Need to find homes for feral kittens

Hi T, there are some places where agencies/cat rescue groups may pay for certain things like spaying/neutering. However, to my knowledge they usually do not pay ordinary vet bills. The kitty that had to have surgery is one of my own house cats, even though he is semi-feral. Don't mind you asking what is a "feral". It is a good thing that you care enough to know. Here is the answer: A feral is a cat or kitten who either was born outdoors and has no owner or an owner has abandoned the cat/kitten. Secondly, in order to protect themselves, ferals try to stay away from people. They really fear people. If you try to pet them, they will run from you. It takes a long time to build trust with a feral cat. Most of the time, they will never be "lap" cats. If they are in your house and a long time has passed, you may be able to pet them. It takes a very long time to socialize them. Kittens learn to be feral from their mothers. If you get a feral kitten just before it has been weaned from its mom, there is a chance you can socialize them. I have cats who were born to a feral mom but they were born inside my house and socialized (petted, touched, et cetera) when they were very young. They are loveable friendly cats. There is a program which has been gaining momentum in the United States called TNR (trap, neuter/spay, release). Outdoor ferals live in "colonies". Usually there are colony caretakers, those who will feed them. However, if the colony is not controlled by TNR, it will multiply into very unmanageable proportions rather quickly. Obviously those who do TNR cannot adopt all the ferals they come across, so the next best thing is to spay/neuter and return to where they were living, providing that there is someone feeding them. There are programs here in Los Angeles that will do low cost or free spaying/neutering. It would be great if one could be started in your area. The only way to control the increasing kitty population is through spaying/neutering.

Hi Dodgeman, thank you very much for your response. It is uplifting and encouraging to hear other people support what you are doing. Even though I absolutely adore cats (and kittens), it is not easy work to take care of them and provide food for them in this day and age where the economy is doing so bad. It is hard to keep up with the growing population of kitties. It has to be done one at a time, though.

Thank you for you response. I love them all but husband wants to put a limit on them. It is wonderful that you care for ferals. It takes a very special person to do so and to understand how ferals are. At the moment my old boy feral is recuperating from a surgery for an abscess that was in his mouth and into his face. Poor baby. You know how some vets do not want to treat ferals, so I waited... too long though, to take him in. It has been almost a week and he has not made the progress I thought he would. He is old but now he is totally dependent on us and does not seem to be able to move around much. He lost a lot of weight and is weak. I hope he gains weight and strength. Yesterday a friend and I went to two pet stores to try to give his two semi-feral kittens up for adoption. They are about 4 months old. Neither one would accept the kittens because they said they were too shy or still too feral. Very sad. It is hard to adopt out ferals. I wish more people would take care of their pets or get help if they cannot but do so before these kitties suffer the issues of living outdoors, cars, kitty haters, etc.

Hi mcat19, thank you for your helpful suggestions. We are in the big city and there are no farms close by. I am going to try to find a backyard or a barn for the kittens. Thank you for your suggestion of Alley Cat Allies. They are a great organization. There are so many homeless cats this year, it is really a problem. No one has space to take in more cats, especially ferals which take extra care and attention. I appreciate your responding to my post. Thank you and bless you.

Hi Naseeha, thank you for your comment. Once again, I do appreciate the fact that I am finding more and more people, especially here at MyLot who do like cats and we are forming special friendships. I hope that where you are living you are caring for kitties too and I bet you are because you cared enough to respond to this post. Thanks again.

Hi Sam, I hope I accepted your friendship. If not, please request again. Thank you for your positive suggestions. I will contact Christine. My brother lives in San Diego, so I go down there (from L.A.) from time to time. I am hopeful that I will be able to find loving homes for my precious babies. It will be a pleasure to be your friend.