Wallingford seems to be filled with cats: cats gazing out at you from windows; cats coming to meet you on the sidewalk; cats crouched under cars and bushes looking cautiously at you as you pass by. At our house, we have many cats passing through our yard that we recognize as well as the occasional newcomer. They all seem to have owners as evidenced by collars, their healthy appearance, and their obvious comfort around humans. But then there was Izzy.
Izzy showed up in our yard in early April. (My wife gave the cat that name although we would later find out that it was a male.) We noticed right away that Izzy had no collar, and was, well, unkempt. A volunteer at the PAWS Cat City facility, my wife has an obvious soft spot for felines. As a current and past cat owner, I guess I do, too. We offered Izzy a plate of food, and though he waited cautiously until we had backed off, he quickly devoured an entire can. And then he ate some more before heading off.
He was back the next morning, and we fed him again. We became a regular stop on his route so we started buying some treats and toys for him from Cat adorn.
Feral cats are outdoor domestic cats not socialized to humans either because they have never lived with humans or a long time has passed since they did. Stray cats, on the other hand, are lost pets.
No reliable numbers exist for the population of unowned cats in the U.S. let alone in Seattle. According to the Alley Cat Project of Seattle “The biggest breeding ground in Seattle for feral cat colonies at the moment is in the homeless camps, especially under I-5, where cats rescuers are usually not welcome.” In addition to needing to constantly seek food and shelter, feral and stray cats are often involved fights with raccoons and other cats, and subject to predation by coyotes. For these reason among others, pet adoption agencies recommend keeping your cat indoors.
We have two outdoor cats. Yes, I know: it’s not advised. Sparkle and Jojo are free to come and go via a pet door which is triggered by the chips under the skin near their necks. It takes a few seconds to register the cat’s presence though.
One day while Sparkle was out exploring, Izzy came by and chased her around the yard until Sparkle sought refuge at the cat door. Izzy was able to get a mouthful of Sparkle’s fur before Sparkle dove through the door into our house. A few days later, Sparkle was not so lucky; she came in bleeding slightly. (No permanent harm was done.) Jojo, who is made of sterner stuff, seemed able to drive Izzy off during their encounters.
We realized that we had to take some actions. We contacted our neighbors to see if they knew the cat. One of our neighbors recognized Izzy as frequenting her yard, but didn’t know if he had an owner. She added that Izzy was “mean” to her neighbor’s cat. We scrutinized the lost pet signs on area telephone poles, scrolled through lost pet web sites, and posted Izzy’s photo on Wallyhood’s Lost and Found forum. No luck. Izzy didn’t seem to have a home.
The Alley Cat Project is a local non-profit “working to reduce the overpopulation of cats in Seattle using humane solutions.” Their service area includes most parts of the city, but nothing outside Seattle’s borders. The organization promotes Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) as a strategy for combatting the problem of feral and stray cats in the city. Traps are available for loan, and instruction in their use is provided. The Alley Cat Project will take your trapped cat, make sure it is spayed or neutered, and then, if an owner cannot be located, the cat will be returned to you for release into its former area.
In early June, we returned from a three-week trip in the hopes that Izzy would have wandered off. But within a day or two, we saw him sleeping on our front walk – his usual place – in the early morning. He seemed to have some new bald patches, and he continued to have a mouth problem of some sort as his tongue was hanging out oddly and he seemed unable to chew dry food. Sparkle was too terrified to leave the house. We resolved to trap Izzy so that we could take him to a vet, find out if he was chipped, and return him to his owner. Our hope was that we could reunite him with his humans, or failing that, find a new home for him. If he had no chip though, then what?
Fortunately, my wife stumbled across the Alley Cat Project. Two volunteers came to our house with a trap. They showed us how to lock the gate in the raised position until triggered by the cat’s weight on a pressure plate at the other end as it attempted to get the food we would place there. They suggested we place newspaper on the floor of the trap to make it more enticing to the cat than the metal bars. Since veterinary services are only available to ACP on select days, we were advised to use the intervening days to get Izzy used to accepting food in the trap by disarming it with some small bungie cords to keep the gate open.
All was in readiness.
Each year, the Alley Cat Project handles about 500 cats, helping to either find new homes for them, or to assure that they don’t produce any new cats that have to lead lives on the street. Trapped cats are taken to a vet where they are first spayed or neutered and then administered any additional medical care they may need.
Owners of chipped cats are contacted. Other cats are assessed to see if they might be adopted out as pets. (ACP has a network of volunteer “foster parents” who can keep some animals until they can be adopted out.) Kittens are easily socialized to humans; adult cats may pose more of a challenge. If it is determined that a cat cannot be socialized, it is returned to where it was trapped. ACP volunteers provide food and warm bedding to identified cat colonies. Since these animals are, ideally, all unable to reproduce, the colony diminishes over time and disappears.
Our first day with the trap, ACP had no vets available, so it was a “training” day for Izzy. As usual, we found him in our front yard early in the morning, but he soon moved around to the back yard where, to his surprise I’m sure, he found his food in the cage. He sniffed around cautiously, trying at first to get at the food without entering the trap. But hunger won out. He entered the trap and had his meal. The bungie cords held the door up allowing him to quickly back out.
The next day was for real. Izzy showed up more or less on time in our front yard, and we hurried to set the trap. Izzy then went around back, and after some more cautious sniffing, he entered the cage. The door triggered, trapping him. We threw a small blanket over the trap, and brought him to the dropoff location, the home of an ACP volunteer in Magnolia, where there was already another trapped cat waiting on the doorstep.
We went home and waited for a report.
ACP works with a number of clinics to spay or neuter cats and kittens. Chief among these is the Feral Cat Project with offices in Renton and Lynnwood. These services are provided free of cost to ACP by the Feral Cat Project, but vaccines, microchips, flea treatments, etc. cost extra. Other medical care is provided by Allpet Veterinary Clinic, Rainier Ave Veterinary Hospital, and Urban Animal among others, with costs being paid for by donations to ACP.
Of the nearly 500 cats ACP helped in 2022, 13% came from homeless camps, 43% came from elsewhere in Seattle, and 18% came from outside the city. The remainder were from other shelters, hoarders, industrial sites or were friendly cats with owners that had temporarily gotten lost and were turned in. These cats had various outcomes including kittens fostered then adopted out (39%), cats returned to where they were trapped (23%), cats transferred to shelters (22%) and adult cats returned to owners, fostered then adopted out or still in foster care (15%).
The next day, ACP got back to us with the report from the vet. No chip had been found in Izzy’s neck, so there was no way to identify an owner. The vet confirmed problems in Izzy’s mouth in the form of several broken teeth and some gum abscesses. While that could all be treated, there were other concerns. Ultrasound showed Izzy had a swollen liver and kidney which could be tumors or some other growths. The vet was recommending that Izzy be euthanized, and was seeking our approval. We reluctantly agreed.
Sparkle is returning to her normal self, and is slowly expanding her patrols across her former range.
The Alley Cat Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations go to supporting medical care for cats and kittens, as well as for food and other supplies for cat colonies and foster parents. Information for making your tax-deductible contribution can be found here. The Project has about 100 volunteers, but more help is needed in several areas:
- Capture
- Holding and Dropoff
- Pickup and Recovery
- Fostering Kittens
- Working Cat Program
Check here for more information on volunteering.
Somewhat happy ending, from a songbird’s point of view. If they’re going to be killed by one of your subsidized predators, at least it will be a clean, healthy, fluffy one.