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Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 11:38 am
Kitten season will be upon us soon in some areas. In my area, it is happening now. So I thought I’d share the perils of street cats.
Some cats may end up homeless because they get lost or maybe they were being fed by someone who moved away. Other times they might be abandoned.
They may not always be Homeless
Some street cats may not always be homeless they may just like to roam around the neighborhood. Other times they may have ended up on the street through no fault of their own. They may have gotten lost or were left behind.
I don’t understand why someone would leave their pet behind but I can see there may be many factors but that’s a topic for another day.
Ferals count too
Ferals cats count as street cats as well. At times thee may just be a colony of cats that settle in a neighborhood or they may just start out with one stray female and a few unneutered males.
Some unneutered males might find himself a mate too and bring her home. But ferals are can be domesticated if they want to be. It takes time and love but they will love having a forever home.
mating season is chaos
Being that we’ve had a few mating seasons in my area year it’s sheer chaos. We have two dominant males in my neighborhood.
One is an older Siamese my neighbor named T.J. and A gray and white male my mom calls Papa Sam or P-Sam for short. He’s Sam’s dad.
for the past few years these guys have been going after Stache she’s Ziggy’s mom. We’ve tried to trap her but she just won’t go into it.
When mating season starts the fur starts to fly. I’ve seen T.J. and P-Sam roll off our wall and land on the cement. I’ve seen them take each other in a death grip and roll down the walk and hit the wood gate and roll back again. If you’ve ever seen a video of male lions fighting it’s sort of like that.
feral males have a sex drive as I’ve never seen before. They will try to mate with their siblings even if they are males. As long as they are smaller then they are fair game.
kittens galore
If you can’t trap a female like in our case you may have a few litters of kittens a year. It may depend on what part of the country you are in but still, sometimes it may be up to 3 litters.
Last year Stache had 2 litters we kept the late summer pair (Jack and his sister Willie) and took her earlier litter to the shelter to give them a chance.
If you factor in an average litter can be 4 kittens you can guess how many cats will be roaming around your neighborhood.
Stache’s current litter is only 3 kittens. She lost a calico to what I can only assume was illness.
They can live a long time
T.J. is a perfect example of this. The vet gauged his age at around 10 to 12 years old. Personally, I think he’s closer to 16 years old but that’s my opinion.
T.J. was in relatively good health for a long time until late 2022. He’s had his fair share of battle scars broken whiskers, and broken teeth.
At the end of 2022, my neighbor had to that him to our local cat hospital because he had developed an abscess in his mouth. Well, that late led to all his teeth having to be pulled. Poor guy, he might be toothless but he still thinks he’s mighty.
We were happy when he came home and he was doing well for a while until late February or March of this year (2023). He developed a respiratory infection and was in bad shape. He’s been at the cat hospital being treated for around a month now. We don’t have any news of when he’ll be back home or if he will come home.
This being said street cats can live a long time. They are also very clever. I think T.J.’s survived this long because he’s been fed by a few people. I also think he had a home once or was at least socialized at one time.
My neighbor thinks someone just left him behind. But we might never know.
We hear all the dangers to cats in the outside world such as cars, dogs, and household cleaners. But to me, T.J. is one of the few who survived to live up to old age.
From what I’ve read Siamese cats can have light sensitivity and tend to have poor night vision as they get older. But again he’s still chugging along.
how you can help street cats
There are a number of charities you can give to help with Trap Spay or Neuter programs. if your community has a program reach out to them for more info.
Some animal services may also have a trapping service or discount spay and neutering.
If you can possibly foster a cat or kittens or even adopt one or two please do.
These are the ways we can help street cats. Granted they have lots of perils but if you can make one of them your friend you’ve got a friend for life.
