Feral Cat Day 2024 is on Wednesday, October 16, 2024: stray or feral cat outside?

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 is Feral Cat Day 2024. What Are Feral Cats‎ Info about feral cats and dealing with them. Learn more here.

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Feral Cat Day was produced by Alley Cat Allies who're a nationwide advocacy organization devoted towards the humane treatment  and the protection of feral felines. These were the very first organisation introducing the Trap-Neuter-Return approach to control feral cat colonies in the usa.By creating and marketing standards of care, the business has marketed the humane management of felines in to the national spotlight. Their approach has become accepted by major metropolitan areas and animal protection organizations around the globe. In two decades the planet presently has a much better understand and respect the lives of  these feral felines.

If the cat is that friendly it's not feral, it's stray or it belongs to one of your neighbors and they are letting it outside from time to time...bad idea, but some people still do things like that.

First of all I'm check to make sure the cat doesn't belong to someone who lives near you.

If you find that it does, please ask them in a polite way to keep the cat indoors...there is not reason why a cat needs to go outside.

If you find no owner and you want to bring the cat in there are more things you have to do beside shots and spaying, you MUST get it tested for feline AIDS and feline lekumina both are very serious illnesses .

Cats with feline AIDS and feline lekumia can and do make very good pets, but if they have either of those illnesses you need to be aware of it.

One thing you SHOULD NOT do is declaw, that's inhumane and animal crulty they amputate the first joint of the cats toe.

Declawing is in fact so inhumane that it's illegal in most Eupopean contries and I'm praying for the day it's illegal in the US as well.

There are four Vets in the town were I live and NONE of them will declaw a cat.

Buy the cat a scratching post and show her how to use it.

So my advice is to try and find out if the cat has an owner and if it doesn't and you plan on having it declawed then just leave it outside instead of putting the poor thing through all the useless pain.

Sorry for the typos, spell check isn't working!

Is it a fact that true feral cats do not vocalize?

Feral cats certainly vocalize.

What you must have heard is that the meow sound is offered only to humans - not to other cats and this is mostly true. Kittens meow to their mothers, then, if raised without humans stop meowing once they are past early kittenhood and go off to live life on their own.

It is primarily a vocalization made by kittens to their mothers.

Tame cats see us as giant mothers or else see themselves as kittens in relation to us so they meow to communicate with us. And even with adult tame cats, they may vocalize to each other but I have never once heard one meow to another cat.

Your cat's meowing means that he is meowing for the first time since he was a kitten and he sees you as a giant mama cat.

Is It Okay To Feed A Feral Cat?

I think feeding feral cats is kind and compassionate, if you are willing to take the extra step and get him or her spayed or neutered in the spring. Feeding them and allowing them to survive is the goal, but not allowing them to reproduce, which causes so much suffering. There don't need to be more cats out there starving or freeazing, and shelters don't need more kittens, either. But it's a simple matter of either finding a group that works with TNR to do it for you, or trapping him or her and finding a vet willing to work with ferals to do the surgery. They can recover in your garage if it's not cold out, and be released again in a few days.

The other thing is whether you plan to move anytime soon. This cat will become dependent on your feeding him, and if you move you need to find another neighbor willing to take on the responsibility. Feral cats are hard to relocate.

Here's a website that deals with feral cats:

Alley Cat Allies has a mentor program called "The Feral Friends Network" and can usually put you in touch with someone who does TNR (trap, neuter, return) with feral cats in your area. They can also answer your questions if you call them. I have talked to them before and found them to be fantastic.

Good luck!