Tag: Neighborhood Cats

Raccoons eating food meant for community cats

Donate at the Metro Cat Rescue GoFundMe Page.

Raccoon at community cat feeding station.

It’s bad news if cat food and pebbles wind up in the water bowl put out for outdoor cats. This means that raccoons have learned that you’re providing easy eats. Raccoons enjoy “washing” their food. What they are really doing is feeling the food and other items under water. This is important behaviour for finding clams and crayfish in rivers or lakes, but just a curiosity when it comes to a container of water.

Raccoons wash food in water put out for outdoor cats.

The furry ones with the masks are native animals and have every right to live their lives in peace. Still, it’s important not to encourage them to come near homes or cat feeding stations. Adult raccoons are good sized animals and can kill a cat or severely injure a dog — or a person. Once one raccoon discovers free food, it’s almost certain that others will follow. The raccoons will wind up chasing the cats away.

Raccoons can be carriers of Rabies. If a raccoon seems to be drunk or disoriented, stay away from it and call Animal Control. If you see young raccoons, keep your distance. Mom almost certainly is nearby and might attack if she thinks that her young are threatened. Raccoons are the definitive host for the Baylisascaris roundworm that will kill domestic and exotic birds. This parasite also is dangerous to people and infection can result in death.

Raccoons are active during the hours of darkness. Only feed outdoor cats between the hours of dawn and dusk. Be sure only to put out as much food as the cats are certain to eat. Garbage that raccoons will find delectable — chicken carcasses as a prime example — are best thrown out just before the trash is going to be picked up. Even then, the “edible” stuff needs to be in a garbage can. This container should have a secure lid on it until it goes to the curb,

Raccoons Roundworms — The Hiddden Horror

Raccoon roundworms – the hidden horror


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Metro Cat Rescue coordinates the volunteer care of many outdoor cats in a number of colonies. We’re working hard to bring some inside to socialize and to place in good homes. This takes lots of time, space and money.

Our day with the rescue cats starts at 6am and ends at 8pm. Volunteer feeding of community cats is at dawn.

Metro Cat Rescue needs your help so that we can continue to help cats living in the streets. It’s quick and convenient to DONATE. Just click on the Link below to our GoFundMe Page If everyone reading this gave SOMETHING, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats who have to fend for themselves. THANK YOU!

MetroCatRescue@gmail.com is the address to use to donate through PayPal.

Instead of posting questions as comments, email inquiries to MetroCatRescue@gmail.com

Metro Cat Rescue Facebook Page

Why don’t you bring them inside?

Donate at the Metro Cat Rescue GoFundMe Page.

Metro Cat Rescue cared for community cats

“Why don’t you take them inside?” is a common comment to the Metro Cat Rescue Facebook Posts about neighborhood cats. We directly assist volunteer efforts caring for many dozens of community cats and interact often with others managing colonies that total in the hundreds. And simply considering space, where can the cats go if brought indoors? And who is to staff the army that will be needed to change litter boxes, provide food, rinse out water bowls and launder bedding?

Outdoor cats generally are not friendly and often are feral. It takes many hours of patient effort to socialize a cat brought in. One that we started with in mid-December just will let us pet her now, but still can’t be picked up. And there’s the sad reality that the homes are not there. One local animal worker has dozens of domestic, tame cats — all vet checked — available for adoption. If adopters are not to be found for the outgoing ones seeking human companionship, what hope is there for the others?

A similar request, especially when the weather turns cold, is for Animal Control to take the cats. What do people think happens to the little gals and guys whose only happiness was a meal from a rare friendly hand? Do the cats go to a suite with silk sheets in Trump Towers? Is Ivanka strolling down the hall now with a platter of sole and filet mignon? The cruel hard fact is that after the terror of betrayal, capture and captivity, the cats will be deemed unadoptable and killed.

The compassionate and most practical answer for urban outdoor cats is proper management, importantly including neutering.

Cats that can reproduce, will reproduce. The males frequently fight with each other and mate with the females in heat. Neighbors legitimately upset by the noise will complain and possibly do harm to the cats. The area soon will be filled with unwanted kittens facing a life of sickness and starvation.
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Metro Cat Rescue coordinates the volunteer care of many outdoor cats in a number of colonies. We’re working hard to bring some inside to socialize and to place in good homes. This takes lots of time, space and money.

Our day with the rescue cats starts at 6am and ends at 8pm. Volunteer feeding of community cats is at dawn.

