(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
HOW TO MAINTAIN AN OUTDOOR CAT COLONY
If you want cats to be attracted to your home or homestead, and to stay around, you need to give them food, water and shelter, and teach them that people are a good thing. And you need to encourage good traits and prevent inbreeding.
Food: I did not give my outdoor colony cats the Farmina Prime lamb kibble, imported from Italy, that my indoor fur family gets. But they get decent stuff, as well as leftovers, bones, and oddly enough, wheat germ muffins. They want their protein, and are not picky. Cats are obligate carnivores, a vegetarian diet will eventually kill them. They are not dogs, who can survive on vegetables.
Cats do sometimes want fruit and vegetables, so if they want your blueberries let them have some. But never onions or chocolate, which are highly toxic to cats.
The most important thing I have found is to only feed your outdoor colony in the morning. If I fed them in the evening, all of the food would be gone by morning, but it wasn’t necessarily the cats who ate it. Predators come out in the evening, and go to sleep in the morning. And I didn’t want to attract predators to my property. So I gave them breakfast, and left them to get their own dinner, which was what they were there for. Doing this attracts cats to your property, and gives them a reason to stay nearby and patrol your territory.
If I had outdoor kittens without mothers to nurse from, I would feed them more often while they were young. If they empty the dish, there was not enough in it. There should always be some left over to ensure that they got enough, so they can grow properly. Do not pay any attention to the amounts given on the package. Give them what they want.
Which would include a bowl of whole milk. Or even better, goat’s milk if you have any. Goat’s milk is called the universal nurser, as almost all mammals will do well on it. Even orphaned baby whales! Meyenberg makes powdered whole goat’s milk that will keep a very long time in a cool, dry place. Only give whole milk to cats. Cat milk is practically cream; they don’t do well on lowfat, and will happily drink straight cream if they can get it.
Water: Cats are finicky about water; they like it very fresh, and if possible, water that is running. Thus their fondness for dripping faucets and drinking from the toilet. Since I had a year-round stream close to the house, I didn’t bother with giving them water. But if you don’t have that, put out a very large bowl of clean water, and change it daily. Stale, dirty water can lead to sick cats. They may also get dehydrated, as they don’t like drinking filthy water any more than you do.
Shelter: Except in semi-tropical and tropical climates, most cats cannot survive year-round without some kind of shelter. They don’t hibernate, and any feline less than about twenty pounds is too small to handle a serious winter outdoors. Bobcats and lynx, at twenty to thirty pounds, are more than twice the size of an average cat. Most of the largest breeds, Maine Coons, Siberians, and Norweigan Forest Cats, originated in very cold climates. But Ragdolls originated in southern California…oh well. My Ragdoll Merlin (pictured at the top of this article, at a younger age) weighed 22 pounds.
All domestic cats originated in warm-winter climates, where they do just fine. If you live in southern California or Florida, you can skip this part if you want to. All you have to worry about is shelter from dogs and coyotes.
Obviously, the type of shelter will vary by your climate and location. At a minimum, it needs to keep the weather and predators out. I had an open cellar, and an old garage full of my landlord’s unwanted furniture, and so did not need to make a cat house. There was plenty of room for everybody.
A garage, shed, or a small outbuilding can work very well if you make a cat entrance that is big enough for a cat, but too small for a raccoon or coyote. It can have a people door too. In cold climates, you should give them some kind of insulation, especially on the floor, and prevent the wind from blowing through the walls. Various heights of perches are good, and piles of hay, or old clothes, make good nests. Wooden pallets will get them off the cold floor. If you can run a heat lamp by their water bowl, so much the better.
Shelter really is necessary in cold climates. I once rented a house on Long Island, NY, on condition that I feed and water their outdoor cats, which I was very willing to do, and did. They had an uninsulated cinderblock shed with a metal door for shelter. None of the cats made it through the winter.
You do not find cats in the deep woods in the north. Cats are semi-domestic; even if “wild” they can only survive around human colonies. They may not need much help, but they do need some, except in warm-winter areas. The more help you give them, the more help they can give you.
If you start your colony with kittens you select, start them indoors and keep them inside until they are five or six months old – old enough to run fast and have a chance of taking care of themselves if trouble shows up. Acclimate them to going outside gradually, until you see they can handle it, and have fully transitioned.
Don’t worry about their learning to hunt! It has been well over half a century since my Ragdolls’ ancestors were outdoors, and they are fabulous hunters. My Merlin once leapt into the air, caught a fly between his front paws, landed, and ate it.
If you start with adults who do not know you or the area, keep them in an enclosed space for at least two weeks, until they know you as a safe bringer of good things to eat, and the space is home. Then gradually let them outside. If you let them out right away, they will probably leave, and all your trouble will be wasted.
People: When you bring out their breakfast, talk to your cats in a calm, friendly voice until they relax. They will attach to your voice more than anything else. My outdoor cats were usually skittish when they first saw me in the morning, but within a minute or so of hearing my voice, would come over, eat, and if tame enough, get petted. Between breakfast and being talked to, all but one of the kittens socialized well, accepting me as an oversized cat.
Even with my Ragdolls, voice matters. From time to time, I step on their tails by accident. In pain, they startle and prepare to run. I apologize profusely, and they settle back down and let me pet them.
My outdoor colony was not selected, it was just whoever showed up, so temperaments were very mixed. Some of the adults remained permanently feral.
Inbreeding: If you live in an area with lots of people and cats, the problem will take care of itself. However, if you are more rural, inbreeding could become a problem. If you have neighbors with cats, you might offer to take, or swap, male kittens (not adults, unless you want war). The males will freshen up your gene pool much faster than females. Be extremely selective in choosing the boys, you can be more flexible with the girls.
I once had one of my boys escape from his room, and breed his sister. She produced a litter of three healthy kittens, two of which were very small. Since all of her subsequent litters were of six or more kittens, all medium to very large in size, the effect of inbreeding depression was obvious. A woman I knew who had an isolated cat colony talked about how the kittens kept getting smaller. I saw them; they were very undersized, despite being well fed. You do not need this in your colony.
When choosing your original stock, try to get only one kitten from each litter, so they will not be related. Also, if you have a colony and want to bring in new stock, make sure you bring in a kitten and not an adult. Cats do not have death battles with kittens! A few days of hissing, and all will be fine.
PTSD, TEOTWAWKI, GRIEF, AND CHILDREN
According to a recent study, about two thirds of cat owners have turned to them for emotional comfort in the last year. A good cat will often know when someone is hurting, and go to them, trying to comfort them, without being asked. I have seen this many times. They just know.
One of the reasons for selecting so strongly for good temperament is that we are heading into harder and harder times. There will be losses of things, places and people in the lives of adults and of children. In many families, this has happened already. Consider western North Caroline after Hurricane Helene. Or the many people who have lost their jobs and homes.
It is not uncommon for people who are suicidal, depressed, or struggling with PTSD to say that the only thing that gets them out of bed and keeps them alive is caring for their pet. As a therapist, I have known some of these people. It’s very real.
There are times when it is the brutal truth that no one cares about a person but their pet. Most often this is a dog. But a good cat, for all intents and purposes, is a dog. It will follow you around, it will sleep with you, it will gaze into your eyes, and it will love you. It is not about food. My cats are free fed, they have never been hungry in their lives. And wherever I go, they go with me.
Preparing for survival has many levels. Beans, bullets, and band-aids, yes. But once these things are actually needed, our lives will change painfully. For many people, but especially for children, being able to hold on to a beloved cat will make the pain go away, at least for a time, and restore some measure of happiness.