animal rescuers - resources - support

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by violaine

could either of you - kimbo or lisa- please share how you are able to do the best work for the ferals coming to your house, and/or the colony, please? thank you. when do you put out a HAH/crate? how do you feel about separating the mom if you must, from the babies? do you try to neut the males first - and does that help reduce the chance of other feral males entering into the colony? who helps you do the work- if anyone- and where do you turn for placement of adult / teen ferals?

I'll be back in tonight to address your question. I'm sure it will be a long post.

[Andrew, Jr.]

When I rock Dino, he loves to suck the webbing between my thumb and first finger. I have never had a dog do that before. I was one proud papa that night.

Andrew

[Kimbo]

As promised:

Situations vary on how I go about trapping--in a colony/hoarding case we take out as many traps as we can and get as many at once as we can care for. In my neighborhood it's single cats--I have 2 traps, one big Havaheart and one small squirrel trap that I use for trapping kittens.

In hoarder cases or colony cases we go in and feed for a week or two before hand. At one of the housing projects here that was being torn down we drove in and set up food/water stations and then made a strict point of driving the same car every night at the same time to feed them. 2 days before we are going to trap we only take out water and no food, on the third day we go in and set traps all around the feeding stations. In the traps we always put some mackerel or tuna. We NEVER leave traps unattended especially where kitties are involved. We set the trap and put inside two cat food cans, one with food and one empty so we can put water in it later. On the floor of the trap we put a little cardboard or newspaper and over the trap we place a towel. Once a trap is tripped we try to get to them as quick as we can. We cover the trap on all 4 sides to keep the cat calm, if you leave them uncovered they thrash and fight and hurt themselves. If we need the trap we find a confided area and transfer the cat to a crate. The transfer is a process in itself--if the cat see's one crack of light it will get out. We place the doors of the trap and the crate together with a board in-between them. We put towels-pillows around each side of the gap so there hopefully is no escape routes. We then slowly pull the board up and give the kitty a gentle nudge and it will move into the crate. Once in the crate the board goes back down immediately, pull the trap away and then slide the board out as we close the crate door. If we don't need the traps again we leave the cats in them. If the cats are staying in the trap they need the cardboard or a towel to lay on. If they are going in a crate we put newspaper on the floors with a towel so that they have some barrier to their urine. Once we are done trapping for the night (generally a dusk to midnight job) we take the cats to a safe garage or barn, give them a go over as best we can, water them (just a little) and cover them up for the night. The next morning bright and early we load them up for the clinic to get spayed or neutered.

At the clinic they knock them out spay and neuter them and then put the animals back in crates that we have supplied. The males stay in the crates and recover for the day, we feed them and release them that night. The females stay with us for at least a day--we watch them for any additional issues. Once they are up and moving and seem like they are going to be okay we feed and release them. The ideal situation is to release them back to where they came from. If they can't go back we try to find barns or other people who are managing a colony and see if we can release into their colony. The groups I work with give and take--if someone has some land they often will take the ferals that have no home, we take the kitties and adoptable older cats and try to adopt them out.

Sometimes an animal will be euthanized. The vets here evaluate every cat and treat as much as they can while they are under but occasionally they will find one that will suffer if let out into a colony. In these cases they will euthanize. They like to test ferals for kitty leukemia because it is transmitted to other cats, most often in these cases, if positive, they euthanize.

It talks a lot to get the feral out of cats and to gain their trust. Most people feel that feral kittens become unadoptable if they are not handled before about 10 weeks old--some say younger. I can tell you I have taken in feral kittens, it is not easy to tame them. Also my house does not work in their favor because I live a very quiet life...I have to induce noises in my house so that doesn't freak them out when they go into a home. The trick with any feral especially kittens is keep them confined!! I always feel guilty and want to let them out, staying caged is in their best interest! They are ready to roam when they quit hiding so much. I have cages that are open so they don't hide in a crate--the open cages allow them to see the world around and to become curious about it. You are best of to have less ferals and give them more time then to have many ferals and give them less time. The more feral kittens are handled the better. If I am home the cage moves from room to room with me--I take one kitten out one at a time for as much one on one time as I can give them. The more one on one interaction the better. I invite friends over to hold them and play with them. I've had great success with kittens but I've had some that never did tame. I had a dog at the time so I also exposed the kittens to my dog. My Sadie dog loved her kitties!

