How to Start a Trap-Neuter-Return Project for Feral Cats

Last week, Mary Martin shared her first post in a series of posts on feral cats and the practice of trap-neuter-return (TNR), including the story of how her own effort, Project Treadstone, came to be and some advice on what steps to take when you first encounter a feral cat colony. Please see that first post if you haven't already and then proceed to this next one, offering tips on how to start your own TNR project if necessary. -S. Ernst

In the event that you must start your very own TNR Project Treadstone, here's some free advice:

• Here's what/whom you need: a trap, a trapper, a vet, someone to bring the cats to the vet and pick them up, a place for them to recuperate for a day or two or three, and money to fund the endeavor. The lowest cost I found was $25 for spay/neuter, rabies vaccination, microchipping, and ear-tipping (they cut off the tip of the left ear while the cat is under sedation so that you can easily determine whether a cat has been sterilized or not).

-Continue after the jump-

• Be patient and prepare to speak with a dozen or more people to get the kind of help you need.
• Be proud of your ignorance. My opening line was: "I have no idea how to do any of this, but I do know it needs to be done. I don't even know if I'm asking the right questions. Can you help me or refer me to someone who can?"
• I thought vets would line up to help the cats, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They're doing their community a service, and they don't make money from it and have no obligation to offer their services at a deeply discounted rate--the only kind of rate I could afford considering there were probably 40 cats at the site. Also, not every vet knows about feral cats or the best way to handle them. Even if the vet won't help you, at the very least you should talk to them to get an idea of how TNR-literate they are and refer them to the Alley Cat Allies Veterinary Care Guide and/or print some or all of the pages, depending on their TNR literacy.
• You need to know how many cats you're dealing with, and counting them can be very difficult, as feral cats hide and sleep during the day and come out at night. And if the majority of them are black, and it's dark, counting them can become impossible. I still don't know how many cats are at the Project Treadstone site. All I know is there are more to trap.
• Unless you trap, neuter, and socialize kittens, probably before they reach 5 weeks, they will be feral. I learned this the hard way, and it involved a trip to the hospital. A tiny black puff of a male kitten who I was told was about 6 weeks old caused me more pain in one finger (multiple bite wounds) than I experienced when I broke my ankle in six places.
• Never, ever put a feral cat in a position where he can escape. For instance, if you want the cats to recuperate in a large kennel with a litter box and food and water, that's great. But if they're wide awake when they return from the vet, and you think they're going to step from the trap into the kennel and not try to flee via a two-inch opening between the trap door and the kennel door, you're wrong. Very, very wrong.
• Never attempt any kind of transition from trap to cage/kennel in an open area (at least I wasn't that stupid). The cat will likely run away in search of his colony and get killed en route (particularly if the colony is 15 miles away). Do it in a garage or an even smaller space (trust me on that one--a garage can become gigantic when a 6-week old kitten is loose).

There are several aspects of TNR that either are controversial or that there isn't unanimous agreement on, such as whether to test for Feline Leukemia or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus and whether to microchip the cats (and what that means to them and you). Stay tuned for those tidbits and more next time.

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Photo of Gray Momma (with tipped ear) by Mary Martin