| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| frannie |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 11:46:43 AM
we have always had a surplus of kitties here at the farm. we live right off of a main highway and have 10 acreas of woods at the front of the property. so i guess it is the perfect drop off for wayward female mom kitties and their kittens, or moms in the family way who usually deliver the night we find them.
this year is no exception and we find ourselves at this point with 16 kittens to find homes for.
of course i would like them to have good farm homes. they have all been socialized and are very sweet. they can be house pets, or farm kitties.
currently the inventory is :
10 yellow tabbies
4 calicos
2 black
my dh says we must find homes also for some of the adult cats they we have had long enough for them to be out of the kitty stage.
we have 1 adult calico, 4 yellow tabbies, and 1 grey and white teenage kitty.
i will post pics of all the available kitties this weekend.
we usually work with the local spca with kitties and neutering, but i think they have been inundated with all the local flooding.
they usually charge 35 for neutering/spaying the animals, but have gone up and it can run up to 200.00 per animal, so dh says we can no longer help with the dumped moms and litters and must take the kitties immediately to the spca when they show up here. i have been trying to manage all this here and this will be our last placement of farm kitties. if you need a wonderful farm kitty and feel you can help us out with this please let us know.
thanks,
love
fran
(http://farmfolks-frannie.blogspot.com/) |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Prairie Princess |
Posted - Jul 16 2007 : 11:56:10 AM
Those of you with reoccuring kitty problems may want to look at alleycat.org and spayusa.org. Both are excellent resources for dealing with stray or feral cats. A couple years ago I worked with a local shelter to implement a trap-neuter-return program for feral colonies, so I'm pretty familiar with the over-population issue facing us. I wish I could share a great local resource with y'all, but you'd have to come to Boise...Northwest Animal Companions neuters cats for $17 ea, and spays for $25 ea. Hope you can find something like that for your kitties!
Blessings,
Jodi |
| Alee |
Posted - Jul 16 2007 : 08:46:16 AM
I certainly can understand the frustration of having cats continually dumped on your door step. It is hard because cats are very well suited to survival so they breed very well. And yes, unfixed females and males _do_ attract other cats to the area. Those pesky pheromones!
I know it is hard from the shelter's stand point too. It seems like every shelter in the whole country is just jam packed with cats. I know our shelter here in Moscow has over 130 cats and we have a tiny shelter.
I can understand you husband being sick of the problem too. It is hard to be enthusiastic or even supportive of something that can cost so much money and isn't even you hobby or passion. I think it is really sweet of him to have been so supportive for so long.
I hope one of your local vets helps out. Is there a cat rescue operation in the area?
Alee
The amazing one handed typist! One hand for typing, one hand to hold Nora! |
| frannie |
Posted - Jul 16 2007 : 07:47:55 AM
erin,
the kitty situation here is getting me down, but i think it is also related to the weather.
when the kitties are small i keep them in the craft room or in the house. but this year with the extra litters and the rainy weather it has been overwhelming.
once the kitties are old enough to be placed in homes, they are also old enough to explore and they go wherever they want. on more than once occasion this year i have had to rescue them from the weather.our farm kitties are a valueable asset here because we are in snake country and yes the cats do help with the copperhead population as do the goats. but it seems when you have cats, it attracts cats. so i think we must end the rescue mission and only have the kitties here that have been fixed. i just dont know what we will do the first time a mama appears that is fixing to deliver babies. or the little baby stray that is dropped off in the woods. i may have to put dh in charge of that part of the program.
we also have a 4-5 day prediction here of NO RAIN. i will enjoy that and hope that for you as well. yeah!!!!!
love
fran
(http://farmfolks-frannie.blogspot.com/) |
| Bluewrenn |
Posted - Jul 16 2007 : 05:20:55 AM
Frannie - I can totally relate to this... we are also taking in feral kittens/dumped kitties and are up to 11 ourselves. Plus we found a puppy that someone dumped/lost.