Very rarely do I bring adults home...I've taken in two and I've kept them in my office for a month or two and then I slowly integrated them with mine. During that time I would attempt to touch them but most often all I did for them was fed and clean up after them. I totally run on instinct when it comes to them. I have a dog door in my house so the other cats teach them how to use it and then they come and go as they please. They don't go to vets or get tons of shots. When I am working with adult ferals I do not look them in the eye, I use my peripheral vision. Eye contact can be threatening to them. Also if I do look a cat in the eye I do not stare and will blink my eyes slowly twice if we do gain contact. They do that with each other.

If they cats are in my neighborhood I find a feeding spot for them for a week or two and then out goes the trap. I release them back into my neighborhood and keep an eye on them. Predators in Seattle for feral cats are coyotes, raccoons, eagles, hawks and possums (although rare). The kittens are more exposed to other birds like seagulls, crows and blue jays. Feral cats will often abandon a kitten or all their kittens especially if they are first time mothers. Very rarely will you save a kitten who has not nursed from it's mother, I've seen it happen with 2 kittens that were abandoned but it took a village. Hand feeding newborn kittens is exhausting, they need fed and expressed every 2-4 hours.

Lots of people will help you trap if you are willing to help yourself, so to speak. If someone asks me to help them I want them to be involved. That means I will come and set the traps and teach them how to set it, I want them to watch the trap. Once a cat is trapped they can tend to it for the night or call me and I will come get it. If people wanted me to come deal with the situation I tend to be less involved mainly because it is difficult to find barns or other colonies and I just cannot let them all out into my neighborhood. There are costs depending on your state. We are very fortunate here to have great resources. Some things that can help save expenses are to only test the adults for leukemia--if one is positive then you may want to test the others. If it's mother cat with kittens we only test the mother. I do not get rabies shots only because rabies is very rare in Seattle however we have a growing bat population and I think I would rethink that now. I do give them the FVRCP shots---that one shot alone I think is worth it's weight in gold.

Anyways that's my 2 cents.

[violaine]

[QUOTE=Kimbo;51358]As promised:

Situations vary on how I go about trapping--in a colony/hoarding case we take out as many traps as we can and get as many at once as we can care for. In my neighborhood it's single cats--I have 2 traps, one big Havaheart and one small squirrel trap that I use for trapping kittens.

In hoarder cases or colony cases we go in and feed for a week or two before hand. At one of the housing projects here that was being torn down we drove in and set up food/water stations and then made a strict point of driving the same car every night at the same time to feed them. 2 days before we are going to trap we only take out water and no food, on the third day we go in and set traps all around the feeding stations. In the traps we always put some mackerel or tuna. We NEVER leave traps unattended especially where kitties are involved. We set the trap and put inside two cat food cans, one with food and one empty so we can put water in it later. On the floor of the trap we put a little cardboard or newspaper and over the trap we place a towel. Once a trap is tripped we try to get to them as quick as we can. We cover the trap on all 4 sides to keep the cat calm, if you leave them uncovered they thrash and fight and hurt themselves. If we need the trap we find a confided area and transfer the cat to a crate. The transfer is a process in itself--if the cat see's one crack of light it will get out. We place the doors of the trap and the crate together with a board in-between them. We put towels-pillows around each side of the gap so there hopefully is no escape routes. We then slowly pull the board up and give the kitty a gentle nudge and it will move into the crate. Once in the crate the board goes back down immediately, pull the trap away and then slide the board out as we close the crate door. If we don't need the traps again we leave the cats in them. If the cats are staying in the trap they need the cardboard or a towel to lay on. If they are going in a crate we put newspaper on the floors with a towel so that they have some barrier to their urine. Once we are done trapping for the night (generally a dusk to midnight job) we take the cats to a safe garage or barn, give them a go over as best we can, water them (just a little) and cover them up for the night. The next morning bright and early we load them up for the clinic to get spayed or neutered.

At the clinic they knock them out spay and neuter them and then put the animals back in crates that we have supplied. The males stay in the crates and recover for the day, we feed them and release them that night. The females stay with us for at least a day--we watch them for any additional issues. Once they are up and moving and seem like they are going to be okay we feed and release them. The ideal situation is to release them back to where they came from. If they can't go back we try to find barns or other people who are managing a colony and see if we can release into their colony. The groups I work with give and take--if someone has some land they often will take the ferals that have no home, we take the kitties and adoptable older cats and try to adopt them out.

Sometimes an animal will be euthanized. The vets here evaluate every cat and treat as much as they can while they are under but occasionally they will find one that will suffer if let out into a colony. In these cases they will euthanize. They like to test ferals for kitty leukemia because it is transmitted to other cats, most often in these cases, if positive, they euthanize.

