Congratulations to Lisa Cordero who won a free outdoor shelter for their colony cats and a bottle of Feral Flower Essence from FixNation board member Jackson Galaxy’s Spirit Essences line through FixNation’s National Feral Cat Day story competition!
I am writing on behalf of our amazing colony of feral cats in Boyle Heights. Our journey began about three years ago when we noticed a feral mother cat, since named Grumpy, the loyal father cat, aptly named Poppa, and their five tiny kittens in a yard across the street. I decided to put a bowl of food outside on our front porch for them, little knowing what I was getting myself into! We watched daily as Poppa and Grumpy, (so named long before Grumpy Cat became a media sensation, by the way!) would take turns carefully walking the kittens across the street to get food and water. As I said before, we had no idea that this little group of cats could quickly become a colony of 30 cats!
My husband and I are faithful watchers of the television show My Cat From Hell, and during one episode, Jackson Galaxy presented some very alarming statistics about how quickly a colony can reproduce. He mentioned FixNation, and we quickly looked them up on the internet. We made a call to set up a training session about how to use safe traps, borrowed traps free of charge, and began our journey of trapping cats and kittens, and transporting them to FixNation several times a week. It took us almost a year to trap the entire colony- they are wiley creatures! But with persistence, lots of experimentation with newer, more exciting foods to entice them, and a combination of sneakiness and luck, we finally were able to trap, neuter, and return the entire colony to our home.
I’d like to say the neighbors have been thrilled, but it’s safe to say it has been a bit of a tough sell at times. It has been a wonderful opportunity to educate people in our community about the plight of unaltered pets, and help them to begin to change their view of these beautiful creatures. While I used to hear “You have too many cats!” regularly, I now hear “Wow! I haven’t seen any new kittens around this year!” I have taught people how to spot the clipped ear, and I feel a growing understanding that it was not the cats’ fault. I feel that more people are beginning to understand that these beautiful cats have a right to live out their lives in the place they have always known as “home.” I’ve also begun to see a few cats that are not members of our colony with clipped ears!
My husband and I enjoy watching the antics of all of our colony cats as they wrestle with each other, and play with the catnip mice we toss to them. I’d like to tell you about a few of them, besides Grumpy and Poppa. First, there are Batgirl and Robin, who we first thought were brothers and started out as Batman, because of his adorable black mask, and Robin, his loyal brother (we thought!) and sidekick. When Batman brought us a very sickly kitten, we knew she was Batgirl. Soon after the tragic death of her kitten, we were able to trap Robin, only to find out that (s)he was pregnant with five kittens! Once Robin was safely returned to the colony, Batgirl apparently felt safe to wander into a trap!
Next, there’s Stubby, so named because he had been coming to our house for weeks with an increasingly diseased tail, which kept getting shorter and shorter. It took weeks to trap him, and we feared the worst when we took him to FixNation. But the doctors were able to remove what was left of his tail, and two years later, he is the talk of the neighborhood, strutting his stuff, and flicking his stub proudly at passers-by!
Then there are the three musketeers, also known as The Twirly Tails. They walk up the front steps, walking in synchronized steps, tails twirling around each other, to get a meal, play with their friends, and get a good meal. I have never seen three cats move like a wave, in perfectly identical motion until these three! It’s an amazing sight to see!
I could go on forever about these adorable cats- the stories are endless! As I work in my garden, I’m always followed by curious kitties, watching what I’m doing to their territory. I look up and one or two are watching me from the roof of the shed in our backyard, or from the trees, the roof of the house next door, or the front porch of the house across the street. I am truly, never alone! As I sit inside working on my computer, I glance up to see several little faces watching me from the front door and window. These cats bring us so much joy, and it’s so fun to watch people make a double-take as they walk down the street and see the menagerie in our yard, on our porch, and especially at mealtime! We have gotten to know so many people just because of them! Yes, we spend a small fortune on cat food, and we now have an old sofa on our porch, which at any given time of day or night is covered by cats, not to mention the ones sleeping under bushes or in little cat beds we’ve placed around the yard, or on the railings of our porch, but I can honestly say, I love every cat in this colony as if they were my own pets, and I have never regretted my choice to become a Colony Mom! From Grumpy, who always greets me with a resounding hiss and glare, to the ones who curl around my legs and let me scratch their heads at mealtime, they are my children and constant joy.
I also want to point out that the love goes both ways, as it is not uncommon to go outside to find a little gift, such as a barely-alive waterbug, a grub worm, a lizard, and yes, the occasional unlucky bird, left lovingly on our doorstep.
