Friday, March 29, 2024
catsDaily Featurerescue storiesTNR SeriesTuesday

Rescue Story: Friendly, or a Pest?

black cat on porch
Hi! I’m Ebby.

This particular black cat showed up at Denise’s colony early in 2020. Denise named him Ebby and found he was not feral. He was intact and there were occasional conflicts, but overall he was a nice boy. We had him TNRd and fully vaxxed, but knowing Ebby was a friendly cat and could easily be adopted, we also wanted to find a foster or forever home for him.

Three years later we haven’t given up the hope of finding Ebby his own forever home, and now it’s more imperative. He’s moved onto a neighbor’s porch and wants to come in, and is pretty bossy with that neighbor’s cat. Denise had been taking him into her garage every night since he was neutered and until earlier this year he was a regular with that. But over the summer he quit showing up, though he still has his meals with Denise. He actually comes when she calls him!

black cat on porch
Any problem?

A neighbor posted a photo of Ebby and asked if anyone knew him. We answered right away and thanked the neighbor for letting us know where Ebby was staying.

But a few weeks ago the neighbor messaged Denise that he was having trouble with Ebby. Ebby is non-stop friendly and has never been aggressive or tried to scratch or bite, and was rubbing all over the porch and the man when Denise and I visited. Ebby was also greeting the man when he went to his car, and the man had a hard time pulling out because he couldn’t always see Ebby.

However, the man has an older cat who he rescued and who mostly stays indoors, though he’ll come out on the porch and has a heated house there. Ebby would chase this cat when he went outside, and though it never became a fight it’s darned rude to try to chase a cat off his own porch! And then Ebby started trying to get into the house.

It would be ideal if Ebby wasn’t aggressive with his cat, he could stay out on the porch or maybe slowly transition indoors. But the way he’s acting toward the resident cat doesn’t bode well for that. And there aren’t too many ways to deter a cat that would work on his porch, like barriers. We suggested using strongly scented sprays like citrus, mint or eucalyptus, or even putting the peels and branches of them around the door and in his favorite sleeping place.

So of course, once again, we are looking for a forever home for Ebby. I am also checking with rescues to see if anyone has foster space. We aren’t sure how he would react to being in a sanctuary or cat room sort of situation. We’re not sure how he’d co-habitate with other cats, but he’s not a fighter, even before he was neutered. We’re looking for someone who can give him a try.

Look at him doing his lion imitation!

But I’m telling you, there’s not room in the black cat clowder here no matter how many times he tries to convince me he’s one of them! People look at my household and think I collect black cats, but you can see it’s the other way around—somehow they always find me.

black cat on porch
Ebby is looking for his forever home.

Interested in fostering or adopting Ebby?

Please comment or send me an email! We’d love to keep Ebby in the neighborhood somehow, but we also don’t want him upsetting any neighbors. We will do a veterinarian check and a housing check and we’d like for him to meet you. If you’re distant, I’m not sure how we’d handle transportation, but we could discuss.

Helping cats this way

TNR does stand for “trap, neuter, return”, but studies of stray and feral cat management as far back as 1993 conclude that TNR alone is not an effective way to reduce cat populations. Studies published in 2002 and 2003 and later report the results of studies beginning as early as 1991 that incorporated the removal of kittens and any cat considered adoptable. They showed that the population of even a large colony could be reduced by half or more within a year or two of beginning a monthly trapping and neutering program, and thereafter diligently keeping up with any new cats who showed up as part of the colony. (Julie K. Levy, DVM, PhD, DACVIM; David W. Gale; Leslie A. Gale, BS, 2003. Evaluation of the effect of a long-term trap-neuter-return and adoption program on a free-roaming cat population: https://www.avma.org/News/Journals/Collections/Documents/javma_222_1_42.pdf) You can read more about this process in my (award-winning) article “Stray and Feral Cats and TNR”.

So, one way or another, we hope to find Ebby a home, reduce Denise’s colony of 12+ by one more cat, and have one less cat to feed and house on the streets. We think this really nice cat deserves that!

 


Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals!

Feline Gifts from Portraits of Animals!

cat refrigerator magnets
Sitting Pretty Refrigerator magnets.

I worked out the manufacture of my own “die” or basically a cookie cutter to use for creating consistent shapes of one of my sketches. Each magnet is hand-painted. Read more.



Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.


© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

 
PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE| EMAIL | PATREON

HOME

Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this:
Verified by ExactMetrics