It talks a lot to get the feral out of cats and to gain their trust. Most people feel that feral kittens become unadoptable if they are not handled before about 10 weeks old--some say younger. I can tell you I have taken in feral kittens, it is not easy to tame them. Also my house does not work in their favor because I live a very quiet life...I have to induce noises in my house so that doesn't freak them out when they go into a home. The trick with any feral especially kittens is keep them confined!! I always feel guilty and want to let them out, staying caged is in their best interest! They are ready to roam when they quit hiding so much. I have cages that are open so they don't hide in a crate--the open cages allow them to see the world around and to become curious about it. You are best of to have less ferals and give them more time then to have many ferals and give them less time. The more feral kittens are handled the better. If I am home the cage moves from room to room with me--I take one kitten out one at a time for as much one on one time as I can give them. The more one on one interaction the better. I invite friends over to hold them and play with them. I've had great success with kittens but I've had some that never did tame. I had a dog at the time so I also exposed the kittens to my dog. My Sadie dog loved her kitties!

Very rarely do I bring adults home...I've taken in two and I've kept them in my office for a month or two and then I slowly integrated them with mine. During that time I would attempt to touch them but most often all I did for them was fed and clean up after them. I totally run on instinct when it comes to them. I have a dog door in my house so the other cats teach them how to use it and then they come and go as they please. They don't go to vets or get tons of shots. When I am working with adult ferals I do not look them in the eye, I use my peripheral vision. Eye contact can be threatening to them. Also if I do look a cat in the eye I do not stare and will blink my eyes slowly twice if we do gain contact. They do that with each other.

If they cats are in my neighborhood I find a feeding spot for them for a week or two and then out goes the trap. I release them back into my neighborhood and keep an eye on them. Predators in Seattle for feral cats are coyotes, raccoons, eagles, hawks and possums (although rare). The kittens are more exposed to other birds like seagulls, crows and blue jays. Feral cats will often abandon a kitten or all their kittens especially if they are first time mothers. Very rarely will you save a kitten who has not nursed from it's mother, I've seen it happen with 2 kittens that were abandoned but it took a village. Hand feeding newborn kittens is exhausting, they need fed and expressed every 2-4 hours.

Lots of people will help you trap if you are willing to help yourself, so to speak. If someone asks me to help them I want them to be involved. That means I will come and set the traps and teach them how to set it, I want them to watch the trap. Once a cat is trapped they can tend to it for the night or call me and I will come get it. If people wanted me to come deal with the situation I tend to be less involved mainly because it is difficult to find barns or other colonies and I just cannot let them all out into my neighborhood. There are costs depending on your state. We are very fortunate here to have great resources. Some things that can help save expenses are to only test the adults for leukemia--if one is positive then you may want to test the others. If it's mother cat with kittens we only test the mother. I do not get rabies shots only because rabies is very rare in Seattle however we have a growing bat population and I think I would rethink that now. I do give them the FVRCP shots---that one shot alone I think is worth it's weight in gold.

Anyways that's my 2 cents.

i really appreciate every inch of this post do you feel like you need some after typing all of that, and remembering the cases? ha.

{{{ kimbo}}}

your work is awesome, friend. the kitties are lucky to know you along their journeys.

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by violaine

i really appreciate every inch of this post do you feel like you need some after typing all of that, and remembering the cases? ha.

{{{ kimbo}}}

your work is awesome, friend. the kitties are lucky to know you along their journeys.

I do see the typo's and bad punctuation.. I am amazed I got that much out!

And yes...I just may need that stuff

[violaine]

gaining trust of a feral - when he comes around out of his comfort zone, for food from a human is pretty huge. in a minor way, i can compare the guinea pigs- who are prey animals- and while they trust me, beings who want to be picked up and held, is not prey animal wiring. accepting a prey animal/gp, or feral for who they are allows a person to see the full range/beauty of their appreciation of us !

[violaine]

On 2/16/10 3:10 PM/tuesday
Hi all,

The Commissioners meeting this morning didn't go exactly as planned (but it never does, right?!). Me and X were in attendance. During "wishes to be heard", I asked the commissioners if they were [Chief ACOs] boss and oversaw "general shelter operations" and they agreed.

I then led into some questions that I knew they couldn't answer very well since they truly have no idea about what goes on in the shelter. My intent was to follow up my questions with a request to hold a public forum so that [Chief ACO] could answer everyone's burning questions. The Commissioners actually attempted to give very vague answers to the questions that I asked, and told me that my questions would be best answered at the meeting that I have with Chief ACO and Commissioner this Thursday [later today]. I told them that was fine, but that I still thought it would be most effective to hold a public forum so that EVERYONE could ask questions. Commissioner X spoke up and told me that public forums like that typically turn into a bunch of angry people just "beating up" on the person answering the questions for the public. He said that he didn't think it was a good idea, and that he wouldn't be able to give me an answer about the public forum at that time. I took that as a "NO" for getting a public forum.

