Posts tagged "StrayCats"

Gattaras. It's the Italian name for women who feed and care for stray cats. It's not necessarily a flattering term, but at least two "gattaras" are happy to accept the mantle: Lia Dequel and Sylvia Viviani, who run the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, which helps to care for the strays who occupy the Roman ruins.

"Yes, we are Cat Ladies," Dequel told Stripes.com recently. "And be sure to write that with capital letters!"

Practically everyone who's ever had a Roman holiday has come home with photo albums filled with images of the many stray cats that haunt the ruins of the Field of Mars, the Theater of Pompey, the Colosseum and the Forum. The famous felines have even been recognized by Rome's city council, which declared the city's estimated 300,000 cats an official part of its "bio-cultural heritage."

According to Dequel, "It's a tradition in Rome. When you see ruins, you can dump your cats. They'll find someone to take care of them."

And most times they will, thanks to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary. Dequel and Viviani took over the sanctuary 16 years ago, and with the help of volunteers and the Anglo Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (AISPA), they changed it from a small, cavelike room under the street without electricity or running water into a clean, bright refuge.

The space itself is uniquely located under a busy street, and as Dutch volunteer Karen Cortese told Paw Nation, "We are still squatters and never completely sure if we will be allowed to stay or whether one day we will be evicted. We are still not attached to the sewer system, a big hurdle we have not been able to overcome yet!"

Despite these obstacles, the sanctuary has managed to make a difference for the felines of Rome. Cortese pointed out that many people don't know how most stray males are FiV positive, and many kittens are born with serious eye problems that will lead to blindness.

Medical attention, along with spaying and neutering, can help these cats, and for many of them, this unusual organization of dedicated volunteers toiling away beneath the street is a literal life saver.

Recently, a series of photos shot by Shanghai-based photographer Kim Laughton gained the attention of Internet dwellers. The pics, found on Laughton's website, featured one of the Web's favorite subjects: a cute, cuddly kitty.

Over the course of several updates and a few captions, Laughton's photographs sketched out the story of how he rescued the adorable kitten that was soaked and crying in a Shanghai gutter during a rainstorm. We were intrigued by the pictures and wanted to know more.

Paw Nation contacted Laughton to find out about his photography and his foundling cat:

What's the kitten's name?
Utopia.

How old is Utopia now?
Around 8 or 9 months.

Tell us about the day you found her.
It was pouring, the kind of weather that soaks you even if you have an umbrella, and she was crawling along in the gutter mewing loudly. I picked her up after thinking about it for all of 30 seconds, and then had to walk home without her climbing away. She was making such a noise, people must have wondered what on Earth I was up to!

What happened once you had the kitten safely home?
When I got inside, I realized I had no idea what to do with a kitten, and spent the next couple of hours on the Internet trying to find out what to feed her. I couldn't buy any cat food in the nearby convenience stores, perhaps because most Chinese people feed their cats human food. In the end, she had some processed sausage and raw egg.

Do people frequently adopt pets in China?
I'm not sure. There aren't adoption centers as far as I know, but it wouldn't surprise me if kittens are fairly often picked up. You often see old women putting food out for stray cats, especially in parks. There are very few stray dogs, however. I think the government rounds these up to help stop the spread of rabies.

Mary Heath is an ardent animal lover, so when a stray cat from her neighborhood was in need after giving birth to kittens in her yard, Heath jumped on the opportunity to assist, reports the Jackson County Floridian.

"The cat came crying and hollering for help," Heath told Paw Nation, "and then when I picked up one of the kittens, all four came up with it!"

She assumed that the newborns were conjoined at birth, but Dr. Don Kelly, a vet at her local animal hospital told her the good news: They weren't connected by their internal organs or limbs, their umbilical cords were tangled up. Normally when a cat gives birth, she separates the kitten's cords. In this case, the cat didn't do that. Kelly was quoted as saying he's seen similar cases only about six times or so in his career.

The doctor performed a quick procedure on the quadruple kitty combo and they returned home with Heath and their mother that day. Unfortunately, Heath tells Paw Nation, one of the four kittens did not survive the day after the surgery. "My heart was broken," she commented. But the other three are doing well.

Heath is looking for forever homes for these lucky kittens -- and she's hoping that someone will be kind enough to adopt the mother, a stray, as well.

October 16th is National Feral Cat Day.

Wait, National what Day??

Feral cats are felines that are more wild than domestic. They like the company of other kitties more than they do humans, and are more likely to run than come up for a scratch under the chin. They aren't dangerous or rabid, just unsocialized. Think of them as the feline equivalent of a squirrel or a pigeon -- they'd rather live outdoors than in a home.

While there aren't any concrete numbers on how many feral cats live in the United States, according to national feral cat advocacy group Alley Cat Allies, scientists estimate there are as many cats living outdoors as indoors (and there are 82 million cats living in homes).

Where do feral cats come from? The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) says,"Feral cats are the offspring of lost or abandoned pet cats or other feral cats who are not spayed or neutered. Females can reproduce two to three times a year, and their kittens, if they survive, will become feral without early contact with people."

Some ferals end up at city shelters, where they are euthanized because they are deemed unadoptable due to their unsocialized nature. The rest try to survive in abandoned lots, backyards or under caretakers who take it upon themselves to feed colonies of cats.

National Feral Cat Day is meant to educate the public, so Paw Nation is dedicating today's posts to the cause, giving you the low down on how to help feral cats through programs like Trap-Neuter-Return, what to do if you know of a feral cat colony in your area, and even looking at the funny side of trying to help ferals one kitty at a time.