The vets here are $200 a head at the minimum. Usually they are higher than that. The only place we have found that is cheaper is the Humane Society and they still charge about $90. The feral cat groups can get them cheaper but they notch their ears (to show that they are feral but fixed, I guess). Plus you have to just leave the cats in a cage outside the door and then go pick them up later. My cats (even the feral ones) wouldn't survive that... and who's to say that someone wouldn't steal them, you know. Esp. a nice tamed one.
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| frannie |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 11:01:56 PM
yes,
when we first started having the moms fixed at the spca, they did it for 25-35 dollars, because they considered them ferrel cats. but i would socialize them and feed them and bring them indoors with the kittens, because i figured it would be easier to find them homes if they were socialized. but then the spca said they were not ferral and couldnt qualify for the reduced price. i dont think they are really the bad guys, but it doesnt help the situation. we have always agreed that we would keep about 10 cats here and try to give them good homes. but it does create a bad problem and this year seems to be the worst year so far.
our goats have had babies in july this year instead of the typical feb.we have never had that happen before. and also the mom cats here had litters, and then right after they finished weaning them they had another litter. it is pretty bizarre. right now we have 17 kittens and we have already placed 10 kittens earlier in the year. then the same moms turned around and had a 2nd litter. that is why dh is saying no more, we must come up with a different approach, like no more cat rescueing. and for the first time in all these years, i think i must agree with him.( i mean about the cats, i agree with him on alot of other things, i'm just not sure he realizes it!)
love
fran
(http://farmfolks-frannie.blogspot.com/) |
| Tracey |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 9:32:00 PM
$200!?! Good grief, that certainly doesn't help keep the population in check now, does it? Folks'll be hauling their kitties off in bags to the nearest bridge again with prices like that. Our shelter also charges when you bring animals in. We had a mamma cat have a litter in an old hollowed out tree here. When we finally got close enough to her and three of the four kittens, we brought them in only to be greeted with 'well, she's been living at your house, so you're responsible for them!'  I told them the option would be dumping them somewhere for someone else to deal with and they decided they'd take them without giving me a 'record'. OYE!
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| frannie |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 9:04:40 PM
alee,
that is a great idea. i think i will try that out this week.
i think because of all the flooding this year the situation with all the kitties has been more disturbing to dh because everything here has become more difficult, ie, feeding the animals, birthing the animals, tending the animals, and i think since dh has really, 2 1/2 jobs, he has gotten more tired of tending the animals, etc etc etc.
love
fran
(http://farmfolks-frannie.blogspot.com/) |
| Alee |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 8:55:37 PM
Fran-
If you have a local friendly vet- maybe you could sit down with him/her and explain the situation. Perhaps they would cut you a deal or do pro bono spays and neuters to help keep the local kitty population in control.
Alee
The amazing one handed typist! One hand for typing, one hand to hold Nora! |
| frannie |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 7:51:10 PM
we use to have a deal with the local, well its about 50 miles away, spca. they would "fix" our little foundling cats for 25-35 dollars and give them shots and everything, but when they moved into their new building it went up. the last cat we took their was 200.
we have so many cats and kittens dropped off here and it is pretty sad.
we cant seem to stay on top of the litters and dh is not a great cat fan, but i think he has been more than generous about the whole thing.
anyway, we have these kitties and after this spring we will make a decision about just how many cats will live out here and we will get those fixed, and then i dont want to think about how we will handle the next spring drop offs, but we will have a plan for that before spring.
i think some of this difference in the price also has to do with all the rescued animals from katrina, rita, and the recent floodings.
anyway, the kitties are available and i will be happy to bring them to you if you are in the texas, oklahoma area.
love
fran
(http://farmfolks-frannie.blogspot.com/) |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 3:15:12 PM
We have an animal shelter here that does it for free! We had 23 cats at one time on our farm. We are down to 3 right now!
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| Alee |
Posted - Jul 14 2007 : 1:49:38 PM
Wow! That is too bad that they are charging $200 for spays and neuters. That is too bad...I think that just makes it harder for people to take care of the issue and just perpetuates the problem.
I hope all your kitties get great homes. I bet they are sweet!
Alee
The amazing one handed typist! One hand for typing, one hand to hold Nora! |
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