Do you feed a colony of strays?

[LadyVictorian]

The Von Fluff Colony...yes they are barn royalty now.

Or next door neighbors were dreadful people, they got poor helpless kittens every year to turn into 'barn' cats and most often than not the cats died from starvation. FINALLY those people lost their house and the husband went to jail for animal cruelty after letting 15 puppies freeze to death in his back yard. Unfortunately they left the Von Fluffs behind when they left and thus my family and I started feeding them and lured them into our barn to become our barn cats (help keep the mouse population down during the winter when they get BAD)

I assume they are all males and all brothers with long fur. We have one grey tabby, one white with a grey spot on his head, and one all black. In the barn we have three food dishes, one for each cat and a big water bowl. We made little nests in the hay room with baskets and blankets that they can sleep in and keep warm and every now and again I tie up little cat toys with twine so they have stuff to play with. They are slowly getting friendly which means once we can catch them we are getting them all fixed. Keep from having territory wars with our kitties and from making more wild cats.

The names of the cats thus far (we haven't settled on them just yet) are:
Grey Tabby: Dorian Grey Von Fluff
White: Phantom Von Fluff
Black: Jack Ripper Von Fluff (because he is kind of mean to the other two and acts like the king of the colony)

Because they are all unaltered males (or assume no kittens yet) we don't know how long they will get along and worry about cat fights. The grey and white are best buddies and sleep together but Jack seems more the loner of the group. They are all brothers, same age, same size, same long fur so hopefully this will help prevent cat fights. I know the barn cats at our stables are brothers and don't fight (then again they are both fixed).

The Von Fluffs are pretty cool but I hope they stay at only 3 cats. I am trying to convince the parents to get them a cat tree and set up our spare stall as a sort of cat room with a little doggy door so they can do in and out as they please. They are not willing to blow a bunch of cash remodling a stall for them but I think it would be cool if we could. We don't use that stall for anything aside from grain and shavings and since that is the headquarters of the wild mice I think making the cats take it over would be perfect.

[Straysmommy]

Originally Posted by bkitty

Can you have a colony of 1?

Only for a short time, then the colony starts growing.

[my4kitties]

Originally Posted by bkitty

Can you have a colony of 1?

Originally Posted by Straysmommy

Only for a short time, then the colony starts growing.

But that's only if your "colony" is pregnant with kittens.

[Straysmommy]

That's later. At first, the "colony of 1" brings an unneutered friend that plays guitar all day and eats your food.

[lyle]

Originally Posted by Straysmommy

That's later. At first, the "colony of 1" brings an unneutered friend that plays guitar all day and eats your food.

Ah, the voice of experience.

[ruby55]

2 years ago, we noticed a cat lurking around the property. We have dogs, & the oldest (who has since gone to the bridge) was EXTREMELY prey driven. So we tried to keep a close eye on this cat. It was difficult though, because we're surrounded by state wildlife preserve property. We thought it might be a female but she was totally wild & we couldn't get close. Then we noticed another cat, obviously a tom. They lurked around the property for months, & seemed to understand not to go into the dog yard. But we like cats, & wished we could have some, so we enjoyed watching these 2. We had a big potluck barbecue one night, invited all the neighbors. One of them pointed to the big tom and said "I'm going to get that sucker. He knocked up my cat." My response was why are you letting an intact female in heat out anyways? A day later we saw the poor guy, dragging his left rear leg. I was heartbroken; I thought we would lose him. (To this day we don't know what happened; did the neighbor do that or did he get into a fight, or did a coyote/raccoon get him?) He disappeared for awhile; I thought he was dead. But the other cat was still lurking. A neighbor started feeding her scraps to keep her close by because he had a mouse problem. We noticed she was getting bigger & bigger..like pregnant bigger & bigger..so we started putting out cat food, both canned & dry. One day I saw the big yellow tom at the feeding station; he looked awful. Skin & bones. But he was still alive. So we doubled up on the food. He got better & better but was still so shy we couldn't get near him.
Then the female disappeared for awhile. Our neighbor said he saw her slip into our barn, so I tried to discreetly look for her, of course I couldn't find her. About 6 weeks later I was walking by the barn, & noticed 3 pairs of little kitten feet at the top of the loft. I wish I would have had my camera...
So now we have the Momcat, the Tomcat, & 2 adults from the first litter. We brought one kitten from the second litter in; she lives upstairs away from the dogs. There was another kitten from that litter that was so firendly we were able to bring him in, but Lucky, the kitten we took in, hated him. So we found him a good home. Everyone but Momcat has been TNR'd. I just can't seem to catch her; she's pretty slick. I stole an idea from Cesar Milan; I dole out the dry food with my hands. It really broke the ice with them. Within a week everyone will now let me touch them, & pet them, although I still can't hold them for more than a minute. Even Momcat will let me pet her; she's a 2 stroke kitty. 2 strokes & then she's gone. At least she doesn't hiss & try to scratch me anymore. We've lost a total of 5 kittens that I know of. They just disappear. I have a feeling that a coyote, hawk, or alligator got them. I prefer to think they just moved on to better pastures.

[lyle]

Good on ya Ruby. I know it's hard to do with the street (or in your case wetland) smart cats, but keep trying to catch the cats that aren't fixed. Life for everybody concerned will be a lot more manageable.