National Feral Cat Day

We interrupt the awesome 5 year anniversary updates for National Feral Cat Day!

National Feral Cat Day® Facts
- Alley Cat Allies launched National Feral Cat Day® on our 10th anniversary in 2001 to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return, and recognize the millions of compassionate Americans who care for them.
- National Feral Cat Day® is observed on October 16 every year.
- The theme for this year’s National Feral Cat Day® is “TNR: From the Alley…to Main Street.”
- More and more people celebrate National Feral Cat Day® each year. Since 2011, more than 1,000 National Feral Cat Day events have taken place—spreading the word and helping feral cats all over the country—and even outside of the U.S. with international events! We can’t wait for you to reach even more people with National Feral Cat Day® this year!

Feral Cat Facts
- Feral cats have lived alongside humans for more than 10,000 years. They are the same species as pet cats. Feral cats, also called community or outdoor cats, live in groups called colonies and can thrive in every landscape. They are just as healthy as pet cats, but they are not socialized to humans and are therefore unadoptable.
- Trap-Neuter-Return—a humane approach to managing and caring for feral cats—is the only effective method of stabilizing feral cat colonies. In the last decade, the number of local governments with official policies endorsing TNR for feral cats has increased tenfold, with hundreds of cities and towns successfully carrying out TNR.
- However, in the majority of cities, feral cats are still caught and brought to animal pounds and shelters where they are killed. The shelter system is the number one cause of death for cats in the United States. About 70% of cats who enter shelters are killed there, including virtually 100% of feral cats. That’s why it’s so important for people like you to use National Feral Cat Day®, and every day, to help build more compassionate communities for cats.

To all the kitties living the feral life, we wish you food, shelter, a caretaker & most importantly - sterilization

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Caring for Another Type of Special Needs Animal – Community Cats

It's not just domestic pets that need assistance. Community cats can get sick too and today, Joa’s Arc's friend, Debbie R, was nice enough to put together a list of ways to help Community Cats too

Whether you are caring for a colony or notice a cat needs additional veterinary care at the time of spaying or neutering, we have a responsibility to provide the best care we can for each individual animal. But providing daily or routine care of cats that can’t be handled presents a very special challenge.

Here are some of the ways you can handle some of the more common issues:

Fleas: If you notice your cats scratching and you suspect fleas, a Capstar pill crushed up into their wet food will kill fleas within 3-6 hours. Capstar is safe and effective and doesn’t require a prescription.

Ear Mites: Revolution (prescription & purchased through a vet) effectively treats ear mites but must be applied topically. It could be done while the cat is under anesthesia or when in a trap. Revolution also treats fleas and intestinal parasites, but does need to be applied monthly if the problem continues.

Intestinal Parasites: For roundworms and hookworms, in addition to be being able to use Revolution to treat for these parasites, you can safely put Strongid into the wet food to treat the cat.

Ringworm: “It takes 21 days for ringworm to heal if you treat it and 3 weeks if you don’t.” Some strains of ringworm respond to a double dose of Program flea treatment. Good nutrition also helps the cat’s own immune system to respond.

Viral Infections: Treating eye infections is difficult, but can’t be neglected. Loss of vision is common if left untreated. Antibiotics have no direct effect on viral infections such as URI (upper respiratory infection) or Herpes virus eye infections. However, azithromycin has been found to be effective in resolving herpes eye infections. Often vets will prescribe antibiotics to prevent a secondary bacterial infection for an URI. In addition to crushing pills or adding liquid to wet food, prescriptions can be compounded with cat-pleasing flavorings. If you have the cat contained in a trap to care for it, you can put the trap under a heavy bath towel with a humidifier to aid in moistening the mucus membranes and ease breathing.

Bacterial Infections: Giving antibiotics to feral cats or kittens twice a day is difficult. However, there is a one-time injection of Convenia that provides 7-14 days of antibiotic treatment. It can be given at the time of spaying or neutering if an infected wound is discovered or teeth need to be pulled. Also, if an infection is noticed in one of the colony cats, the cat could be re-trapped and given an injection while in the trap.

For many other procedures, such as examining an injury or cutting out large clumps of matted hair, you will need to sedate the cat.

We hope you find this information helpful in caring for community cats.
A great, big thank you to Deb for putting this together.

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Joa's Arc In The Paper

Joa's Arc was mentioned in the newspaper recently! Check it out: Fortescue feral cat colony doing just fine, thank you

Did you miss it? It's okay because I did too at first. Page 3 has this quote:She was instrumental in getting together the following groups: Save the Animals Foundation, Animal Friends Association, the Animal Welfare Association, Joa's Arc and the Camden County Animal Clinic, to provide the funds and services to trap, neuter and release the cats.

In October, Joa's Arc's Jen W supplied (wo)man-power and supplies! She went out trapping when her friends, Joan & Steve, mentioned a need for help in Fortescue, NJ. Coincidentally, this was the weekend after Jen W caught something else in Fortescue - her giant fish! She brought along a few traps, carriers, soft pretzels (for the people) and her aunt, mom & good friend, Alyssa, to help as well ... It ended up being quite a successful day!

I believe we trapped about 15 cats that day, which is a big deal because some of the feeders stopped by and mentioned that they had fed them earlier not knowing we were coming. There were at least 3 different cars that stopped by of people that usually care for the cats, so the love and the compassion for the cats was very obvious.

We used sardines, canned food and lunch meat, I think, in all the traps we set back in the reeds and along the road. We caught young cats/"teen" aged kittens and big toms! One cat we caught towards the end of our day was a cat one feeder referred to as "King of the Hill" - he was a white Tom with gray spots and bigtestosterone cheeks. She had tried for 2 years to catch him!! We got him not long after she mentioned this too, oddly enough. The number of cats we caught, the kind people that showed up and especially getting that long-time "King" made the day a great one!

Joa's Arc tries to do as much as possible for as many animals as we are able to. To be able to help Steve & Joan Bullock of Save The Animals Foundation is our pleasure as we are proud to be supported by this amazing organization and all the good work they do! Tweet This