Caring for Feral and Stray Cats in the Winter

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-10-27 06:51:00 UTC
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Winter is on its way in the Northern Hemisphere -- in some places, it has already descended. And the frigid season creates dangerous circumstances for feral and homeless cats and dogs (and other domesticated animals) just as it creates dangerous circumstances for homeless humans. We'll chat about dogs soon too, but first, let's talk feral cats:

Alley Cat Allies has just put out a press release offering "Winter Safety Tips for Feral And Stray Cats" that's well worth checking out if you have feral cats living near your home or workplace because although "most feral cats are skilled at finding their own food and place to sleep, providing specially-built shelters and dedicated feeding sites guarantee the cats a warm spot to escape the harsh winter weather and deter them from places they aren’t wanted."

Alley Cat Allies offers detailed suggestions and guides about how best to provide this help -- for example, tips on how to build a shelter or modify a dog house, what best to use as insulation (e.g., straw: good, blankets: bad), which kinds of food are best for their bodies in wintertime, and why it's important to maintain regular feeding times.

The group also points out that "cats have a 63-day gestation period and usually mate in winter," so now is the time to get moving on your trap-neuter-return efforts too (TNR).

Read more from Alley Cat Allies at both the press release and at the org's Winter Weather Tips page directly on its Web site. And this would also be a good time to review Mary Martin's series of guest posts on implementing TNR in your community (part 1, part 2, and part 3).

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Photo by Jacob Rush retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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