X and I did stick around to hear X Commissioner report on the decision regarding which organization would be used to assess the current state of the shelter. X Comm. said that he's contacted several local/state organizations but that no one really wanted to get involved with it because of the drama surrounding the shelter. He said that he's got a few national organizations that would be willing to assess the shelter but that they charge a fee - he didn't mention who the organizations were or what the fee would cost. He then asked the commissioners if they thought it would be a good idea to contact several reputable local vets to assess the shelter and the commissioners agreed that it might be something worth looking into. My opinion is that local vets know how to run a for-profit vets office, and have little to no experience in how a shelter should be operated... but this is still better than the original idea of bringing in the State Board of Animal Health. I think that someone within Humane Society needs to take charge and compile a list of organizations that could fairly assess the shelter. I just don't think that X Comm. is really qualified to chose the best organization for the job and needs some guidance. Maybe Indiana Welfare Sheltering Org. could assist us with this? [see below response].

The last important detail at the meeting was that Chief ACO has requested new laptops for all of her AC officers to carry with them while they're out on patrol in their vans. They apparently already have laptops but they are 5 years old and the batteries don't stay charged in them, so rather than replace the batteries with new $150 ones, she would like $9297 to purchase new laptops. They mentioned that this could possibly be paid for with money from the shelter's donation fund. Also, keep in mind too that she's asking for new laptops with the knowledge that the Commissioners are looking to reduce the number of people she has on staff.

Any thoughts on all this?

[response]

Hi all!
Below are the main two evaluations from national organizations that I know of. B. gave the information to X Comm. and told him at the time it would cost him money. I agree the contacting a vet is not the way to go. Vets and animal shelters are two totally different things. There are vets out there that specialize in shelter medicine, but not necessarily shelter operations. Your average private vet does not have the background in sheltering needed to really do an evaluation of the shelter in it’s entirety.

Shelter medicine vets would come into play to just address health of the animals in the shelter and typical shelter medicine issues such as kennel cough, upper respiratory infections in cats, protocols for highly contagious diseases such as parvo, etc.

American Humane Shelter Evaluation:
http://www.americanhumane.org/protec...er-training-ev aluation-program/

HSUS Evaluation:
http://www.animalsheltering.org/prog...ation_program/

X Comm. has yet to answer my email asking him what his timeline is for getting a basic informational report to them. I’m a little confused that he would tell the commissioners that others don’t want to help. We offered, just not willing at this point to go in the shelter because we probably wouldn’t get the info we needed anyway. The report we are willing to give him would however be very helpful for him to educate himself. There are also shelter self-evaluations questionnaires that they could use to get an idea of where they are what they need to do. Probably not best to have Chief ACO answer the questions, but it could be eye opening.

Maybe one of you can contact the above two organizations and get the info about how much evaluations would cost, what it would take, etc. They both would do an awesome job. Possibly a fundraising opportunity to have the community ban together and chip in the funds to purchase the evaluation?

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by violaine

gaining trust of a feral - when he comes around out of his comfort zone, for food from a human is pretty huge. in a minor way, i can compare the guinea pigs- who are prey animals- and while they trust me, beings who want to be picked up and held, is not prey animal wiring. accepting a prey animal/gp, or feral for who they are allows a person to see the full range/beauty of their appreciation of us !

so true---when working with ferals it is all on their time, you cannot push them or they will turn away. The good thing is that they are very forgiving and once the learn the beauty of the power of touch they do enjoy being touched and loved but being held really takes alot.

I have thoughts on your post but will be back to address when I am off work.

[BestButchBoy]

Originally Posted by violaine

gaining trust of a feral - when he comes around out of his comfort zone, for food from a human is pretty huge. in a minor way, i can compare the guinea pigs- who are prey animals- and while they trust me, beings who want to be picked up and held, is not prey animal wiring. accepting a prey animal/gp, or feral for who they are allows a person to see the full range/beauty of their appreciation of us !

When I lived in Boston I had a colony of ferals that I fed, watered and neutered. I got 4 of them homes. And, I'm still in love with one special kitty who now lives with a good friend of mine in Boston. Her name is Buddy. Trust didn't come easy for her, but, we eventually bonded. And now, she lives a wonderful, love-filled life.

It's a tough life for all those poor babies out there---some abandoned, some just born wild. Same for packs of dogs.

I will never understand why ppl choose to an animal and then don't take care of it until it's life is over. It's a crime.

Gratefully, there are a lot ppl who take care of these poor wayward souls.

Good work!