Letter to the Tampa Humane Society re: the fuzzbutts of GMBAN

[digitaldiscipline]

I am the caretaker for a colony of feral cats in the vicinity of the northern edge of Old Seminole Heights (just south of the Three Coins restaurant at the corner of Nebraska and Broad) and have noticed that many of the animals have been caught and had their ears notched this spring.

My concern, as I have been involved with this particular group for nine years, is that the aggressive sterilization campaign this spring (four of five queens, and the dominant male, with at least one mature female who had kittens this spring and both an adult and adolescent male un-returned) may put the colony's genetic diversity at risk. I would like to be in touch with whomever is handling the TNR program nearest my home and this colony, since, with long experience with and exposure to the colony, I can provide a fairly comprehensive insight into the lineage of the current population so that its health, and that of the individual members, can be maintained at a safe and responsible level.

Historically, the colony has been roughly a dozen or so animals, with occasional bulges and dips (fall/winter of 2012 was a particularly low population, falling as low as five regular visitors to the feeding station at my residence), which makes this spring's litters of kittens both a needed boost to the colony and a point of concern - all four notched females were gravid this spring, and one of them has not returned to care for her sole surviving kitten (which has been, for lack of a less anthropomorphic term, adopted by the mother of a litter born four weeks later).

I have no small measure of affection and concern for this colony, having been familiar with them for so long, and have been working to socialize litters of kittens for either adoption to forever homes, or taking them into my own (my former housemate was a keeper at Lowry Park Zoo, and retained custody of our four felines when they moved out in 2011).

I would be more than happy to speak with someone from your organization to take over custody/curation of the local trap(s) and whatever else is involved in working with your program.

Thanks for your time and attention, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

So you have four supposedly spayed females that are currently ... with kitten? Someone's been doing some sloppy work.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

They all got fixed after giving birth, as far as I can tell (During for certain, Rufus is the missing mother who disappeared about 4-5 weeks ago, when Kodiak was ~ 12 weeks old, Rusty the new arriving black-and-brown female who may or may not have been pregrnant, and Bullseye who was not pregnant as far as I know this spring.. Mayday is likewise a newly-fixed mother.

this spring's identified kittens are four males (kodiak, bond, ten, rorschach) and one female (kirk). during's two kittens, approaching 15 weeks, have not been socialized or sexed, nor have they made it onto my porch AFAIK (one of them set the record for longest "run away!" response when i opened my door, dashing from halfway up my walkway, clear across the street, and twenty feet up the driveway where they usually hang out).

Tiny had her litter, which I am hoping to locate this week/end, and begin to socialize and gender-check, four weeks ago this thursay.

Cow Cat (bull male) was the most recent fix; Pretty Boy (the huge, timid, tortoiseshell male, approx 3 years old) and Capricorn (9 months) have both been AWOL approximately as long as Rufus.

this leaves Magellan, at 15 monhs, the only sexually-mature male currently involved with things, and, likable as he is, that's not an ideal situation.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Why do you want to maintain a feral cat colony?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Pest control. I support the predators (cats and spiders) to keep the prey populations in check, because otherwise, there are a metric fuckshitload of them.

Also, I like cats, and doing this symbiotically gets me out of the house and away from the computer (my current work situation and yard fencing make adopting a dog logistically impossible for me and unfair to the dog).

(It's possible that I'm reading this question more defensively than the spirit in which it was asked...)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Pest control makes sense, especially if indigenous predators have been displaced.

The idea of maintaining a population of feral cats surprised me, because in my city they are always considered to be a bad thing. In large part because of their effect on the the local bird population.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

we have a shitload of birds, as well as lizards and cockroaches and a rodent thing... since they don't migrate or freeze to death.