.Amazon Gift Cards to PetSmart, Walmart, or Target for food and supplies
Dear Friends,
The leaves are changing and Fall is in the air. We are still dealing with Covid but hopefully, “there is light at the end of the tunnel.” Our mission to help community cats is a constant and a functioning reality. For the colder months ahead, please see our article on preparing for our cats’ warmth and shelter.
TNR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccination and Return) remains the most important task in humanely treating community cats and reducing the population. Please continue to speak up for TNR on their behalf in the communities we live, our local/state government and anywhere we find bans on feeding feral cats and the killing of healthy community cats.
Cats have lived outside for thousands of years (Alley Cat Allies).
We support healthy and humane treatment for all animals. Our focus remains
on the neglected stray and feral cats who seem to be the “low man on the totem pole” for community care.
We look to our local and state governments to lead our citizens to recognize and protect these community cats. We ask for their support and promotion of free and low-cost opportunities for humane and effective TNR. It has been proven that TNR is more cost effective and successful to our governments in reducing and controlling the population of community cats than the many killings of the past. And it is heartwarming to work with Charlotte Animal Care & Control and other municipalities to this humane end.
Let our voices be heard. We are their advocates. “If not me, then, who....?”
For your kind consideration,
Midnight the Stray Cat By Katie Stephens
It all started on a cold, wintry night when the weather was calling for ice and it was bitterly cold. We had been feeding this stray cat we called Midnight for about a month (whom we were told was living in the sewer on our street for a year or more). One night we noticed him limping and knew we had to help him.
Not having a humane trap, we borrowed one from the local Humane Society, and set out to catch this boy and get him out of the bad weather. As far as we could tell in the dark, he had a very sore looking hind leg. That very first night we were successful in getting him in the trap a lot earlier than we expected. We proceeded to get this frightened cat into the house and transferred into a travel crate. After setting up a small litter pan, food and water, we left him to rest for the night in our warm, dry spare room.
The next day we noticed a large sore/cut/abrasion on his cheek and blood coming from it. We took him to the Urgent Vet and while under sedation, they x-rayed his hind leg, neutered him and drained his facial abscess. They gave him the rabies vaccine, a large dose of antibiotics, pain meds and the first of his other shots. He tested negative for FIV and feline leukemia. We had all of this done and thought, now what? Well, the vet said his fractured patella needed to heal by remaining confined for 4-6 weeks. We were worried! We have 3
house cats and 3 dogs and we weren’t sure how this was going to work! However, we were in this far, so we decided to keep him and let him recuperate and not make any long- term decisions.
Flash forward 6 weeks: Midnight’s knee seems to have totally healed from outside appearances- his facial injury appears completely healed and he is enjoying regular food and a warm cozy place to stay. He plays with cat toys and gets released every evening for the whole overnight from his very large dog crate (42” large dog size) which sits on a large table overlooking the bird feeders in the front yard. He spends the night roaming safely around the room alone playing with
cat toys and sleeping on the guest bed. He likes jazz music and every
night we turn on a YouTube music channel that softly plays music to sooth nervous cats. In
the morning, he gets back into his crate via a step ladder- for the day when he sees breakfast
has been served! This is our routine, since I work in this room, so he rests all day comfortably 3-4 ft away from me. Today he played with me – he on the inside of his crate and me on the outside. We played with a high- lighter and he let me stroke his paw with it from a safe distance! Thanks to the support and encouragement from Sheila, who returned my call to the Friends of Feral Felines, we felt inspired to help this little man. We will see what the future brings!
Please enjoy these photos of his early days and a few recent ones!
Our fiscal year begins on July 1. As of April 30, 2020, through your generosity, we were able to help our community cats as follows: $37,112 in subsidies for spay/neuter $10,629 in subsidies for illness and injury $ 6,452 in food subsidies for colony caregivers
Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 919-807-2214. The license is not an endorsement by the State.
Friends of Feral Felines (FFF) exists in order to humanely manage feral and community cats through TNR - Trap, Neuter/spay, vaccinate and Return program and to educate the public about feral cats. FFF is a registered 501(c)(3) charity (in North Carolina and South Carolina), a Gold Participant in the GuideStar Exchange and an all volunteer organization. We appreciate your support!
Kitti Kitti By David Stranix
I would like to start by saying thanks to Friends of Feral Felines and especially Sheila, Mary Lee and all the people at The Spay Neuter Clinic of the Carolinas. If it were not for this caring group of people, I would not have had the chance to help a little cat who befriended me when I moved here 3 1⁄2 years ago.
I had noticed a cat living under the house next door. She started to hang around my carport and I soon started feeding her on a regular basis. I saw the owner was working on the house and realized that he would soon seal up the crawlspace opening. Therefore, I started to put her food in the old chicken coop out back in hopes she would make that her new home. I made sure she was out of the old crawlspace and sealed it myself assuring she would not get trapped inside. She made the chicken coop her new place and life was pretty good for a while with two meals a day and a place to stay.
