National Feral Cat Day!

 

Start practicing your alley cat strut and get your feline friends together, because on October 16th we’re celebrating National Feral Cat Day — a day to celebrate cats of all stripes and sizes, no matter where they call home. Feral cats have been stigmatized, but thanks to this holiday, we can help change how we see these lovable free roamers. Roughly half of the 146 million cats in the United States are feral or unowned. Considering 10,000 humans are born every day in America, but nearly 70,000 kittens and puppies are born every day, there will never be enough homes to take in the number of feral cats. However, many community-led organizations are committed to helping control the feral cat population through a number of initiatives. This National Feral Cat Day, learn what you can do to shape a better future for these cats.

Here in Washington, some of the organizations that dedicate their services to free-roaming or feral cats are Northwest Spay and Neuter Center, Community Cat Coalition, South County Cats, and Feral Cat Spay and Neuter Project.

These cats aren’t free-roaming because they are rebels.  They’re free-roaming because, at some point in their life, a human didn’t care for them in the way that we know our readers care for their own cats.   As we like to remind people who care for free roaming cats, ‘if you feed them, fix them!’   For many, feral cats are simply seen as a part of the community.  However, feral or free-roaming cats have an average of 1.4 litters each year, with an average of 3.5 kittens in each litter. That adds up to 420,000 kittens over seven years.  Let’s honor these cats by supporting the Trap Neuter Return (TNR) efforts led by animal welfare organizations in our community.