Stray Feral Cats and Irresponsible Pet Owners

We live in a nice neighborhood and over the past 10 years or so we’ve developed two colonies of feral cats. I feel sorry for all of those feral and stray cats because almost all of them are malnourished and/or sickly. They’re definitely not healthy!

One reason that we’ve gotten all of these stray cats running around is because of a pet grooming business that is located down the street. People mistakenly think that if they toss out their cat at that business or in a neighborhood that it will be picked up and found a home. WRONG. It’s a pet grooming business, not a pet rescue or adoption business!!!

Two years ago I had blogged about witnessing a car drive up in front of our house and tossing a beautiful cat out of the window. That cat ran underneath our bush in the front yard and hid there for days. We finally lured him out with food and encouragement. Over the following two weeks built up trust with him and rescued him.

We took him to the vet, paid over $1,400 in vet care and treat…and got him healthy. We named him Tucker and you can read his story on our blog. Sadly though, Tucker had passed away 6 months later. We were heartbroken. After grieving, we went to a licensed adoption center (rescue group) and adopted Romeo who was 3 months old at the time. He’ll be 2 years old in September 2021.

Today my vent is all about these people who get cats and then for whatever reason decide they don’t want them (or can’t take care of them) anymore. They’re continuing to drive through our neighborhood and toss out their cats like yesterday’s garbage. It really pisses me off!!!

Last week an orange cat showed up who we’ve been calling Garfield. This cat is totally malnourished, sickly and being beaten up by the cats in the feral cat colony. He has injuries all over his face and his left eye appears to be infected. We often hear him crying, coughing, sneezing, vomitting, etc. Breaks my heart! He’s not friendly to us or our neighbors at all. I believe he was abused by his previous owners. He’s scared crapless of people.

We’re trying to build up trust with Garfield and hopefully we can trap him and take him in for medical treatment. He needs it badly. We can’t get any help with it at all because rescue groups are totally over-whelmed. I’m hoping that we can get him trapped soon and in to see a vet…even if it’s at our own expense. I can’t stand to see animals suffer.

The photograph in my post is of Garfield coming up onto our back porch to nibble on some cat food we put out for him. As you can see, he’s extremely thin and not in good body condition at all. Sad, really sad the type of trauma that boy has went through and continues to go through.

My point is this…pet owners need to be held responsible! We need stiffer fines & penalties for people who toss out their dogs & cats like yesterday’s trash. That’s abuse and neglect. If you can no longer take care of a pet…sign that pet over to a rescue group or humane society. You don’t drive through people’s neighborhoods or back country roads and toss out your pets. What the hell is wrong with people????