Today’s lesson is “What to expect if you have feral cats”.
Handling and trying to train feral cats is not as easy as one might think. In the beginning, I saw that their instinct to hunt for food is in their nature, especially for Smokey and Bandit. So if you take on this task be prepared, it is not for the faint of heart.
What I mean is that we would find the occasional small lizard or snake in our porch that was killed and or partially eaten. Yuck!
But what happened one morning will be permanently imprinted on my mind.
Mornings for me here in South Florida begin with a cup of coffee and checking the news and e-mails. Betty will take our dogs Kiki and Khaki outside by way of our rear porch and will greet the outdoor cat clowder. But this one fall morning was very different because I heard a piercing scream coming from the porch!
I spent ten years in the fire department and twenty-six years in law enforcement but nothing could have prepared me for one of the most horrific crime scenes I have ever seen. Warning! if you are bothered by what animals do out in nature or you are a bird lover stop reading right now. Writer is not responsible if you keep reading.
Now where was I, oh yeah, for the rest of you. When I reached the rear porch I observed, scattered through out the porch, what was once a large bird. Feathers were everywhere with multiple cat vomits and multiple weak cat bowl movements beyond the imagination. You see, a horrific frenzy played out on my porch that night for sure.
As I looked over to Bandit, who had this innocent expression on his face, he was brandishing a mouth full of feathers. His son Teddy was sitting on the window sill expressing his thoughts of “I have no idea about what happened here last night.” Then I looked to Sam, who tried to express the same expression as Teddy, except the single feather in the corner of her mouth gave it away.
Needless to say, Betty locked them out of the porch for two days and I cleaned up the mess. You know, it was three weeks later and I was till finding feathers.
The good news to this story is that in time they stopped hunting for food knowing they would always be fed. But on occasion I will still hear Betty yelling at one to let go of that lizard they are playing with.
Thank you for reading Kitty Village News and thank you for supporting our cause.
S&B