Metro Cat Rescue needs your help so that we can continue to help cats living in the streets. It’s quick and convenient to DONATE. Just click on the Link below to our GoFundMe Page If everyone reading this gave SOMETHING, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats who have to fend for themselves. THANK YOU!

MetroCatRescue@gmail.com is the address to use to donate through PayPal.

Instead of posting questions as comments, email inquiries to MetroCatRescue@gmail.com

MetroCatRescue@gmail.com

Metro Cat Rescue Facebook Page

The cat who came in from the cold?

Donate at the Metro Cat Rescue GoFundMe Page.

Metro Cat Rescue brought this beautiful cat in out of the cold!

The glamorous Tia Tortie was not getting along with other cats in a cared for colony, so we took her in. Tia’s doing well inside, but still is very wild. I’ve been working with her since December, offering her treats. She likes to be petted and can be brushed. So far, she won’t let me pick her up.

Socializing an outdoor cat requires PATIENCE! Have a cat play pen (large cage) and start the little gal or guy off in there. Once settled down and having learned what a litter box is for, they can be released into a limited — easily controlled — area. If just let loose in the house, an outdoor cat very likely will in fear hide in some inaccessible location.

Have some treat that the cat will learn to accept from your hand. Then, it’s just a long slow process. We can pet her, but she still won’t let us pick her up.
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Metro Cat Rescue coordinates the volunteer care of many outdoor cats in a number of colonies. We’re working hard to bring some inside to socialize and to place in good homes. This takes lots of time, space and money.

Our day with the rescue cats starts at 6am and ends at 8pm. Volunteer feeding of community cats is at dawn.

Metro Cat Rescue needs your help so that we can continue to help cats living in the streets. It’s quick and convenient to DONATE. Just click on the Link above to our GoFundMe Page If everyone reading this gave SOMETHING, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats who have to fend for themselves. THANK YOU!

MetroCatRescue@gmail.com

Metro Cat Rescue Facebook Page

Community Cats

Donate at the Metro Cat Rescue GoFundMe Page.

The Metro Cat Rescue volunteers try to care for community cats in back yards.

The Metro Cat Rescue volunteers try to care for community cats in back yards. There, they can install shelters and provide dishes for the food as well as the water. Also, away from the street, the congregating cats are not obvious. This makes it less likely that heartless people will abandon house cats. Having the neighborhood cats in a protected space reduces the risk of abuse and cruelty.

When there is no access to private property, then dishes are not used for the food. This helps to keep unfriendly people nearby from being aware of the cats. Only the amount dry food that will be quickly consumed is placed on the sidewalk or behind fences. Water bowls are hidden in places that cats will see but that won’t be obvious to people.

The cats are now fed just before dawn. Our volunteers were going out earlier, but raccoons showed up in the dark. The masked marauders chased away the cats and ate all of the food.
Cat feeders have had to deal with people out early walking large and aggressive dogs that the owners either were unwilling or unable to control.
– – –
Metro Cat Rescue coordinates the volunteer care of many outdoor cats in a number of colonies. We’re working hard to bring some inside to socialize and to place in good homes. This takes lots of time, space and money.

Our day with the rescue cats starts at 6am and ends at 8pm. Volunteer feeding of community cats is at dawn.

Metro Cat Rescue needs your help so that we can continue to help cats living in the streets. It’s quick and convenient to DONATE. Just click on the Link above to our GoFundMe Page If everyone reading this gave SOMETHING, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats who have to fend for themselves. THANK YOU!

MetroCatRescue@gmail.com

Metro Cat Rescue Facebook Page

Outdoor Cats

Donate at the Metro Cat Rescue GoFundMe Page.

Metro Cat Rescue coordinates the volunteer care of many outdoor cats in a number of colonies.

Cats belong in a home, not out on the street. Care responsibly for the ones that don’t have a place of their own. Feed only as much as the cats will eat, not leaving any extra to encourage visits from rats or wildlife. Don’t let empty cans and other trash to accumulate and so create resentment from people living nearby. And — most importantly — NEUTER!

Metro Cat Rescue coordinates the volunteer care of many outdoor cats in a number of colonies. We’re working hard to bring some inside to socialize and to place in good homes. This takes lots of time, space and money.

Our day with the rescue cats starts at 6am and ends at 8pm. Volunteer feeding of community cats is at dawn.

Metro Cat Rescue needs your help so that we can continue to help cats living in the streets. It’s quick and convenient to DONATE. Just click on the Link above to our GoFundMe Page If everyone reading this gave SOMETHING, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats who have to fend for themselves. THANK YOU!

MetroCatRescue@gmail.com

Metro Cat Rescue Facebook Page