One of my feral cats I feed. I call her "Donna"
One of the many homeless cats that live on Cedar Point close to Black Hammock Island. I have no idea how they will survive the winter.If anyone who reads this lives near them please feed them!!!!
Feral cats living under the bridge across from one of our local high schools.
They are homeless decendants of an abandoned pet.
One of many, many colonies of feral cats in America.
Florida has it's own hero!!
Caboodle Ranch is a 25 acre non-profit cat rescue society, founded by a single individual, who cared enough to make a difference in the lives of cats!
Click here for this amazing story!
Caboodle Ranch is in desperate need of donations! Please donate....if each of you would only give $2.00 a month, it would be a huge help for Craig.
Donations of cat food, cat litter, flea control products, worming medication and other items would also be a Godsend.
Please mail to:
PO Box 28871
Jacksonville, Florida
32226 Click for Caboodle Ranch Pictures
Please. . . for heavens' sake! Spay and Neuter your animals! Two uncontrolled breeding cats create the following: Two litters a year... at a survival rate of 2.8 kittens per litter with continued breeding --- 12 cats the first year 66 cats the second year 2,201 cats in the third year 3,822 cats in the fourth year 12,680 cats in the fifth year and so onmultiplying to a staggering 80,399,780 cats in the tenth year!!! Spay and Neuter help in your area
The Life of a Feral
Stray/homeless/feral cats are usually always malnourished from lack of available food, and get worms from either eating infected rodants, or from fleas and the tapeworms which impair their health. Irritating ear mites are a routine thing to be suffered, as are fleas. Some things they eat out of desperation are so spoiled they make the cat sick. If they get an illness they have to suffer through it while still having to withstand the turmoil of being a stray. They have to live in terrible weather, still having to venture out of whatever shelter they may have found to find food. They get into fights with other animals. Wounds become infected. They never have a long, peaceful, comfortable sleep as they always have to be ready to jump up and run off at any sound which could mean danger is approaching. Some wake up to being killed by car engines that only hours before were a safe, warm haven after being parked.
It doesn't have to be this way. If everyone spayed/neutered their pets, and didn't dump their pets out like garbage when they moved or didn't want them anymore, there wouldn't be thousands of homeless hungry cold cats on the streets.
I am homeless and helpless, unwanted and alone.I've no place to stay, so I wonder and roam. I've no one to care for if I live or I die; Nobody wants me as hard as I try.
I'm abandoned and starving and nobody cares; I've met with nothing but cruel, cold hard stares. My stomach is empty, I've nothing to eat; I have no shelter from rain or sleet.
Why was I born and why am I here? Without any love, without any cheer. Won't someone please help me and please hear my plea? Won't somebody care and come rescue me?
People throw stones and chase me away; they hate me and despise me because I'm a stray. But if a kind soul would open their door, I'd not have to be a stray anymore.
READ THIS BEFORE YOU TAKE YOUR ANIMAL TO A SHELTER! I did not write this but I wanted to share it anyway...
I am posting this (and it is long) because I think our society needs a huge wake-up call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all - a view from the inside, if you will. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know - that puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore. How would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at - purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders†or “strays†that come into my shelter are purebred dogs. The most common excuses I hear are: We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat). Really? Where are you moving to that doesn’t allow pets? . The dog got bigger than we thought it would. How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? . We don’t have time for her. Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! . She’s tearing up our yard. How about bringing her inside, making her a part of your family? They always tell me, “We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her. We know she’ll get adopted - she’s a good dogâ€. Odds are your pet won’t get adopted, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off, sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run / kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers that day to take him / her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the “bully†breeds (pit bull, rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don’t get adopted. If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed, it may get a stay of execution, though not for long. Most pets get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles, chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment. Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-downâ€. First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk - happy, wagging their tails. That is, until they get to “The Roomâ€, when every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks when we get to the door. It must smell like death, or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there. It’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are). A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuffâ€. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk it's leg. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood, and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don’t just “go to sleep†- sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. When it all ends, your pet's corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back, with all of the other animals that were killed, waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know, and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal, and you can always buy another one, right? I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head. I do everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter. Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes. My point to all of this is DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE! Hate me if you want to - the truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one person's mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this thing on craigslist and it made me want to adoptâ€. That would make it all worth it.
The Tragedy of Stray Cats
Wild About Cats! is a campaign to promote an understanding of the feral cat's* nature, origins, history, social structure, and niche in our society and environment. Wild About Cats! will present unvarnished facts about feral cats and successful methods for humans both to interact with them and to reduce their numbers.