I became used to see her just sitting on my motorcycle at night looking into the house and waiting for service. Then she showed up one night after being gone a few days and she looked horrible. She had obviously gotten into a fight and gotten the worst of it. Her tail was missing about 5 inches and was a mess. We fed her and applied some medica- tion to the tail, but it kept getting worse. It must have been so painful to keep bumping that raw tail into things. I knew it was not getting better and did not know what to do with a feral cat in this condition. Then she just never showed up. I was so upset that I should have done something instead of procrastinating. I felt that after there were no signs of her for two weeks she didn’t survive.
Then one night I figured I would go outside and call her just for old times’ sake (kind of hoping she would somehow re-appear) and then out of the dark the old, beat-up girl came walking up hungry as ever. That’s when I knew I had to do something because she was asking for a chance.
I researched and found the Friends of Feral Felines group and left a message for Sheila who called me back that night. She got me in touch with Mary Lee who loaned me a trap and advice on how to trap her and how to handle her afterward. They put me in touch with The Spay and Neuter clinic to set up an appointment.
THE BEST PART
Our cat is now back home with a 2-inch tail and a clipped left ear. “She” is actually a “he” who got neutered!!
We still call her/him by many names. As long as dinner is
served, he doesn’t seem to mind. After the rehabilitation weeks she/he has some- how become more trusting and more affectionate. She must know what we did for her but will never know what she has done for us!
“ Donation Made In Memory of: For “Sugar” beloved cat of Reita Pendry”
Team Effort Succeeds
Ann Gross, on the front page of this newsletter says “If not me, then who?” Friends of Feral Felines hotline volunteer, Cindi, took Ann’s words to heart and went above and beyond her normal volunteer work of answering calls and offering advice and information.
Cindi had received a hotline call about three kittens needing to be TNRd (Trap, Neuter, Return) so she decided to investigate.
When she showed up at a nice neighborhood in South Charlotte, she suspected the problem was more than three kittens when she spotted numerous cats running around. Cindi proceeded to trap and do TNR on six cats and kittens/juveniles in the next several months.
“We changed these cats’ world as well as the neighborhood. One male cat still has to be trapped and neutered, but everything is finally manageable,” reports Cindi. If not for Cindi’s intervention the situation could have quickly gone from bad to worse quickly.
Cindi is grateful to Spay/Neuter of the Carolinas for their work in vetting the cats, for Sheila’s (hotline manager) help recovering cats, and for the neighbor willing to be care- giver of the cats.
However, the biggest thank you goes to Cindi. Without her taking immediate action, this neighbor- hood could have soon been overrun with unwanted cats and kittens.
Cindi’s last visit to the neighbor- hood found peace and calm. All cats were lounging in the caregivers’ yard just being lazy cats. This team effort truly had a happy ending!
Tips to Help Outdoor Cats in Winter
1. Provide a shelter. This will give cats somewhere to go to get away from snow, wind, and other elements. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to build your own. The internet has many DIY ideas.
2. Insulate cat shelters with straw—not hay. Straw repels moisture, unlike hay. Be sure to keep adding straw throughout the season. 3. Use a heated or deep bowl for water and wet food. Rubber containers meant for horses won’t crack like plastic containers. Don’t use stainless steel.
4. Build a feeding station to protect cats’ food and water from wind and snow.
5. Provide food and water daily. Wet food and water can freeze overnight, so you want to ensure cats have access to fresh food and water every day. Cats eat more in the winter because they’re trying to conserve energy and stay warm.
6. Prepare for major snowstorms. In the event a major weather event like snow accumulation is in the forecast, give cats extra food and water in case you can’t get to the colony.
7. Clear snow from the entrances of cats’ shelters after snowstorms so they don’t get snowed in.
8. Don’t use salt or chemical melting products to clear snow. They can be lethal when licked off paws or ingested from melting puddles. They are also harmful to cats’ natural snowshoes—their paws!
9. Keep antifreeze away from cats. Antifreeze is poison. Animals, including cats, find its taste irresistible. As little as a teaspoon of auto antifreeze spilled in your driveway can be fatal for a cat.
10. Always check under the hood of your car for cats. Before you turn on your car engine, look under your car to make sure the coast is clear, and check to see that no cats have curled up in your engine during especially cold days. Give the hood a few taps to make sure a cat isn’t hiding there.
Outdoor Cat Shelters
Whether you purchase a pre-built shelter or build your own DIY shelter, the cats will thank you! Here are a few photos of simple outdoor cat shelters. The internet has so much information and detailed instructions and videos on building your own or purchasing.
See the links below to some sites that have additional information on feral cat shelters.
Outdoor Cat Shelter Options | Insulated & Heated Feral Cat House Ideas (alleycat.org) Neighborhood Cats | How to TNR | Feral Cat Winter Shelter
Winter Shelter Bins for Community Cats FAQ | ASPCApro
Winter Cat Shelters for Feral Cats - UrbanCatLeague
