Phew! I barely dodge this time.
 

I'll try to make a long story short. About a year and half ago, we came home from vacation and a stray cat with her two kittens had taken up living at our house. Some neighbors I don't know had started feeding her at my house when they realized she was half starved. Since she was nursing, I continued to feed her. After the kittens were gone (gave one away and the other disappeared), she would come and go. Toward the end of spring this year, she showed back up pregnant again. She had a female kitten which I named Missy. I had read that you are not suppose to spay them while they are nursing. You can, but it can cause complication. So, I thought once the kitten is about two months old, I would spay Mama cat. Well, Mama had other ideas or lets say nature did. When Missy was about 4 weeks old, Mama got pregnant again. Luckily, she only had one kitten this time too. Cute tuxedo male cat. I took Missy in to the neuter spay clinic yesterday to take care of that future problem. When I picked her up, they informed me she had been in heat. Talk about dodging a litter! This morning I took Mama in. In a week or two, Iggy, tuxedo cat, will be neutered.

I saw Iggy's father hanging around this morning. I don't know who (if anyone) he belongs to, but if I could catch him, I would neuter him also. He is a beautiful solid black cat.

Thank you very much for looking after these cats and ensuring they do not produce more kittens.

We had a similar story years ago. We contacted The Shamrock Foundation and they paid for the neutering/fixing of the kittens, gave us a big bag of food and two bowls to feed them. They said it was better to bring them back to familiar surroundings. They ended up coming into our house and liked it, but they always wanted out too. They were very special to us.
Thanks for doing your part in helping this cirlce of life pattern to end. If only more would help.

My DD and SIL are pushovers when it comes to stray cats/kittens. They have 5 acres and have accumulated 16 cats this way (one just died). They always have them spayed/neutered ASAP. Some are inside cats, others outside cats. There's a cat door into their garage and all the cats are brought inside at night. Her husband brings more strays home than she does, although people at work know she's a softie for strays. lol

We have stray named Mama that lives on our patio. A year and a half ago she dug a hole under our shed and had 5 kittens. I fed her during the time she was nursing the kittens, then we trapped the kittens when they were old enough and took them to the animal foundation where they were all spayed/neutered, socialized and then adopted out to homes. A week after the kittens were gone, we trapped Mama cat and took her to a place that does TNR (trap, neuter, return) for the strays in our city. She spent 48 hours recovering in our spare room, then we were told to release her where we trapped her at and she would probably leave since her kittens were gone. Funny thing is that she never left. She sleeps on my patio chairs, and we give her food and water in the tool shed. I tried to make her into an inside cat, but she has no desire to be in my house (just as well as I have 3 inside cats that I have adopted over the years). She now has a few other stray friends that come to eat and sometimes sleep on the other chairs. The ones that have been hanging out with her have all been fixed, I can tell because when they go through the TNR program, the tip of their right ear gets clipped off to mark them as being done.

Missy is the only one that spends much time indoors. Mama will do a walk thru to see what is going on, but will return outdoors. Being male, Iggy is still very attached to his mother. Missy was literally with her mother when Iggy was born so she is a combination sister/aunt. When Mama was under the bushes nursing Iggy, Missy was the lookout. Iggy will remain primary outdoors as long as he stays around here. I can not handle three cats inside. While, Iggy can be handled, he still prefers cat companionship to human. You have to catch him so you can pet him, but he is docile while being held. Mama does not like to be held, so I think Iggy has a lot of her personality. He is definitely built like her. As you can tell, I love to watch their personalities.

I know what you mean, we took in a mamma cat and her two girls. she lived on the streets (even though she really "belonged" to the neighbor across the street who never fed her or her Brother) and she had kittens. she kept coming into our back yard at evening time and going back across in the day time.
we finally let her into our garage (i put my car out) for nights and let her out in the day. then we started feeding her inside and her girls finally came in too. But the neighborhood boyfriend visited her before we got her to stay inside! thought she was gaining weight due to being fed well. not!!! six more kittens in our closet.
they were so cute. slept in my lap after playing all over me. We found homes for three and i took the other three to a lady's shelter who found homes for them. $300.00 each for the two kittens to be fixed and later for mamma too.
we still have them. mamma is in my Avatar. one of the girls is still a bit feral. she loves to be loved on but not picked up. although i do that daily to keep her used to it.

It is so wonderful that you are making sure no more feral cats come along. Outside cats are such a danger, they spread disease and are major predators of songbirds. All the cats I've owned were adopted strays, although they were kept indoors at all times after adoption. We also have neighbors who claim that a cat is their pet, but never allow it indoors or pay it any attention. They simply leave food and water on the porch. In the summer the cat comes over and sprays our front door, apparently thinks our cat is competition. Year round it uses our backyard as a litter box.

I used The Big Fix Clinic or Mississippi Spay & Neuter Clinic which only charged $50 per cat, plus if you want $8 for the rabies shot. I think they have some grant money plus donations from the public that helps with the cost. Both of the mornings were very busy with cats and dogs coming in for their surgery. Dogs cost more, but still cheaper than the vet.
Native Texan, I know what you mean by not being sure if they are pregnant. Since Mama only had one kitten at a time, I never was sure if she was pregnant until it was too late to do something about it. At least when a dog goes into heat you can tell immediately.

ha ha ha ...are you sure your not my sis-in-law.....good for you!!!!

We caught 2 of our semi-feral barn cats by using food and a dog cage. After feeding daily for a while near an open dog cage , we then began to move the dish closer to the cage every day or so, eventually putting it right on the edge inside the open door.

After a week of doing that, we moved the bowl deeper inside until it was against the back wall. Then, when we could, we slammed the door and took the cat to the vet for the local Catch/Neuter/Release program. I thought for sure they'd never come back to the house after that treatment, but they did as if nothing had happened!

Food is a major incentive, ask me how I know, LOL!

Jan in VA

My daughter has 15 feral cats that she trapped and had neutered. They have a kitty condo made from a porch and enclosed. They can be entertaining to watch and no critters to contend with out here in the country where mice can be a problem.

is the Shamrock foundation only in your state ?

Your story was so familiar to me! My sister is know as "the cat lady" it seems as though everyone around knows she will care for them. She has taken so many cats to her veterinarian that the vet now spays or neuters them for her free as long as she finds them a good and caring home. So far so good. Thank God for people like you as well as my sister.

We met a couple from St. Augustine, FL on a cruise this year, who sponsor a yearly round up of feral cats for neutering (they pay for the neutering and check up to assure they are healthy). The sad thing is that they do about 50 a year, which means other people are being irresponsible or the number would not stay steady. The small community I live has had a terrible time with feral and had set up program with the local rescue site. But certain people let them out of the traps. Rabies is a problem in our county so they are only indulging themselves and not helping the poor cats or their neighbors human and animal (pets and wild).

It has always been a rule at our house that all pets must be spayed or neutered. When my son was about 3, we were at the vet's with our newest addition waiting for them to come take her back. An elderly gentlemen was waiting also and asked my son what was wrong with his cat. Imagine my horror when he replied, "nothing is wrong with her. We're just having her spayed so she won't have any kittens. Did you know my mama got spayed, too? Now she won't have any babies or kittens, either." I wanted to crawl under a chair. I would have, too, if I hadn't still been sore from just having my tubes tied!

You are a great person for doing this.

Great work. I love cats, but my husband says he doesn't. Thank you for making life a lot easier for the cats. They are a lot healthier and happier being spayed or neutered.