I found a baby cat 3 years ago in the bushes next the the house we had just moved into. We weren't originally going to feed her as we could not take her in or care for her but she was a baby. We fed her and I didn't understand the repercussions. She has a litter later and we felt partly responsible as we had been feeding on her and she's depended on us. Now, there are 8 cats total. We can't afford to do this anymore and have been looking for a solution for quite a while now. According to our situation we just can't take any of them in. And I want better for them.Is there anything that we could we do?
1 Answer
First step in order to prevent the situation from escalating would be to get the cats neutered, preventing further litters and the population exploding.
Since you already can't afford feeding the current population anymore, I'd assume you will not be able to afford neutering 8 cats either.
I would advise to seek help from a local or nearby TNR group ("trap-neuter-return"), they might have resources available, support from veterinarians or at least the reach potentially allowing them to raise emergency funds quickly.
While the usual TNR approach, as the name suggests, is to just neuter the cats and then release them again to where they were trapped, many groups also evaluate the trapped cats for possible candidates that might be adoptable, and again have the connections and reach to look for potential guardians.
Given your little colony is already used to being fed by you, there is at least a basic level of trust in humans established, increasing the chances that a permanent home can be found for at least some of them.
For those that remain, neutering will generally improve not only their quality of life but also increase their life expectancy, even if nothing else is done in the process, e.g. basic vaccinations, parasite treatment, etc.
This is probably the single most valuable thing you can do for a stray cat, they are perfectly capable of living a mostly independent life, more so when having a connection to a friendly human providing them food, and potentially setting up a cheap styrofoam box or two on their porch in case of a severe winter.
