Originally Posted by honeychile
(snipped)
I moved in with my mother after my daddy died (she was legally blind), and there was a HUGE feral cat colony close to her. We started out just feeding them, but eventually got into the TNR program.
I'd recommend that you contact a vet first - some will will work with you more so than others. Our ferals were gorgeous - mostly Siamese with lilac, flame, or seal points. Most TNR groups insist that the cat's ear is notched during sterilization; we argued that, if we were going to get these cats homed, the notched ear wouldn't help them find a home. We got a price of $35 per cat, and had to let the vet know if they were homed.
What we did was to sit on the veranda with the cats as they were eating, talking to them, and stroking them. Once we had their trust, we'd scoop up a cat when it was done eating, rush it into the house, and get it into a cage. Later that day, the cat would be taken to the vet for its first appointment. If it was healthy enough to be sterilized, we got the date, then kept the cat inside until S-Day. The cat would recuperate in its cage in our house, as we got it socialized as much as possible - cuddling, talking to it, etc. Buffy the Bichon got involved as well! If the cat was able to socialize, we'd try to home it - we only had two failures.
One of the cats (a gorgeous flame pointed Siamese) had conjunctivitis when I scooped him. We had called him Lucy until we saw him bathe, then he became Luke. He was diagnosed with pink eye on his initial appointment, so we had to isolate him from the other cats, Buffy, and ourselves for two weeks prior to being sterilized. We had him in the (heated) garage, and we discovered that the Stockholm Syndrome is a very real thing! He was successfully homed with a woman who said that Luke was accepted by her other cats, but in her bed by Night Number Two!
We only had one real problem with it, and that's when one of the cats bit me on the palm during feeding time, and I had to go through a rabies series. It was very rewarding in the all in all, and I'd recommend doing TNR if you're interested!
Oh, early on in our journey, we were both sitting out on the veranda late one night, and I said, "how many times do you think we can do this before the neighbors call us the Crazy Cat Ladies?" Dixie responded, "Oh, Honey, that ship has sailed!"
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