We have a feral family UPDATE 10/10/06 *PICS Video!* Added

For a while now myself and my mother have been feeding a group of feral cats that have appeared in my mother's garden. At first they seemed to come and go, though now they seem to have taken up perminent residence in my mothers garden, and only go off occasionally. We've been feeding them around six months now and have become quite attached to them despite them growling hissing and sometimes having the odd swipe at us.
There is a mother, two kittens and the father. There is also another female who comes around who we think may be nursing kittens elsewhere at the moment as she comes and goes quite infrequently of late, so we think there may be babies close by.
We feed them all twice a day, just ordinary tinned food and biscuits that we buy between us, and they have left overs from Doris (my mum's cat) and also dinner left overs from us if it's meat or something they may like.
Sometimes it's difficult to feed them as they fight amongst themselves and we have to try and keep them apart.
They are more trusting than they were at first, but won't let us go out to them, only look and talk to them through the window.
The male I think may have been domestic at one time and have had a home, as he doesn't appear quite as wild as the others. He's lovely and my favourite, though a bit of state covered in bites and scars from his obvious many many fights.
Last week I contacted Cardiff Cat's Protection, which is the local branch of the Cat's Protectin charity. (this is where I got Jack & Sunny from)
They are currently running a free neutering scheme so I want to take advantage of this and get them all spayed/neutered.
I have been in touch with a lady called Fran who does trapping and neutering of ferals in the Cardiff area, and she is bringing a trap to us in the next few days.
So wish me luck, hopefully we'll catch the mother, two kittens and father and be able to get them neutered for free, which will be fantastic.
It's going to be difficult catching one at a time, I wonder if they get wise to the trap?
Any advice on trapping and what it's like would be welcome.
I've never done this before and neither has my mum, so we're novices, but looking forward to it as we want the cats to be healthier and not produce more unwanted cats.
I will take my camera tomorrow and try and get pictures during feeding time :)

The very best of luck with trapping your little family. That is how we got our cats, you know. We borrowed a trap from Cats Protection and set it in the back garden. The kittens we caught relatively easily; the cat across the road we caught on several occasions; Jessica (mother) proved much more difficult. We didn't manage to catch her during the fortnight or however long we were given the trap for. She actually had another litter before we were able to get the trap back and catch her (and the 2nd litter) the following summer.

Good luck! :D

I hae never done the trap part of trap - neuter - release. However, since this appears to be a family, it occurred to me that keeping some fur brushings from the first ones you catch may be useful in the trap to catch the later ones. Assuming you can get anywhere close to them to run a brush over them! Maybe while they are "out" during the spay / neuter someone can run a brush over them for you! Just a thought. Godd luck getting ALL of them!

Oh wow.... the best of luck to you as you try to trap and help this little family! Please keep us posted!

God Bless You for helping this little family.
We pray that you can save as many of these poor unfortunates as possible.

The more traps you can set out at one time the better. They will get wise to the traps after awhile so if you can catch most of them on the first go round, the better chance you have. You need at least as many traps as you have cats, if possible. Good luck and great that you even care enough to do this!

Thank you and your mom so much for doing this! I hope you are able to trap them all, before more unwanted feral babies are produced!!!

Hugs,
Kim

Thanks all for your advice and good luck wishes. I really want to help these cats and I have to say it's all because of the people on this forum that have inspired me to do it. I never would've thought to do or would've been too anxious about it before.
But reading so many stories about people on here has been so uplifting and inspiring, seeing others helping ferals and rescue cats that I want to do something myself to make a difference to these cats.
I did wonder about them getting wise to the traps so i will discuss this with Fran who traps them. I'm quite excited about helping the cats as I do like them even though I can't touch them and interact as such.

Yesterday we caught the boy (*at least we think he is!) kitten in the trap that we were given by the lady that volunteers. He's gone off now to be neautered and checked over, he's returning Thursday evening.
Today we caught the mother cat, and she'll be coming to be picked up tomorrow morning to be taken off to be neutered.
That leave only the girl kitten (again we think!) and the father.
We're going to leave the other cat till we find out if she has kittens or not.
I am so pleased that we are able to do this for them. Catching the first two has been pretty easy, they've more or less walked into the cage straight away.

What a wonderful thing you're doing for this feral family!!! Bless you! Do you think there's any chance of adoption for them?

I'm not sure about whether they'd be able to be adopted. The kittens I'm thinking about about 4-5 months old. When I sat next to the trap and lifted up the blanket to have a look at the boy, he literally threw himself towards me at the side of the cage, howling and hissing, spitting like a wild thing. He's very wild, obviously the being in the cage contributes to their stress, but he was pretty scary. The only one I think may be able to be tamed is the father who I call Sylvester as he's black and white and looks like Sylvester from Tweety Pie, he seems to not be so stand offish and timid as the others, which was what made me think perhaps he'd been owned many moons ago.
I'll try and get some pics tomorrow :)

Continued success in capturing them. Wonderful that you are helping this family. Of the 9 cats I have owed, 5 were foundlings. Keep posting updates!!!

Wonderful news!

Who knows...the babes may settle down. My tabby boy Oscar was wild for 2 years, at the least (so the vet said).

He is a sweetie now - if a bit high-strung. After a UTI, the vet recommended a tranny; I asked about Feliway. He's on Feliway twice a day, and no more frantic grooming! I can hardly wait for his lower tummy fur to grow back!

So there may be a chance for all the kitties yet, you never know.

:)

In time, many ferals make the turn around and become loving pets. Even if these don't ever become tame, you are doing a wonderful think by getting them spayed / neutered and vetted! THANK YOU so much!!! ;)

Great news that you have managed to get two of them! :D That really is great. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the others are curious about that cage too.