While you might be familiar with our cute and cozy shelter cats, they are not the only feline residents that the Cat Connection helps. We also play a very important role by caring for and feeding colony cats.
What is a colony? A colony is a group of free-roaming cats that live together outside. As much as possible, we try to rescue these cats, but some cats are simply not suited to live in a home with humans.
Before we continue, let’s first define the three main types of cats in terms of domestication status: strays, feral cats, and semi-feral cats. The following table outlines their differences:
You might be wondering, what happens to the adult feral cats if we cannot rescue them? This is why our colony programs are so important!
Our colony cats are under the lifelong care of volunteers. You can find feral cat colonies in everyday places like behind shopping areas or businesses, in alleys, parks, abandoned buildings, or rural areas. In other words, just about anywhere! The Cat Connection cares for several colonies in the Waltham area.
Our philosophy for feral cat colonies is the Trap-Neuter-Return-Maintain (TNRM) method.
First, to limit the spread of a colony, we trap feral cats, spay and neuter them, and then release them back to the colony. This ensures that no more adult cats can reproduce and ultimately helps avoid feral population growth. While we have the cats in our custody, we also vaccinate them and check for illnesses.
Next, we have many dedicated volunteers who travel to cat colony sites every day and leave food and water for the kitties. Even though certain cats cannot live with humans, we still want them to have as safe and as healthy a life as possible in the wild. Volunteers also monitor the health of the cats, and if any are showing signs of illness or injury, the Cat Connection pays for their veterinary bills.
Inevitably, many feral cat colonies are located near neighbors or businesses who might be wary of the idea of wild cats. The Cat Connection helps educate these community members about colonies, and the result is that our kitties have some amazing human neighbors! Many individuals and businesses provide colony locations with safe warming houses, bedding, and raised and covered feeding stations. Even though the kitties can’t live inside with us, these community members make sure that the cats have a real place that they can call home.
Lastly, if you live in the Boston area, you know that the winters are cold! Our kitty colonies can suffer from heavy snow and frigid temperatures. That’s why every year we send out a snow plow crew to remove snow from the colony areas and help keep these cats safe and warm.
Who knew cat colonies required so much work?! We greatly appreciate the work of our volunteers who travel every day–regardless of the season or weather–to care for the kitties. Do you want to show some appreciation for the colonies too? We’d love for your local business to sponsor our snow removal fund. And if you are an individual who wants to help, we also accept personal donations to keep the cats safe in the winter.
