One stray cat quickly becomes a colony

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com 

We didn’t seek to become one and we’d rather we weren’t.

Somehow, we’ve become a certified feral cat colony up on the sand hill we call home.

It started innocently enough. This multi-colored cat from somewhere in the neighborhood moved into our barn. She had two babies. We had them fixed. They and their mom disappeared almost right away.

Mom came back carrying another litter. Before very long, her babies started having babies.

I can see how a kindly, older woman is discovered to be living with 50 cats. If you aren’t willing to send feral cats to pretty certain death at a shelter, and can’t spare the $100-plus a vet typically charges for spaying or neutering, it can happen quickly.

We’re not up to 50, but, unaddressed, it wouldn’t take long. The experience gives meaning to the term “exponential growth.”

The old farmer’s way of dealing with excess cats involved either a .22 rifle or a gunnysack and a pond. We don’t have that in us.

Instead, we fed them, gave them toys, old dog beds and a heated water bowl. I just don’t understand why we can’t get them to move out.


We talked about trapping these feral cats to get them fixed. The takeaway here – that needs to be a very short conversation.

I’m not a cat person. Still, it’s hard not to smile at a barn full of kitten wrestlemania. A length of twine, a turkey feather or a rolling acorn is all a feral cat needs to entertain itself – and anyone who’s watching.

Mini Mama

We’ve only named the most sociable of the cats.

Mini Mama and Multi-Colored Mama are the offspring of the first squatter. Multi had a litter of eight. That included Bunny Kitty, a male with a little cotton ball of a tail and longer rear legs, which make him hop when he runs. He seems to have forgotten he’s feral and enjoys being held by my wife.

Inspector Clouseau is a yellow tabby that has to be there watching when we do anything in the barn, particularly shoveling manure.

Bunny Kitty

Little Weeble has some kind of back or hip injury. She wobbles when she walks, but doesn’t fall down.

We finally took action again with the assistance of Judi McClain, an acquaintance who is very involved with Lakeshore Humane Association in Chilton. She put us in touch with Cats Anonymous, a nonprofit that relies on volunteer vets to conduct “spay days” one Saturday per month in Green Bay. They were a godsend.

They lend you cages and give you hints for outwitting felines that live by their wits. They ask for a $50 donation to spay or neuter and vaccinate a cat, but will do it for whatever you can afford. The catch is, you get the cats back, and you have to apply to be a feral cat colony.

The group organized in 2005 in response to a proposal before the Wisconsin Conservation Congress calling for an open season on stray cats. They are approaching 6,400 cats sterilized at more than 850 colonies.

“This is probably 1% of 1% of what is out there,” Vicki Becker, one of the organizers of Cats Anonymous, said. The group has 300-400 cats on its waiting list.

We’ve made two trips to Green Bay with a load of caged cats in the back of an SUV.

The scene there is barely controlled, but effective, chaos. Cat cages are stacked two deep in the lobby with more arriving constantly. Amazingly, it all gets done and all of the right cats end up in the right cages.

Our third load of cats went to the Fox Valley Humane Association, which started a similar program a year ago at its shelter in Greenville.

“We patterned our program after Cats Anonymous, which is a fabulous organization,” Deb Lewis, executive director at Fox Valley Humane, said.

Both programs notch the cat’s left ear so you can tell at a distance which ones have already been under the knife.

Both also will work with people who can’t afford the $50. Lewis said establishing an affordable spay and neuter program was one of those “before my career is done” issues for her.

There is no alternative. Shelters can’t adopt out feral cats. They have more domesticated cats than they can handle. Putting a feral cat inside a house is no kindness to the cat either, Lewis said.

“We have to find a way that works better,” she said.

Controlling feral cat populations is a serious issue. They are bad for wild bird populations, and not all of the cats get to spend cold winter nights in a barn. Their life expectancy is short.

If the problem surfaces at your place, get it fixed.

OLD BUSINESS: I wrote recently about a web cam installed at an eagle nest near Shiocton. It was beginning to look like they had been scared off, when the pair of eagles finally returned. The female laid he first egg Thursday. You can watch eagle parenting at www.wolfrivercam.com.