What is a Feral Colony?

This is a feral colony:

This is a feral colony.

So is this.

 

And this.

A feral colony may be one cat or forty...even more in some cases.  They are in the city and in the country.  The cats are not necessarily feral. A lot of them are quite friendly with their caregiver and some are very tame.

Feral colonies start when someone abandons a cat.  A feral cat is not a species, it is an unnatural result of man's inhumanity.   Kittens born to homeless cats are usually feral if there is no human to handle them from a young age.  Feral cats can be tamed, but doing so when they are an adult is a very long and tedious process, and they always retain some of their wildness, usually becoming friendly with only one or two humans who are familiar to them.

Caregivers are a diverse as the colonies they care for.  They can be any age and gender. Some are affluent but most are not and struggle to feed the numerous cats in their care.  Some of them know every cat and it's history, have given them names and let them come into their homes. Others have no idea how many cats, or which cats, they feed and confine their support to providing shelter and regular feeding.   

Let me tell you about just three of "my" colonies. 

The first colony is in a trailer park.  There are two caregivers that we have met and worked with and there are perhaps forty to fifty homeless cats in the park.  The caregivers have strong bonds with some of the cats and have named them. Other cats come and go, but there is always enough food and the cats can shelter under trailers where there are holes in the skirts.  Both caregivers are couples, working people, and each couple has taken in and adopted one of the kittens born in the park as well as having other cats of their own.  

Most of the cats in this colony are not really feral. It is very common for people living in the trailer park to move away and abandon their pets.  That is what happened to Gypsy, pictured above. This sweet and gentle little girl was spayed and placed for adoption with a family in Amherst.

Midnight was just as lucky. He was separated from his caregiver when she lived in the park through no fault of his or hers.  She had to move away without him, and was delighted when ca-r-ma returned him to her.

Another city colony has as a caregiver a very elderly lady. She feeds the cats on her porch but allows them to come into the house when they want to. Some of them occasionally spend the night and sleep on her bed, but nobody else can touch them.   We trapped and altered five or six cats there and took the kittens that were born before we finished TNR into foster care because it is unlikely the caregiver will be able to look after her colony for their entire lives.   Amongst the beautiful kittens placed for adoption was Opie, a little angel.

One of our favorite country colonies has about 10 cats left although there were 15 when we started TNR two years ago. The caregiver is an elderly lady living alone. She recognizes the cats she feeds, but does not name them.  She adopted one of the kittens born in the colony. All the cats in the colony have been spayed/neutered. One had to be put down because she had a badly crushed leg and it was impossible to treat her because she was feral, and a couple have disappeared as homeless cats are wont to do, but when we deliver food we often see the remaining colony members, fat and sleek, basking in the sun.