During the winter months of 2024 over thirty cats were rescued from the streets of Lion’s Head, neutered/spayed and homes were found for them. Unfortunately, what happens when just one male and a female are not fixed? The whole issue of feral cat overpopulation starts over again.
As we all know, this has been a particular bitter cold, stormy winter. Last week was difficult … a cat had died, four more were spotted out on their own; I met another person feeding three cats on their deck. There are many of us in Lion’s Head that do care what happens to cats, especially those that do not belong to a family. Unfortunately there is a belief that a cat can survive out in the wild on its own. This is not true. We humans domesticated the cat thousands of years ago to protect our grain supplies. Now they are often just seen as negatively affecting the bird population.
Cats without a human family can be described in two ways. Some of them are feral – a cat that has never been touched by a human being. They were born in the wild, but are still dependent on humans for survival – their ability to reproduce is legendary. Other stray cats are pets that have been abandoned by humans or lost; often not fixed, they reproduce and are usually distressed.
So, from this very bad week an idea was born. We have to start thinking long-term to resolve the issue of the uncontrolled cat population in Lion’s Head. We have to make our actions reach into the future. We have to accept not all cats will have homes, but they can still be cared for. And maybe even some of them might become members of a family.
What if small pockets of shelters could be set up in the village that provided refuge and one good meal a day for stray cats, paying particular attention to not leaving food out randomly or overnight. What if the cats that came to the shelter were neutered/spayed – one ear clipped to identify them as fixed strays and released back to the shelter area to live out their lives without reproducing. What if we started to work as a collective and not individually? What if within just a few years the stray cat population declined and was kept in check by the shelters?
To do this, help is needed from volunteers to build the shelters, property in the village to place them, donations for food, and someone to oversee that the cats are fixed … a group with a mission to reduce the stray cat population long-term.
If you would be interested please email Livick@eastlink.ca
Indicate in the subject, “Cat Shelters”.
Karen Livick,
Lion’s Head, ON
